News Brief: How the Right Invented — and Exploited — the "Liberal Media" Trope

News Brief: How the Right Invented — and Exploited — the "Liberal Media" Trope

From Citations Needed by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson

April 22, 2026 · 51 min

About this episode

The episode discusses how conservatives have shaped the narrative around the 'liberal media' with guest A. J. Bauer.

In this News Brief, we talk with A. J. Bauer, assistant professor at the University of Alabama, about his new book," Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press". In our discussion we break down the corporate and ideological forces that shaped the popular idea mainstream media was crawling with fifth columnist agitators hostile to the values of Real America.

People in this episode

Hosts: Nima Shirazi, Adam Johnson

Guest: A. J. Bauer

Topics covered

  • media criticism
  • conservative movement
  • liberal media trope
  • corporate influence
  • ideological forces

Keywords

  • liberal media
  • conservative movement
  • media bias
  • A. J. Bauer
  • press criticism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Alabama

Books & works: Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press

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