The digital news landscape has been changing swiftly as more and more people turn to their computers and smartphones instead of newspapers and cable television to get their news fix. This is primarily because online information is more flexible and can adjust to the 24/7 news cycle with greater speed and fluidity. Online news organizations that sit atop of this digital pyramid are known as aggregators. For years, the titan of aggregators has been the Drudge Report, but now the Matt Drudge “brainchild” faces competition from websites like Whatfinger News.
Aggregators like Whatfinger are a one-stop-shop for those who like to stay dialed into current events. Why surf around the web when you can get the best of the rest from one site? This is the beauty of an online news aggregator. But these digital entities also have a raison d’être – they each have a political soul that undergirds their organization. In other words – what is their mission?
In the case of the Drudge Report, this is where they have run aground because many conservatives no longer trust Drudge and have sensed for a long time that its conservative political leanings are suspect. This lack of trust in the Drudge mission has propelled an aggregator like Whatfinger to grow exponentially in the digital news marketplace.
Rivaling baseball – where everything is statistically counted – the digital world is awash with numbers so dizzying that the average internet reader could easily get lost. Suffice it to say that while Drudge remains the 200-pound gorilla, competition from a place like Whatfinger News is getting hard to ignore. It will take some time, but their plan is to catch up and overtake Drudge. But it’s more than just numbers, according to Chief Editor Michael Anthony:
“Our aim is to be the biggest aggregate link news site on the planet. We are well on our way because we provide people what they are craving: the freedom to think and feel and learn without censorship. We give people access to both sides of the story and let the reader decide what they believe and help them gain a more well-rounded understanding of issues.”
There are other fine conservative online aggregators in the mix as more and more people have become disheartened by Drudge. This includes Citizen Free Press, The Bongino Report, The Liberty Daily, Rantingly, and Revolver.
Why This Matters to You
The colossal issue between the American public and the news media is one of trust. More and more people seek to get their news from like-minded organizations that they believe are honest and trustworthy. As the public is offered choices regarding where they get their information, places like Whatfinger become popular because they aren’t ham-handed with censorship; instead, they let freedom ring. “The founders of the decidedly Conservative aggregate site are military and patriots who are quick to assert they are unapologetic in their patriotism. They credit the company’s success to its willingness to show opposing views, sites and information and allow uncensored discussion,” according to their news release.
(Photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
What this all comes down to is not so much an internecine battle as it is one that will benefit the public writ large, because much of the media have lost sight of what the people need most in a news organization – trust and truth. This is why Americans are turning away from legacy media outlets in droves.
The Changing News Landscape
A study by the Pew Research Center in 2019 showed that “… almost as many U.S. adults say they prefer to get their local news through the internet as prefer to do so through the television set.” Moreover, “Beyond digital being the preferred pathway, 89% of Americans get at least some local news digitally and about four-in-ten (41%) do so often,” Pew reports. The upshot of these statistics is a news landscape that has vastly changed in the last decade, and this has propelled places like Whatfinger and Liberty Nation news to grow exponentially.
What we are witnessing in this shifting information highway is old-fashioned competition at work. It is this free market system that has made America what it is. The liberty to choose how we get our news and from whom is essential in a constitutional republic. This is precisely why the old guard despises websites like Whatfinger and Liberty Nation – because they cannot control us, so they push the big tech digital platforms to suspend, ban, and block us at every turn.
But the more the mainstream media marches to the political left in lockstep, the more people turn away from its single narrative and seek out these bold, new digital frontiers. Such as it is, the success of a place like Whatfinger should come as no surprise if we take into account the words of George Washington, who once said, “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
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* This article originally contained statistical information which is unverifiable at this time and has been removed.
Read more from Leesa K. Donner.
