The astronaut has planted his flag on the moon.
As we witness the evolution of the news media, with established networks lurching further left to please the woke, liberal audience, younger outfits are jumping in to fill the void.
A tweet last week from conservative activist Brandon Straka summed it up perfectly.
“Watching @Newsmax is really exciting to me bc I see the great potential,” he said on Twitter. “It’s like watching early MTV when it 1st launched. It’s going to become something big & something unlike anything that’s been done before. I love tuning in & seeing the faces of up-and-comers in our movement!”
As the mental images of 1981 MTV flood back – complete with REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar and Rod Stewart – the responses came rolling in. Followers told Straka his analogy was a strong one and that they, too, could feel the excitement of something new. Many remember the fledgling music video network that featured an astronaut planting an MTV flag on the moon, and they appreciate Straka’s metaphor.
One theme echoed by many of the responses was that viewers are sick and tired of being herded, like sheep. They don’t want to be told what is true and what to believe, when their eyes – and common sense – tell them otherwise.
“Tuning in more and more! It’s nice to hear honesty and respect,” tweeted a fourth-grade teacher, in her compliment of NewsMax. “I’m also enjoying reporters that report the facts and let their viewers make their own minds up. Keep it coming! I’m not even watching my local news anymore; sick of hearing them vomit at the mouth!”
A retired firefighter commented, “That’s a great comparison! It’s obvious they don’t have the state of the art sets or graphics yet, but if they stay true to the conservative base, the sponsors will follow the viewers away from @FoxNews and they will catch up and pass other networks!”
The point about the set and graphics is a solid one, and it is here that you occasionally get the feel you are watching something new emerging from the very beginning. Just last week, high-pitched feedback filled the air as anchor Greg Kelly began his program. Kelly paused, and moments later a member of the stage crew appeared from behind, reached to the side of Kelly’s suit jacket and adjusted the levels on his IFB transmitter. Live, unfiltered TV. Hard to be more authentic than that. Kelly rolled with it, and proceeded smoothly into another stellar monologue.
Founded in 2014, after their website precursor launched in 1998, NewsMax TV has become a landing spot for anchors, hosts and national personalities who first gained notoriety elsewhere. The list includes Kelly, Sean Spicer, Michelle Malkin, Dick Morris, Bob Sellers, Howie Carr and others. Adding to the list are upcoming talents such as Grant Stinchfield, Chris Salcedo, John Bachman and many more.
As we enter 2021 and the top three cable TV powerhouses stake their leftward claim, NewsMax TV, along with One America News Network, has a real opportunity to fill the void and become the counterbalance. As the mainstream legacy media continues its decades-long charade of bias, Americans are jumping ship and heading for dry land.
Viewers demand credibility. They crave intellectual honesty. They appreciate creators who produce something real, while expanding into unoccupied territory to deliver that which is missing. Rush Limbaugh hit radio gold thirty years ago, when he spoke from the heart, voicing traditional opinions that, up until that point, hadn’t been heard broadly on television or radio. NewsMax now attempts to tap into that recently-vacated cable television void in a similar fashion.
In 1983, viewers and music-lovers gathered to experience the spectacle of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. It was fresh, unique and entertaining. Exactly what fans expected from MTV.
In today’s evolving media landscape, viewers are excited to challenge the status quo and again feel the growing pains of something new and authentic.
They want to plant their own flag on the moon.
Rick Schultz is a former Sports Director for WFUV Radio at Fordham University. He has coached and mentored hundreds of Sports Broadcasting students at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, Marist College and privately. His media career experiences include working for the Hudson Valley Renegades, Army Sports at West Point, The Norwich Navigators, 1340/1390 ESPN Radio in Poughkeepsie, NY, Time Warner Cable TV, Scorephone NY, Metro Networks, NBC Sports, ABC Sports, Cumulus Media, Pamal Broadcasting and WATR. He has also authored a number of books including “A Renegade Championship Summer” and “Untold Tales From The Bush Leagues”. To get in touch, find him on Twitter @RickSchultzNY.
