One of the most consequential protests in recent memory happened last month – and most Americans probably didn’t even hear about it.
Thousands of patriotic Americans, including a famous actress from Marvel, descended on Washington to march peacefully against the increasingly rigid vaccine mandates that are seeping into schools and public life. Though polling shows roughly half of the American people oppose such mandates, coverage from left-wing media outlets (when there was any coverage at all) condescendingly mischaracterized the marchers as “anti-vaxxers” or “extremist” and “fringe” activists.
The same treatment happened with the March for Life in Washington the day before, and it’s happening now with the truckers protesting strict COVID policies in Canada. The mainstream media loves a good protest, as long as they are politically aligned with the goals of the protesters, otherwise, it’s covered as extreme or outlandish. If they don’t understand the protesters’ perspective, some newsrooms may not even find the protest newsworthy to begin with.
This is the fundamental problem with modern mainstream journalism: the mainstream media covers events and decides what is news from only one perspective, and that’s theirs. Considering that the vast majority of American newsrooms are filled with left-leaning writers and run by left-leaning editors, this is a major problem for civil discourse in our democracy.
This trend runs contrary to the values of our Republic, and the fact that Big Tech platforms like Twitter are reinforcing this bias by aggressively censoring out contrary points of view only makes it worse. Just last week, Clay Travis’ interview with Senator Rand Paul, who is also a licensed physician, was censored by YouTube after he spoke out against vaccine mandates for children. Dr. Robert Malone, a widely-respected and credentialed expert in the field of vaccines, has been kicked off of social media for offering a perspective on the vaccine contrary to the public health establishment.
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Fortunately, the conservative media sphere is growing to provide Americans with the other side of the story. Our new social media platform GETTR has a role to play as well, giving users the freedom to discuss issues without fear of censorship and allowing independent journalists to cover events free from the mainstream media filter.
For example, three different accounts on GETTR offered livestream coverage of the “Defeat the Mandates” march last month, attracting nearly a quarter million viewers. That’s enough of an audience to rival daytime programming on CNN, whose viewers were prevented from learning anything about the protests.
The mainstream media has made it clear that they believe vaccine mandates are good and should be mandatory. They regurgitate whatever the public health establishment says – regardless of how many times they have been wrong before – and present it as unquestionable fact. The strength of our Republic is based on a free and critically-thinking press asking questions and holding truth to power, not blindly enforcing the government’s position by chastising dissidents as extremists and censoring alternative points of view.
Other examples of the corporate media pack selectively providing information are the near-total blackouts of coverage of President Donald Trump’s recent rallies. The only time the media reports on Trump is when they want to criticize something he has said. There is no coverage of his entire speech so that viewers can listen and make their own judgments.
However, on GETTR, President Trump’s freedom of expression is embraced, and his audience responds enthusiastically. During his January 15 rally in Arizona, nearly one million people tuned in to watch Trump’s remarks, which were livestreamed on several different GETTR accounts. This is yet another prime example of GETTR serving as the marketplace of ideas.
GETTR refuses to be ensnared by the trap that so many of our other competitors have fallen into: labeling an opinion as “misinformation” and banning users for expressing it, only for that opinion to wind up being true. We do not censor our users’ opinions. The only thing we firmly enforce is everyone’s right to free speech and access to opposing points of view.
Unfortunately, other social media platforms and the mainstream media can’t say the same.
Jason Miller was a Senior Advisor to President Donald J. Trump during both the 2016 and 2020 campaigns and is the Chief Executive Officer of the social media platform GETTR
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