Why is conservative media so much better than liberal media when it comes to making its preferred narratives stick?
To answer this question, I reached out Charlie Sykes, a leading conservative radio host in Wisconsin for nearly three decades. A vocal critic of Trump, Sykes eventually walked away from his show after alienating some of his pro-Trump listeners.
I asked Sykes, the author of the 2017 book How the Right Lost Its Mind, how right-leaning media is able to construct alternate realities for its base, and why it succeeds in ways liberal media does not.
“The conservative media has done a really great job of convincing conservatives that they're under siege,” he told me. As a result, “the conservative media has become a safe space for people who want to be told that they don't have to believe anything that's uncomfortable or negative.”
Our full conversation, lightly edited for clarity, follows.
https://www.vox.com/2017/10/31/16579820/mueller-clinton-russia-uranium-manafort-charlie-sykes