Enemy is a strong word. We have political opponents. But enemies? It’s hard to think of fellow Americans as enemies. Yet that’s the world we occupy today. For the corporate media, it’s a world of their own making.  

 As corporate media voluntarily relinquish their role as reporters of facts in favor of a predominantly progressive-left world view, we’ve watched their credibility, viewership, and readership plummet. At Carolina Journal, we see an opportunity. 

 In a Reuters Institute YouGov poll of 92,000 people in 46 countries, the American corporate media came in dead last with only 29% of U.S. respondents believing the media are credible. Ranking ahead of us? The Mexican, Argentinian, Chilean, and Filipino media. No word on how the media in communist China fared since they weren’t included. 

 It’s not “fake news” to say that for the U.S. corporate media, it’s getting worse. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll found that 58% of likely U.S. voters agree that media have become “the enemy of the people,” including 34% who strongly agree. 

Welcome to the world of anti-journalism,* where the new trend is to denigrate longstanding journalistic traditions of striving for objectivity and providing varying perspectives, allowing readers to decipher the truth.  

 Those standards have been replaced with a progressive-left world view that acts as the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party. Longtime media member Michael Wolff, not without his own controversy, highlighted the media’s problem in a recent CNN interview. Wolff scolded host Brian Stelter: 

You’ve become one of the parts of the problem of the media. You come on here, and you have a monopoly on truth. … You are … one of the reasons people can’t stand the media. 

This is the new reality of anti-journalists. They don’t leave their bubble or report news. They act as information gatekeepers for the progressive left that now controls the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. As an institution, they sit with the ruling elite at the cool kids’ table.  

Anti-journalists publish only what fits their worldview and censor what they deem “misinformation.” At the national level, they’re responsible for a long list of leftist fairy tales, including the Covington kids, Michael Avenatti for president, Russian collusion, Gov. Andrew Cuomo as COVID savior, “hands up, don’t shoot,” the “debunked” Wuhan lab leak, 1619 Project accuracy, and Black Lives Matter’s mostly peaceful protests. They continually get stories wrong with little or no regret.  

Americans know the role compliant anti-journalists played during the 2020 elections. As Time explained: “a well-funded cabal of powerful people … working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage, and control the flow of information.”  

So worried about President Donald Trump’s potential re-election, the cabal interfered through questionable changes to state voting laws, sometimes after ballots dropped. That included interference in North Carolina led by former Hilary Clinton attorney Marc Elias. Ironically, in North Carolina, the one abusing executive power is our Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper. Yet the anti–journalists never question his 16–month–long state of emergency and perpetual rule by executive fiat.  

At Carolina Journal, we see the changing industry as an opportunity. We are a member of the N.C. Press Association, but the smaller N.C. Capitol Press Corp denies us entry. We don’t need their blessing to act as a counterbalance. We publish stories they sometimes won’t and provide perspectives they’re likely to ignore. 

We tell you: how critical race theory is being taught in some schools; some protests are violent; election integrity isn’t “Jim Crow 2.0”; and Cooper is abusing his power. Admittedly, our bias is toward freedom and human flourishing, and whoever champions them. Ultimately, what you believe to be the truth is up to you.  

Also, we are expanding Carolina Journal’s statewide footprint. Under the leadership of new editor–in–chief Donna King, CJ just launched an updated news wire and a dedicated opinion section. We’re building a new studio and soon will be debuting new video products. We’ve also adjusted our print publication schedule to reflect the state political calendar. We’ve invested in additional professional staff, including a photojournalist. 

We know we can’t stop the anti-journalism trend, but we can provide an alternative. As information consumers, I hope you take in all of it, trust your critical thinking skills, and make up your own mind. We prefer you as CJ consumers rather than enemies.  

This article first appeared in the August print edition of Carolina Journal.

*Thanks to Andy Kessler and his excellent Wall Street Journal piece “How to Be an Anticapitalist,” which served as the impetus for this column.