Donald Trump’s electoral victory | From Walter Cronkite to Joe Rogan

All year round, Richard Hétu informs us about the American elections in a newsletter sent on Tuesdays.

(New York) And that’s the way it is.

For two decades, Walter Cronkite ended the CBS News newscast with the immutable phrase: “And that’s the way it is.” »

Crowned by a poll “the man who inspires the most confidence in America” ​​in 1972, the anchor of the Tiffany Network thereby indicated to viewers that they could trust his version of the facts, and even be satisfied with it.

Presidents were aware of his great influence among Americans. After a report by Walter Cronkite concluded in February 1968 that the Vietnam War had become a quagmire from which the United States could never emerge victorious, Lyndon Johnson dropped this memorable phrase to his advisers: “If I lost Cronkite, I I’ve lost middle America. »

However, last Tuesday evening, during American election night, CBS News garnered 3.8 million viewers. The Tiffany Network, a nickname referring to the prestige and quality of the channel during William Paley’s reign at its head, has been overshadowed by several online influencers. Among them was Patrick Bet-David, an entrepreneur and podcast host whose YouTube live stream has attracted more than 5 million people.

Bet-David commented on the results of the vote with four guests, including Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, ex-member of the Gambino clan who admitted his involvement in 19 murders, and Candace Owens, African-American commentator fired last March by the founder of the conservative website Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, after promoting various anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

During this same election night, Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), illustrated in another way the breakdown of the American media universe since the heyday of Walter Cronkite and CBS News.

“I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With The Boys and last but not least, the mighty Joe Rogan,” he said, addressing Donald Trump supporters gathered in a West Palm Beach convention center to celebrate the election of the Republican candidate.

Dana White had just named some of the podcast hosts who hosted Donald Trump during the presidential campaign and helped convey his message to an electorate made up largely of young men distrustful or hostile toward traditional media and politicians conventional.

Among these animators, Joe Rogan is obviously in a category of his own. His podcast, The Joe Rogan Experienceattracts an average of 11 million people per episode. In the home stretch of the presidential campaign, he received not only Donald Trump, but also JD Vance and Elon Musk. And it was to the billionaire entrepreneur that he announced his decision to vote for the former president.

Joe Rogan, who supported Bernie Sanders in 2020, would also have been ready to welcome Kamala Harris. But on his terms. The vice president should have gone to Austin, Texas, where his studio is located, and talked with him for three hours. She was willing to dedicate an hour to him, but not to Austin. Joe Rogan refused.

New balance of power

This story says a lot about the new balance of power between podcast hosts and politicians. Donald Trump and other Republicans have long considered as allies these hosts who share the same distrust or hostility as their audience towards the political and media elite.

In 2020, Bernie Sanders risked going to Joe Rogan’s studio to debate with him. Many Democrats and progressives had sharply criticized him, seeing in his participation in Rogan’s podcast a trivialization of his antitrans comments, his skepticism regarding COVID-19 vaccines and his various conspiracy theories.

Kamala Harris certainly participated in a few podcasts during the presidential campaign, including Call Her Daddywhich is aimed mainly at young women, and All the Smokewhich reaches an audience composed mainly of black men.

But, like most Democratic politicians, she has never sought to cultivate ties with progressive podcast hosts who are critical of the Democratic elite.

Hasan Piker is one of them. On US election night, his live stream on Twitch got 7.5 million views. But Kamala Harris did not dare to defend her positions, or think of doing so, in the face of this Los Angeles influencer who criticized her economic centrism and her unwavering support for Israel in the conflict between it and Hamas.

“Republican independent media is directly tied to the party in a way that Democrats cannot recreate within the independent ecosystem because they are ideologically opposed to the Bernie-style populist sentiment the base wants to hear,” Hasan wrote Piker on X the day after the presidential election.

For the same reason, pro-democrat billionaires have so far refused to participate in the rise of progressive sites and influencers, as do conservative billionaires who have contributed to the success of Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro and other anti-right influencers. -establishment.

So the Democrats’ dream of one day seeing a Joe Rogan emerge who can speak on their behalf and convey their message is unlikely to come true any time soon.

And that’s how things are going.