Before Donald Trump’s victory on November 5, the media industry was already facing significant financial headwinds and corporate restructuring. Now, executives at both traditional media outlets and social media companies are facing unexpected aftershocks from this year’s nonstop campaign cycle. Call it the great Democratic checkout.
Democrats are staying away from news networks and social media platforms in too many numbers to ignore. MSNBC and CNN saw their ratings plummet by half as exhausted Democrats failed to gain traction after the election. On Twitter (now
The situation is worsening for print media, with angry Democrats still calling out the Washington Post nearly a month after owner Jeff Bezos surged its support for Kamala Harris. Washington Post) I’m still canceling my subscription. One in 10 Washington Post subscribers have quit the paper since October, leaving a significant hole in the already aging newspaper’s revenue.
This raises existential questions for the media and the Democratic Party. Where do all the disillusioned eyes go?
There hasn’t been much in the way of decades-long plans to build center-left alternatives to outlets like Fox News. Because the Democratic media landscape is fragmented and small, it struggles to compete with deep-pocketed outlets like Fox as well as new media efforts like Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire. This is a worrying sign for 2026 and 2028.
With investors hesitant to fund left-wing media outlets following the failure of Air America Radio in 2010, Democratic audiences are left with no media outlets comparable to the conservative and even far-right channels that appear across the Internet. That’s partly because the billionaire investors currently tasked with building and maintaining these networks aren’t keen on platform voices calling for higher taxes and more accountability for America’s wealthiest tycoons.
But we can’t blame billionaires for everything (as much as I’d like to). A more difficult problem for Democrats is that the party still struggles to find messages that actually engage voters.
The Democratic Party has suffered greatly by transforming itself from a working-class, labor-first party into a D.C.-based organization that spends most of its time courting wealthy Silicon Valley mega-donors. These changes have left many traditional Democratic voters feeling unrepresented, while also shifting the party’s message to something more homely in personnel meetings than on the campaign trail.
The limits of the Democratic Party’s corporate speech message are clear. Kamala Harris is facing perhaps her sharpest internal criticism for her decision to elevate her brother-in-law, Uber Chief Legal Officer Tony West, to a prominent role in her ill-fated campaign. The decision coincided with a notable cooling in Harris’ rhetoric about taxing the rich and reining in powerful corporations. Both are issues related to supermajority support from Democrats.
Turn on the television or visit the most popular anti-establishment Republican social media channels and it’s easy to understand what a huge mistake this was for the Democrats. NewsNation’s shift to more populist reporting coincided with a 10% increase in overall viewership and a nearly 20% increase among the coveted 25-34 demographic. Fox News achieved its largest cable news share in history last month by focusing on working-class anger in prime time.
But Democrats, fearful of populism due to Trump’s wildly successful demagoguery, seem less inclined than ever to follow the public’s lead.
This should be a layup for the Democratic Party, which has populist messaging experts like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who recently hit 1 million followers on Bluesky, and influential labor-focused media outlets like More Perfect Union . And there are working-class heroes like Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D). But these voices have been pushed aside by the DNC at the highest levels, who still believe they know better than their most successful messengers.
If Democrats want to persuade investors to support center-left media networks, they must first show their support by providing internal funding for those operations. This means redirecting the flood of DNC money currently feeding the class of Beltway consultants and making real investments in media talent, with a focus on YouTube and podcasting instead of traditional talking media.
A strong bench of left-wing influencers would do wonders for the Democratic Party’s ability to set the media agenda. Instead of laughing at the success of the right, it’s time to take a lesson from the booming conservative network and ditch the stuffy, scripted speeches.
The Democratic Party was once a master of populist messaging. If we want to rebuild after last month’s election disaster, we need to quickly reconnect with that part of our political psyche.
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.
