A New Reuters Report Illustrates the Right-Wing's Media Takeover
Embedded with cabinet secretaries, coordinating with government agencies, showing unwavering loyalty to Trump—these aren't journalists. They're propagandists.
In late February, a White House correspondent asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, standing in the Oval Office during a meeting with President Trump: “Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit. Do you own a suit?”
The reporter wasn’t asking about military aid or peace negotiations. He was interrogating a wartime leader about his wardrobe. Trump and Vice President JD Vance visibly smirked. The meeting later devolved into what witnesses described as a shouting match, with the planned minerals deal unsigned and a joint press conference canceled.
The reporter was Brian Glenn from Real America’s Voice, a MAGA streaming outlet. Glenn also happens to be dating Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who later praised him on social media for “pointing out that Zelensky has so much disrespect for America.”
A couple of months later, in April, another MAGA-credentialed reporter — Cara Castronuova from LindellTV, an outlet run by MyPillow conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell — asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: “[Trump] actually looks healthier than ever before, healthier than he did eight years ago, and I’m sure everyone in this room could agree. Is he working out with Bobby Kennedy, and is he eating less McDonald’s?”
This is where we are. And according to a new Reuters investigation, it’s not some weird aberration. It’s the system working exactly as designed.
Reuters analyzed 22 MAGA media figures across more than 300 hours of podcasts, TV shows, and social media posts. The findings paint a picture of what University of Maryland professor Sarah Oates, who has studied Russian propaganda for 30 years, calls propaganda rather than influence. These figures show “steadfast loyalty to Trump” that breaks completely from the traditional friction between political leaders and the press.
When the Justice Department claimed in July that it found no credible evidence supporting theories about Jeffrey Epstein — something these personalities had spent months hyping — only one person out of 22 consistently criticized Trump afterward. That was Nick Fuentes, the self-described white nationalist. Everyone else briefly complained, then blamed subordinates.
Jack Posobiec demonstrates the pattern perfectly. After the Epstein findings came out, he posted: “I want answers on Epstein. As many as possible. Not press releases. Answers.” But after Trump made a performative gesture that legal scholars knew would go nowhere, Posobiec went on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast: “The MAGA hat stays on.”
These aren’t outsiders covering the administration. They’re embedded with cabinet secretaries. They’re invited to State Dining Room meetings. They get private White House briefings. And when they spread false information, people get hurt.
In August, Connecticut lawmaker Corey Paris warned on social media that ICE was conducting raids in his district. Libs of TikTok falsely accused him of revealing agents’ real-time locations and told its 4.5 million followers: “He’s helping illegals evade arrest and impeding ICE. Charge him.” ICE’s official account reposted the false claim and tagged the Justice Department.
Paris, who is Black, received death threats. “Rope. Tree,” said one post, referencing lynchings. A stranger showed up at his home. An anonymous caller threatened to send Trump supporters to his house while screaming racial slurs: “This content is being replicated and duplicated all across Christian networks. All across Trump supporters, MAGA supporters, and right-wing newspapers.”
I’ve been tracking the media’s rightward shift since 2022, documenting how traditional outlets bent themselves into pretzels trying to prove they weren’t biased. Back then, I was writing about CBS hiring Mick Mulvaney and the New York Times adding conservative columnists. I documented the coherency bias that made Trump sound more presidential than he actually was. I called out the both-sides framing that treated lies as just another perspective.
By December 2024, ABC News was paying Trump $16 million over accurate reporting. CBS followed with its own settlement. In March, Media Matters found that nine of the top ten online political shows were right-leaning, with 197 million combined subscribers. In July, a press freedom organization rated 35 major media companies on independence. Only two — Bloomberg and Netflix — got stars. Everyone else got chickens.
The “liberal media bias” claim was never about accuracy. It was about working the refs. And it worked. Traditional outlets moved right, hired conservatives, softened coverage, and paid settlements — all to prove they weren’t biased. And in doing so, they created the vacuum that MAGA media filled.
Now the Reuters report shows us what comes next.
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