Latest news with #TheRighting
Axios
6 days ago
- Politics
- Axios
Trump, White House stop citing WSJ after Epstein story
The White House Wire, a news headlines outlet run by The White House, and President Trump's Truth Social account avoided linking and citing the Wall Street Journal last month after the outlet's blockbuster report on the president's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Why it matters: By comparison, the White House and President Trump continue to cite the Journal's sister outlet Fox News more than any other outlet by far, according to an analysis from The Righting and Axios. Zoom in: The White House Wire didn't link once to the Journal in its July newsletters, after referencing it twice in June, according to an analysis by The Righting, a conservative media-tracking outlet authored by Howard Polskin. President Trump didn't cite any of the WSJ's journalism on his Truth Social account last month, despite citing nearly every other mainstream news outlet, including USA Today, Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC, CBS News and many others. While he didn't cite the New York Times on his Truth Social account last month, the White House Wire linked out to the outlet twice in its email newsletters, per The Righting. Zoom in: In June — before the Journal published its now infamous Epstein report on July 17 — Trump cited the outlet once on his Truth Social account, posting a picture of a flattering headline from paper's print edition. The White House Wire linked out to the Journal twice in June, per The Righting. Reality check: The White House and the president aren't typically afraid to cite outlets he's in legal battles with or outlets he doesn't like. President Trump continued to cite CBS News and Associated Press earlier this year, amid lawsuits with both outlets. He continued to cite flattering polls or headlines from CBS News and ABC News last month. He cited CNN multiple times on Truth Social last month, posting clips of network anchors covering flattering jobs or poll numbers. Zoom out: The citations show just how much the Trump-Epstein saga has splintered Rupert Murdoch's media empire. Last month, nearly half (48) of President Trump's Truth Social posts linking to or embedding press coverage cited Murdoch-owned outlets, besides the Journal. He cited Fox News, Fox Business and the New York Post 41, 17 and 8 times, respectively, according to an Axios analysis. Roughly 42% of the links cited by the White House Wire last month went to those three outlets, per The Righting. The Axios analysis includes links to articles, videos and screenshots of flattering headlines or polls from an outlet. The bottom line: President Trump and the White House both rely heavily on coverage from mainstream outlets to promote their agenda. Typically, fights with those outlets don't preclude them from citing their coverage, when flattering, but the Journal story seems to have hit a nerve.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Megyn Kelly now has the third-biggest right-wing podcast as subscriptions surge 176 percent
Six years after being booted from her high-profile gig at NBC News, which followed her departure as a Fox News primetime anchor, Megyn Kelly has firmly entrenched herself back near the top of the media industry as she now hosts one of the biggest podcasts in America. According to new data from conservative media tracker The Righting, The Megyn Kelly Show has grown to the third-largest right-wing podcast in the industry, surpassing other popular online shows hosted by conservative mainstays like Glenn Beck and Matt Walsh. Citing subscription growth on the Castbox platform, The Righting showed that Kelly's podcast experienced a year-over-year growth of 176 percent during the first quarter of this year, which is the most the site has seen since it began tracking right-wing podcasts in 2021. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement 'The Megyn Kelly Show had 134,590 Castbox subscribers at the end of 2025's first quarter, an increase of 85,800 compared to the same period in 2024,' The Righting noted. 'It ranked as the program's biggest quarterly surge ever.' A year ago, Kelly's podcast ranked 11th in The Righting's top 20 conservative shows. Now, it sits in this place, trailing only the podcasts hosted by Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro and 'manosphere' influencer Jordan Peterson. Riding the MAGA wave of her recent embrace of Donald Trump, Megyn Kelly has seen her podcast grow to the third-largest in the conservative sphere. (REUTERS) Howard Polskin, the president of The Righting, attributed Kelly's explosive growth to the former Fox News star's explicit embrace of Donald Trump in recent years, which featured the one-time adversary of the president hugging him on a rally stage on the eve of the 2024 election. (Kelly, meanwhile, still describes herself as 'independent' despite the on-stage Trump hug.) ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement 'Since endorsing Donald Trump the night before the November 2024 election, the popularity of Megyn Kelly's podcast has soared exponentially and it shows in hockey stick growth on the Castbox platform,' Polskin said. 'There's clearly a growing audience for her MAGA-friendly point-of-view and she has ridden the Trump wave perfectly since his January 20 inauguration. It's no wonder that she is extending her brand and creating an entire podcast network with like-minded voices.' Indeed, just a few years after Kelly appeared to be adrift in the media wilderness following her ignominious exit from NBC, the former primetime cable news anchor is now leading her own media company – a company she wants everyone to know has absolutely nothing to do with Fox News and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Earlier this spring, Kelly announced the launch of MK Media, a video and audio podcast network that has already brought on three creators to host shows on the platform – conservative influencer Link Lauren, Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan, and political journalist Mark Halperin. An ABC News and NBC News veteran who also runs his own podcast network 2Way, Halperin has experienced a comeback in recent months after he was essentially ostracized from the industry following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. While Kelly's show exploded in growth, obviously helped by her daily doses of culture war outrage aimed at critics of the president, other right-wing podcasts also saw a significant increase in subscribers year over year. The Ben Shapiro Show, which leads the way with 749,742 subscribers per Castbox, grew 28 percent compared to the first quarter of 2024. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk's podcast. Meanwhile, posted subscription growth of 63 percent over the past year.
The Independent
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Megyn Kelly now has the third-biggest right-wing podcast as subscriptions surge 176 percent
Six years after being booted from her high-profile gig at NBC News, which followed her departure as a Fox News primetime anchor, Megyn Kelly has firmly entrenched herself back near the top of the media industry as she now hosts one of the biggest podcasts in America. According to new data from conservative media tracker The Righting, The Megyn Kelly Show has grown to the third-largest right-wing podcast in the industry, surpassing other popular online shows hosted by conservative mainstays like Glenn Beck and Matt Walsh. Citing subscription growth on the Castbox platform, The Righting showed that Kelly's podcast experienced a year-over-year growth of 176 percent during the first quarter of this year, which is the most the site has seen since it began tracking right-wing podcasts in 2021. ' The Megyn Kelly Show had 134,590 Castbox subscribers at the end of 2025's first quarter, an increase of 85,800 compared to the same period in 2024,' The Righting noted. 'It ranked as the program's biggest quarterly surge ever.' A year ago, Kelly's podcast ranked 11th in The Righting's top 20 conservative shows. Now, it sits in this place, trailing only the podcasts hosted by Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro and 'manosphere' influencer Jordan Peterson. Howard Polskin, the president of The Righting, attributed Kelly's explosive growth to the former Fox News star's explicit embrace of Donald Trump in recent years, which featured the one-time adversary of the president hugging him on a rally stage on the eve of the 2024 election. (Kelly, meanwhile, still describes herself as 'independent' despite the on-stage Trump hug.) 'Since endorsing Donald Trump the night before the November 2024 election, the popularity of Megyn Kelly's podcast has soared exponentially and it shows in hockey stick growth on the Castbox platform,' Polskin said. 'There's clearly a growing audience for her MAGA-friendly point-of-view and she has ridden the Trump wave perfectly since his January 20 inauguration. It's no wonder that she is extending her brand and creating an entire podcast network with like-minded voices.' Indeed, just a few years after Kelly appeared to be adrift in the media wilderness following her ignominious exit from NBC, the former primetime cable news anchor is now leading her own media company – a company she wants everyone to know has absolutely nothing to do with Fox News and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Earlier this spring, Kelly announced the launch of MK Media, a video and audio podcast network that has already brought on three creators to host shows on the platform – conservative influencer Link Lauren, Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan, and political journalist Mark Halperin. An ABC News and NBC News veteran who also runs his own podcast network 2Way, Halperin has experienced a comeback in recent months after he was essentially ostracized from the industry following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. While Kelly's show exploded in growth, obviously helped by her daily doses of culture war outrage aimed at critics of the president, other right-wing podcasts also saw a significant increase in subscribers year over year. The Ben Shapiro Show, which leads the way with 749,742 subscribers per Castbox, grew 28 percent compared to the first quarter of 2024. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk's podcast. Meanwhile, posted subscription growth of 63 percent over the past year.
The Guardian
12-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
‘A new golden age': how rightwing media stuck by Trump as global markets collapsed
While Donald Trump recently instituted and paused hefty tariffs, sparking a trade war and chaos in financial markets, most of the country's conservative media either applauded the US president or critiqued the policy but not the person behind it, according to journalists and observers of conservative media. Meanwhile, economists, business leaders, Democrats and even some Republicans warned that the tariffs, which prompted the largest American stock market drop since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, could cause a recession. 'News is what impacts the greatest number of people,' like tariffs and 'the evaporation of wealth and the ripple effect on not just the US economy, but the global economy', said Howard Polskin, president of The Righting, a newsletter and website that monitors conservative media. 'By any stretch of imagination, that should be a lead story.' But the chaos of last week posed a serious challenge to many aspects of rightwing US media, which often acts as a largely unquestioning cheerleader for Trump and his Maga movement. The story was sometimes played down, sometimes cheered but rarely seriously questioned – even amid warnings of price rises, recession and cratering investments, especially precious 401(k) retirement accounts. The most popular conservative news source in the United States is Fox News, which has a much larger audience than CNN and the leftwing MSNBC network. Its hosts, such as Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters, consistently praise Trump and bolster his inaccurate claims. But Fox News has faced new competition from Newsmax and One American News Network (OANN), networks that positioned themselves as even more reliable Trump supporters. The Wall Street Journal, which has the same owner as Fox News, features a right-leaning opinion section, but also has done lengthy investigations into Trump and Joe Biden and is a favorite among people in the financial sector. Rightwing commentators such as Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro also command a large audience through podcasts and social media. After Trump declared 2 April 'liberation day' and announced that the country would on 5 April institute a 10% universal tariff on all imported goods and on 9 April start 'reciprocal tariffs' on some of its largest trading partners, including a 34% tariff on imports from China and a 20% tariff on goods from the European Union, Hannity described it as 'a day that will be remembered as a turning point and the start, I hope for every American, of a new golden age'. China retaliated with a 34% tariff. Global stock markets fell sharply; the Dow Jones industrial average declined more than 2,000 points over the next two days. Economists and leaders of financial institutions said that the tariffs increased the likelihood of a recession and inflation. Most Republican lawmakers stood behind the president; a minority, like Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, expressed opposition and said the tariffs amounted to a tax increase for Americans. While Fox Business, a sibling network, had guests who criticized the tariffs, Fox News personalities told viewers nervous about their investments that everything would work out well. A Fox News spokesperson did not respond to the Guardian's requests for an interview. 'I don't really care about my 401(k) today,' Jeanine Pirro said on 3 April on the show The Five. 'We've got to have manufacturing in this country … and Donald Trump is the only one who could do it because he's got the biggest consumer base in the world. He's not afraid of anybody.' Despite the market upheaval, the Fox News commentators were 'in too deep' to break with Trump, said Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a leftwing advocacy group. 'They have, for nearly a decade now, sold their audience on the sense that Donald Trump would be a good president,' Gertz said 7 April. 'Now he is single-handedly causing a worldwide market collapse,' but 'they can't abandon him'. Other conservative news organizations opted to focus on other issues. At one point on 8 April, the only story on tariffs on the OANN frontpage concerned the former speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and her comments on tariffs in 1996. The network did interview Arthur Laffer, a conservative economist who Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Laffer said that if Trump kept the tariffs, he didn't see how the country could avoid a recession, but he still 'could not think of one person on Earth that I would prefer more to be president'. On 9 April at Newsmax, the headline of their main story read, 'Trump: Tariffs Bring in $2 Billion a Day.' The actual number this month was about $200m, Reuters reported. 'A lot of times it feels more like propaganda,' Polskin said of the cable networks' coverage. 'I find it all extremely alarming, the stock market and that consumers of rightwing media could be misled so egregiously.' Newsmax did not respond to the Guardian's request for an interview. There are exceptions in the conservative media sphere. The Journal has criticized Trump and his tariff policy. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'Trump Owns the Economy Now. He can try to blame the Fed, but the tariff blunder is his alone,' was the headline of a recent editorial. Their editorial pages have been 'characterized through the years as sort of the bastion of conservatism', said Rick Edmonds, media business analyst for the Poynter Institute. 'They are not at all sympathetic to the tariff actions.' Shapiro, the rightwing pundit and a founder of the Daily Wire, devoted much of his podcasts after 'liberation day' to scrutinizing the tariffs and questioned whether they could actually bring manufacturers back to the United States. But Shapiro reassured listeners that he supported the president. 'What exactly is this designed to do?' Shapiro said of the tariffs during a 3 April episode of his podcast. 'It is predicated on a bad idea of how international trade works. I've said this a thousand times: this is not coming from a place of I want Trump to fail.' Shapiro called for Trump to fire Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser who reportedly shaped the tariffs strategy. But, of course, it was Trump who instituted them. 'In general, the rightwing media, they are like Republican politicians. They don't want to cross Trump,' Edmonds said. Still, Aaron Rupar, a journalist who tracks speeches and interviews Trump and his officials give to conservative media, thought their coverage of the tariffs was 'a little more honest' than their coverage of events like the January 6 attack on the Capitol or the trials Trump faced when he was out of office. 'With financial data, it's a little harder to gaslight people,' he said. Ultimately, hours after the reciprocal tariffs took effect, Trump announced a 90-day pause on them, except for China, whose tariff he increased to 125%. 'Many of you in the media clearly missed The Art of the Deal,' the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said afterwards, referring to Trump's book. 'You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here.' A day later, with stocks still down significantly from before 'liberation day', Ainsley Earhardt, a Fox News host, reiterated Leavitt's point. 'This is the art of the deal,' she said. 'This shows how strong our president is.'
