Conservatives have disagreed about many things, but they have long been united by the belief that the mainstream—or “liberal”—media is biased against them. Why did conflict with the press become so central to conservative identity, and how has antipathy toward the media shaped the modern conservative movement? A. J. Bauer traces how decades of right-wing criticism of the “liberal media” reshaped US news culture and came to define conservative politics. In recounting the long history of conflict between conservatives and the press, Bauer offers a compelling new origin story for today’s polarized media environment.
A.J. Bauer is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Alabama (USA) where he researches right-wing media and conservative journalism in historical and contemporary contexts. He holds a PhD in American Studies from New York University. He is author of Making the Liberal Media (Columbia UP, 2026) and co-editor of News on the Right (Oxford UP, 2019).