THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

 While Americans value the freedoms of their press, we live in a rapidly fragmenting nation. First, almost all major news outlets are “liberal," with the exception of the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, which would be classified as “conservative." Each side of this liberal/conservative media debate tilts their coverage to please their audience. There is not a single unbiased new source in the United States-it is only a question of how biased the source is. Anyone who turns on Fox News or reads coverage on their website knows how they will tilt their reporting. I would argue that NPR and the New York Times tilt their coverage in the opposite direction (perhaps not to the same degree) and are not the unbiased sources they claim to be. Most Americans now self-select into one of these two ideological “camps” and are increasingly oblivious to the arguments and perspective of the other side. 

The two sources you mention in the prompt, Antiwar.com and The American Conservative, are such small players in the media landscape that they get very few clicks or attention. Antiwar.com ranks #34,739 in domestic clicks per month and American Conservative similarly ranks #13,596 (similarweb.com). So 34,738 websites get more Americans to view their content each month than Antiwar.com! I had never even heard of Antiwar.com before this assignment. It is amazing how Antiwar.com segments news about every single military conflict, all over the globe.

There is also a more sinister component to the issue of not hearing antiwar voices in the major news outlets. The military industrial complex (that is, the weapons money-making machine) benefits every single state and congressional district. America sells military weapons, vehicles and aircraft all over the world, frequently to both sides in a war! There is war in every corner of the world, right now! Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, a liberal or conservative, you want to be known as the politician who brought new, well-paying jobs to your district. New jobs mean families and money moving into your district, many new support jobs (for example, an aircraft manufacturer is going to require a tire manufacturer to be located close by) and all of those new, well-paying jobs result in all of the commerce that makes a town prosperous (new restaurants, grocery stores, neighborhood construction, etc.).

While there is a valid national security interest in having weapons and equipment made in the USA (we can’t have China make our bombs when we might need those plans and manufacturing process to defend ourselves from China), there is very little incentive to decrease what we spend each year on our military, which will result in fewer jobs and will make the resident politician the bad guy or girl when funding is decreased (and no politician wants to be known as the one who lost the military base or weapons jobs for their district). We don’t hear antiwar voices in the mainstream media because there is too much money to be made by too many people and too many politicians are involved for it to be any other way.