These are all mainstream, respectable publications staffed by professional journalists. The very same people that we are supposed to believe will provide the public with real, not fake news. Yet this is how they behave towards even the mildest of disagreement; a constant game of virtue-signaling and vice-signaling—telling others whom to shun by slapping the latest negative buzzword on them, and then gloating contentedly and calling themselves the “good guys.”
If the media only went after provocateurs like me that would be fine. I wind people up for a living, so I expect a little heat. But they also go after people whose contributions to society consist of more than just barbed words and fabulous hairdos. People like Martin Shkreli, whom they accused of fleecing HIV and AIDS-sufferers by raising the price of Daraprim, a drug that treats a number of relatively rare conditions associated with HIV and AIDS. Shkreli had a reason for raising the price: he wanted to fund research for a cheaper, better alternative.130 Moreover, his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, made it clear that it was health insurers and corporations, not financially disadvantaged patients, who would be out of pocket. But that didn’t stop the media from branding Shkreli “the most hated man in America.”131 He might be no angel, but the Daraprim price-hike is only grounds for “hatred” if you’re a misinformed lefty or a mainstream journalist. They act like Regina George in Mean Girls, victimizing anyone who could be a threat to her popularity, only to discover at the end of the movie that no one actually likes her.
Having realized that the “fake news” meme was now being used to shine a light on their own failings, the mainstream media desperately tried to put the genie back in the bottle. The Washington Post released an article stating that it was “Time to retire the tainted term ‘fake news,’” complaining that conservatives were now using the label against the media.132 But it was too late—the media had given the world a term to describe their own failings, and we were going to use it.
Unable to face up to their problems, the metropolitan media-political bubble has opted for projection instead. So, there’s nothing for it. We have to strap them to a chair, tape their eyes open, and make them look in the mirror.
That’s why, even though it’s probably for nothing in the end, I make a point of ritually humiliating journalists who lie about me. Because if I can make them think twice about doing it to me, perhaps they’ll think twice about doing it to you. For all those lying journalists who haven’t felt my wrath yet, “I have a very particular set of skills” waiting for you. You’ll see soon enough.
A RECKONING
On November 21, as Donald Trump was preparing for his transition to office, he called some of the biggest names in American news media to Trump Tower. They expected the meeting to be about access to the Trump administration during its time in office. Instead, they received a historic dressing down; what one source at the meeting described to The New York Post as a “fucking firing squad.”
“Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful, dishonest media who got it all wrong.’ He addressed everyone in the room, calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was [a] network of liars,” the source said.
“Trump didn’t say [NBC reporter] Katy Tur by name, but talked about an NBC female correspondent who got it wrong, then he referred to a horrible network correspondent who cried when Hillary lost who hosted a debate — which was Martha Raddatz, who was also in the room.”133
Kellyanne Conway would go on to tell reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower that the meeting was “excellent.” I like to imagine her smirking internally as she said it. She’s my favorite.
Trump has been manipulating the media for decades with unparalleled brilliance. But I think they only really figured out they were being played in September 2016. Trump announced he was going to make a statement on the “birther” conspiracy about Barack Obama at the soft opening of his new hotel in Washington, D.C. This brought what seemed like the entirety of America’s political press corps to Trump’s doorstep. They expected he was going to say something crazy, the final wacky comment that would sink his campaign.
Instead, reporters found themselves covering the opening of a new Trump hotel, and twenty minutes of veterans arriving in front of the cameras to endorse his run for president. Finally, at the very end, Trump appeared on stage to give a two-line comment on the birther issue: “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again. Thank you very much.”
The press went crazy. “I don’t know what to say here,” said CNN’s chief national correspondent, John King. “We got played again, by the [Trump] campaign.” Meanwhile, Jake Tapper, live on air, called it a “political rick-roll.” Tapper perhaps thought he was insulting Trump for engaging in the political equivalent of a prank invented by internet trolls.
Everyone else thought it was hilarious—especially me.
It was the perfect troll: it revealed suppressed truths, dismayed and entertained the public in equal measure, and gloriously humiliated a deserving target: the media.
Only Daddy could have done it.
I was one of the first major conservative commentators to back Trump. My headline, published on Breitbart, called Trump “The King of Trolling His Critics” and argued that he would be “The Internet’s Choice for President.”
At the time, few people saw the connection between Trump and internet trolling. Now, everyone sees it.
DON’T FEAR THE MEDIA
Establishment conservatives think Republicans have something to lose by taking on the media. As gamers, Breitbart, Nigel Farage, Trump and I have all proved, they don’t.
The press has unloaded everything they have against us, and what has been the result? GamerGate gathered popularity for two years, unstopped. Breitbart is one of the most popular news sources on the planet, and the most popular political news source on social media. Nigel Farage, condemned as a racist by the media, took his political party to unprecedented electoral successes and almost singlehandedly drove the Eurosceptic movement that culminated in Brexit. Donald Trump, who attracted more media smears than everyone else combined, is president.
And look at me. Other than Trump, Farage, and possibly Ann Coulter, is there anyone in the English-speaking world that the mainstream media makes more of an effort to smear and misrepresent? Look where it’s got me. I wake up every day hoping the mainstream media continues trying to destroy me. It’s doing wonders for my bank balance. Journalists think that by smearing me as a racist and sexist they are destroying my reputation. Actually, they are fueling my fame, because no one believes a word they say. Their lies and distortions heat my pool.
In an age when nobody trusts the media, taking them on makes you popular.
So I implore you to do what the media doesn’t want you to do: tell the truth bereft of politically-correct niceties. Be patriotic. Tell offensive jokes.