The Media Has Been Captured
Billionaires, propagandists, and passive narrators now control the media. If we don’t fight back, democracy won’t survive it.
It’s happening in real-time, right in front of our faces. The corporate media, once at least pretending to hold the powerful accountable, is being gutted, repurposed, and turned into an obedient lapdog of billionaires and authoritarian regimes.
And the worst part? They’re barely even hiding it.
One by one, the last vestiges of journalistic independence are being snuffed out. The richest men in the world are turning The Washington Post into a personal mouthpiece for unregulated capitalism. MSNBC is purging dissenting voices who dare challenge the Democratic establishment. And Donald Trump—never one to miss an opportunity for dictatorial power—is openly handpicking which journalists are allowed to cover his administration, blacklisting those who refuse to bow.
Now, he’s going even further: threatening to sue journalists, authors, and publishers who rely on anonymous sources—a fundamental tool of investigative journalism. This is state propaganda in its final form: a press that is either silenced or obedient.
This isn’t just a bad trend—it’s the endgame of a media system being dismantled and rebuilt to serve the interests of billionaires and political strongmen. If we don’t start fighting back now, there will be nothing left to save.
But as corporate media collapses, there’s another problem brewing—one that far too many people refuse to acknowledge. We’ll get to that soon.
Bezos’ Washington Post: A Billionaire’s New Propaganda Toy
Jeff Bezos didn’t buy The Washington Post because he had a passion for journalism. He bought it because he wanted power. And now, after years of pretending to be a benevolent owner, he’s dropping the mask.
First, he blocked the Post from endorsing any candidate in the 2024 election, a cowardly act designed to avoid upsetting Donald Trump. Then, he fired the paper’s opinion editor, David Shipley, and laid down a new law: the Post’s opinion pages will now exclusively advocate for “personal liberties and free markets”—translation: corporate power above all else.
If you have a problem with runaway capitalism? If you think the billionaire class is strangling democracy? If you want to argue that unregulated greed is killing the planet?
Too bad. You won’t find it in The Washington Post anymore. Bezos has decreed it.
Hundreds of Post journalists have signed letters of protest. Respected reporters have resigned. Over 250,000 subscribers canceled their subscriptions in outrage. And yet, Bezos remains unmoved. Why? Because he doesn’t care about subscribers. He doesn’t care about journalism. He cares about controlling the narrative.
And now he does.
MSNBC’s Great Purge: Neutering the Left, One Host at a Time
For years, MSNBC has branded itself as a progressive network, a counterbalance to right-wing propaganda. But the reality is, it’s owned by a soulless corporation that only cares about ratings, ad dollars, and protecting its own political allies.
The proof?
Over the past three days, MSNBC fired or sidelined nearly every host of color who was remotely progressive. Joy Reid? Gone. Jonathan Capehart? Axed. Ayman Mohyeldin, Katie Phang? Fired.
MSNBC whitewashed its own lineup, all while pretending to be the network that “values diversity.” But this isn’t just about race—it’s about power. These hosts weren’t just people of color; they were some of the last voices willing to push back against corporate Democrats, call out the failures of the Biden administration, and expose the rigged system for what it is.
And that? That was unacceptable to MSNBC’s corporate overlords.
Even Rachel Maddow—arguably the network’s biggest star—called out MSNBC’s decision as “indefensible.” Keith Olbermann went even further, calling it a “brutally racist” purge designed to sanitize MSNBC into a safe, non-threatening echo chamber.
The message is clear: if you’re not on board with the corporate-approved version of “progressivism,” you’re out.
Trump’s Full Takeover of the Press: The Final Step Toward Fascism
As if all of this weren’t horrifying enough, Donald Trump has seized the opportunity to blatantly take control of the press, enforcing a level of propaganda that would make dictators blush.
Under a new rule from his White House, Trump’s team will now decide which reporters are allowed to cover him—and it’s no surprise who’s being blacklisted.
The Associated Press was banned from White House events after it refused to use Trump’s new, made-up term for the Gulf of Mexico—the “Gulf of America.” When the AP refused to cave to this North Korea-level propaganda, Trump booted them from the press pool.
And it gets worse: a federal judge allowed it to happen. That’s right—the courts, the supposed “checks and balances” on power, sided with Trump. The White House can now cherry-pick which journalists get to report on the administration, effectively silencing any outlet that refuses to be obedient.
And now, Trump is taking it a step further.
He’s threatening to sue journalists, authors, and publishers who use anonymous sources—one of the most fundamental tools of investigative reporting. His stated reason? He claims anonymous sources are “fake,” but the real reason is obvious: to terrify whistleblowers into silence.
If Trump follows through, investigative journalism in America will be dead. Corruption will go unreported. The powerful will commit crimes without fear of exposure.
This isn’t just an “attack on the press.” It’s a direct assault on reality itself.
Once a government can dictate what journalists say and punish those who won’t comply, it can rewrite history in real-time. And that’s exactly what Trump is doing.
If You Believe in This Fight, Help Keep It Alive
There’s still more below, I just need a moment of your time.
The American Manifesto isn’t backed by corporations. There are no ads, no paywalls, no billionaires funding it.
It’s just one person, fighting like hell to expose the truth and give you the weapons to push back.
If you value this work—if you want this movement to keep growing, keep calling out fascism without fear, and keep fighting for the future we deserve—then I need your support.
Join the fight. Become a supporter. Every contribution keeps this mission alive.
Because silence is surrender. We do not surrender. We are #TheRelentless.
The Independent Media Problem: Just Narrating Our Destruction Isn’t Enough
The collapse of corporate media should have been an opportunity. Instead, it’s become a vacuum—one that’s being filled by forces just as destructive, if not worse.
If you think so-called independent media is going to save us, ask yourself: how many of them are actually connecting the dots? How many are exposing not just that democracy is being dismantled, but how, why, and by whom?
For the most part, "independent" media has sorted itself into three camps:
1. Right-Wing/Fascist Propaganda
This is where the majority of so-called “independent” media sits, and it’s anything but independent. These are the Joe Rogan, Tim Pool, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk types—the ones flooding the internet with different flavors of pro-fascist propaganda while pretending they’re just “asking questions.”
Some try to appear politically neutral while laundering far-right talking points (Rogan, Pool). Others push overt authoritarianism with an American flag wrapped around it (Bannon, Carlson, Kirk). Then there are the ones who mask their fascist sympathies under the guise of ‘populism’ (Greenwald, Dore, Brand).
But what all of them have in common is this:
They never acknowledge the U.S. is shifting toward fascism—because they want that shift.
They never analyze why corporate media is collapsing—because they benefit from its death.
They never push for real solutions—because their job is to radicalize, not inform.
And let’s be clear: this media isn’t grassroots, and it isn’t independent.
Some of these figures are directly backed by billionaires and right-wing think tanks (Shapiro, Owens, Kirk), while others ride the wave of billionaire-funded disinformation, enriching themselves in the process. They may not take direct funding, but they align their narratives with corporate and authoritarian interests because that’s what makes them money.
This is what the billionaires behind “Tenet Media”, Rumble, and The Daily Wire have figured out:
If you control the "alternative" to corporate media, you control the entire conversation.
And they do.
2. Corporate-Lite: The Passive Observers
These are the outlets that call out corporate media but fail to actually do anything better.
They spend their time narrating America’s collapse like a football game, offering play-by-play coverage of Trump’s every move, MSNBC’s every blunder, and every ridiculous thing Republicans say—without ever tying it into the larger picture.
They’ll tell you Trump is bad, but they won’t call him a fascist.
They’ll show you America is falling apart, but they won’t explain how it all connects.
They’ll farm outrage and anti-Trump sentiment, but they won’t push for actual solutions.
And that’s the problem.
People don’t need another narrator telling them the house is on fire. They need someone explaining who lit the match, what they’re burning down, and how to stop them.
But that’s not what Corporate-Lite media does. They keep you watching, mad, and feeling helpless. And that’s the entire point.
Worse, they make little to no effort to cut through the right-wing echo chamber to actually reach people on the other side. Instead of disrupting disinformation, they simply preach to their own opposition echo chamber, reinforcing divisions rather than breaking them down.
At a time when fascism is on the rise, passively narrating its progress while failing to counteract right-wing propaganda isn’t just useless—it’s part of the problem.
3. Actual Independent Media: The Ones Who Tell the Truth
This category is the smallest by far. These are the people who aren’t afraid to say the word fascism, who actually analyze history and connect the dots between the gutting of media, the erosion of democracy, and the consolidation of power into the hands of a few.
These are outlets that don’t just react to news but actually explain where we are, where we’re going, and how we might change that path.
There aren’t many. But here are some examples:
The American Manifesto
Democracy Docket (Marc Elias)
ProPublica
The Guardian
Secular Talk (Kyle Kulinski)
The Benjamin Dixon Show
Robert Reich
Thom Hartmann
Glenn Kirschner
These are the ones willing to tell their audience the truth—not just what’s happening, but why it’s happening and how it’s all connected.
The Real Problem: Media Controls the Narrative—And It’s Leading Us to Fascism
At the end of the day, media controls public opinion. It shapes what people think, how they vote, and what they believe is possible.
Right now, we are watching every major media force align to serve power—either by openly capitulating to it, enabling it through disinformation, or numbing people into passivity.
Corporate media is dead. Either it’s been taken over by billionaires like Jeff Bezos, or it’s being directly controlled by the White House, with Trump deciding which journalists even get to ask questions.
Right-wing propaganda dominates “independent” media. Far-right billionaires and think tanks are flooding social media with their own narrative, ensuring their version of reality is the one most people see.
Corporate-Lite “opposition” media does little more than narrate America’s collapse. They don’t connect the dots, they don’t provide solutions, and they don’t arm people with the knowledge to fight back.
And all of this is happening as we cross the tipping point into fascism.
This isn’t just some abstract media debate. This is the final stage of control. Once the media landscape has been fully captured, the path to authoritarianism is wide open.
A country with a free press can resist fascism. A country with a controlled press cannot.
And right now, we’re running out of time.
What Comes Next? It’s Up to Us.
In a capitalist society, the media that survives is the media people choose to support.
If you want a media that actually connects the dots, that exposes the truth, that arms people with the knowledge to fight back—you have to seek it out and support it.
Reject corporate media’s controlled narratives. If an outlet is owned by billionaires or serving government power, its job isn’t to inform—it’s to condition you.
Expose right-wing propaganda for what it is. These operations aren’t “independent.” They’re funded by billionaires and, in some cases, foreign governments. They exist to distort reality and manufacture consent for fascism.
Stop settling for passive, Corporate-Lite coverage. If an outlet isn’t connecting the dots, if all they do is farm outrage without giving you the bigger picture, demand better.
Actively support real independent journalism. The only media that remains truly independent is the kind that’s funded by its audience, not controlled by billionaire interests or ad-dependent editorial compromises. Using ad revenue (such as default YouTube ads) isn’t inherently a problem—but when ad dollars dictate what can and can’t be said, the outlet is no longer independent.
At the end of the day, media exists to serve those who fund it. If we let billionaires and fascists dominate the media landscape, the future will be dictated by them.
But if enough people make the choice to support media that actually serves the people, there’s still time to fight back.
What you support now determines what kind of media—and whether democracy—survives.
Join the Fight, Amplify the Truth
Because silence is surrender. We never surrender. We are #TheRelentless.
📌 Sources:
Business Insider: More than 400 Washington Post staffers send urgent plea to Jeff Bezos: 'We are deeply alarmed'
The Guardian: White House says it will decide which news outlets cover Trump
France24: Trump threatens to sue authors and media who use anonymous sources
Entertainment Weekly: Rachel Maddow slams home network MSNBC for parting with hosts of color, Joy Reid: 'Feels worse than bad'
AP News: The White House says it ‘will determine’ which news outlets cover Trump, rotating traditional ones
The Guardian: US judge allows Trump’s AP Oval Office ban to stand over Gulf of Mexico name
Reuters: US judge allows Trump's AP Oval Office ban to stand over Gulf of Mexico name
AP News: Right-wing influencers were duped to work for covert Russian operation, US says
You need truth to navigate, otherwise you hit icebergs.