The last six years have been a whirlwind. When I sold my half of the advertising company I co-founded in 2017 so I could stay home with my newborn and return to my roots in journalism, my expectations were that I’d work my way up the conservative media ladder to be a voice that unflinchingly highlighted the realities of our world. I saw in most of conservative and even alternative media a deficiency in truth-telling; the vast majority were focused on riding the Trump Train to fame and profits without having to deal with the wide array of real challenges we were facing as a nation.
From the day Donald Trump won the 2016 election all the way until the pandemic lockdowns, conservative media was relegated to cheerleading for Trump and “owning the libs” for their ludicrous attempts to take him down. But while all of that was keeping America divided into two groups — those touting everything Trump did and those who became apoplectic over his very existence — there were ugly challenges rising up in America and abroad. From Cultural Marxists getting bolder to globalist machinations emerging from the shadows, most were too busy to see the seeds of multiple existential threats sprouting to life.
Censorship was shifting from rare to rampant. The phrase “American patriotism” was being redefined as a pejorative. The populist movement that had elected a president was being coopted by grifters much the same way the Tea Party had been corrupted before. Transhumanism was going mainstream. Government was being weaponized, not just against Trump with the two impeachments but against America First patriots across the land. Most importantly, the forces of evil were mobilizing for something that I didn’t start really understanding until the pandemic, then the 2020 election, then everything that has transpired since Joe Biden was placed into the White House.
It became clear to me following the 2020 election that I would not be able to stay on the original course of climbing the conservative media ladder. Once I realized that there were far more conservative news outlets that had become “controlled opposition” than simply Fox News and their ilk, I knew I would never fit into what conservative media had become. I wasn’t going to get a $50 million offer from Daily Wire, nor would I accept it if I did. I wasn’t going to get to speak at CPAC, nor would I want to after learning their trajectory. After spending the early days of this chapter of my life on planes back and forth from Washington DC on a regular basis, I no longer saw a point in trying to find the diamonds in the rough among lawmakers and bureaucrats. You can count on one hand the number of mostly uncorrupted politicians in DC. The solutions to our nation’s problems cannot be found by dwelling at the source of those same problems.
For the last three years, I’ve been trying to establish a voice that cannot be canceled. In doing so, I’ve participated in many endeavors that showed promise. Today, I’m whittling my media presence down to the venues where I have a reasonable expectation that I won’t be filtered or pushed aside for speaking the truth.
In no particular order, those venues are:
Over the next couple of weeks, I will be striving to consolidate my various web properties, podcasts, and shows into these seven venues. The only one that I own is Discern.tv where I will be redirecting most of my web properties. This will begin in the form of Discern Report but will expand to other Discern Media properties as they’re built.
As for Red Voice Media and America Out Loud, both have proven to be as unflinching about the truth as I have needed them to be. I am honored to continue putting my daily shows there.
The Liberty Daily is a crucial component of disseminated the news from multiple sources across the web. Being editor has been a true blessing.
As for Substack, it has become my favorite community. There, I will only publish the most important articles and shows, filtering out the less crucial stories which can be found on my other sites.
This is an exciting time for me as I finally feel like the direction forward is clear. We have a nation to fight for, a people to liberate from rising oppression, and a Gospel to spread to an increasingly hostile society. Let’s fight the good fight together.
I’ll be talking about all of this on today’s episode as well as interviewing conservative actor Dean Cain. Check it out at 11am Pacific.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
