Over the past four years, Salem Radio Network has been a pro-Trump propaganda arm, becoming what I’ve come to refer to as the Trump Radio Network — a talk radio network comprised of faux conservatives who used to stand for conservative values. And at a time when you’d think SRN might want to reevaluate their sycophancy and change course after Trump’s expected defeat, they have instead elected to double down by launching a new program called “Rebuilding the Right.”
The online magazine of talk radio, Talkers.com, made the announcement (try not to laugh):
Salem Radio Network Unveils ‘Rebuilding the Right’ Program. This new, weekly special program from Salem Radio Network is titled, “Rebuilding The Right,” and premieres on Wednesday, January 27 at 4:00 pm ET. SRN says the program is “designed as a freewheeling roundtable and exchange of ideas hosted by former White House national security strategist and SRN talk host Dr. Sebastian Gorka.” The press
release adds, “With Joe Biden now inaugurated as our 46th president and Democrats in control of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, conservative voices may literally encounter difficulty even being heard… How do conservatives nationally recover from this and rebuild…even as the Left tries to silence us all?
‘Rebuilding The Right’ will harness the combined input of nationally syndicated SRN talk hosts Hugh Hewitt, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Charlie Kirk, Larry Elder, and Eric Metaxas on a rotating basis each week…as well as voices of groundbreaking conservative podcasters like Dinesh D’Souza.” Salem Media Group SVP of spoken word formats Phil Boyce says, “Our SRN hosts on ‘Rebuilding The Right’ will represent the best way forward for America. Their ideas and intellect will help conservatives avoid any sadness over recent events and create positive, actionable steps for crafting a new direction for the nation.” The program will also be repurposed as videos on YouTube and Rumble and a podcast version will also be made available after each weekly broadcast. (links are mine for articles I’ve written about that person)
Help conservatives? Give me a break. The list of names involved in this new program serves as a virtual who’s who of Trumpists and sycophants; many of whom were directly in the employ of the New York liberal at one time or another.
If Mr. Boyce had been paying attention over the past four years, he’d know that it wasn’t “recent events” that created “sadness” for conservatives, it’s been the lies and broken promises we’ve endured nearly every day since Trump rode down the Trump Tower escalator to announce his intention to do for America what he had done for Trump Enterprises. Unfortunately, he kept that promise.
This new Trump Radio Network program isn’t the least bit surprising.
I wrote a piece last summer about how the rebranded Republican Party would ensure that Trump and Trumpism remained regardless of the November outcome — a reality already confirmed by the party, not to mention it being a key part of Josh Hawley’s 2024 platform for president.
It’s important to remember that Trump and the GOP wouldn’t have had any success if not for the faux conservative media serving as their propaganda machine.
Over the past four years, Trump Pravda (aka FOX News) served as the home of notable Trumpists Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson. At the same time, BlazeTV turned itself into a pro-Trump echo chamber and home of faux conservatives like Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, and Steve Deace, all of whom opposed Trump in 2016 but praised him since because #notDemocrat. Even now that Trump is gone, all of these charlatans genuflect at the mere mention of his name.
Salem Media Group fired all “anti-Trump” writers working for their various online publications in April, 2018 — I used to have a diary at RedState.com — and Salem Radio followed suit later that year by terminating every radio host who didn’t toe the pro-Trump line. SRN replaced anti-Trump conservative Michael Medved with former Trump campaign manager Sebastian Gorka and gave Steve Bannon a daily show in November, 2019.
And just a few months ago, Salem Radio announced they would be adding pro-Trump propagandist Charlie Kirk to the Trump Radio Network.
Over a year ago, I decided to sever my relationship with Salem Radio after Craig Silverman, a former chief deputy district attorney in Denver, CO. and the host of The Craig Silverman Show on Salem’s “conservative” talk station 710KNUS, was unceremoniously fired while on-the-air after daring to criticize Donald Trump on his show.
In an interview with CNN’s Reliable Sources following his termination, Silverman stated the obvious when he said his abrupt termination was evidence of Salem Radio’s intolerance of unfavorable Trump content — a true statement considering the fact that Salem Media Group and Salem Radio Network long-ago joined the rest of the faux conservative media to become willing allies with Trump in his war on conservatism and conservative values.
Conservatism is neither a cause nor a measurable standard; it’s a way of life. It is a set of morally, fiscally, socially, politically sound values that form our deeply held convictions. It’s an unshakable commitment to the principles handed down to us in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution by the Founding Fathers — principles that have made America the greatest nation on earth for nearly 245 years.
Trumpists, nationalists, and their supporters in the faux conservative media have tried to fool us into believing America will be free as long as we work to get rid of Democrats, but the bottom line is this: Unless we dedicate ourselves to putting the Constitution above party politics, conservatism will be destroyed by Trumpism and nationalism, and liberty will not survive in America.
Despite claims to the contrary by Salem Media Group SVP of spoken word formats Phil Boyce, the pro-Trump propaganda likely to be served up on the Trump Radio Network’s “Rebuilding the Right” program will have very little to do with the Constitution, conservatism and conservative values and everything to do with ensuring that Trump and Trumpism never dies.
To break free of the faux-conservative Matrix, we need to stop playing the go-along-to-get-along game played by these peddlers of pro-Trump propaganda, and dedicate ourselves to fighting for the values we believe in as conservatives: liberty over tyranny, freedom over slavery, revolution over surrender.
The road ahead for conservatives will be very challenging. But if we remain committed to our faith, the Constitution, and conservatism, and if we join together as allies to fight the politicians, the Fellowship of the Pharisees and the faux-conservative media when they sell out our values for immoral gain, we can be victorious.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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