Weapons of Mass Deception : How Right-wing Media Wage Information Warfare and Undermine American Democracy

Weapons of Mass Deception reveals how many right-wing media outlets function as political organizations, advancing political agendas on behalf of their wealthy owners. Drawing on FEC filings, internal documents, and an analysis of millions of online articles, Yunkang Yang demonstrates the engagement of right-wing networks in overt campaign activities, particularly through the amplification of disinformation. In an era of widespread mistrust of the US democratic processes, this book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the tremendous influence of the right-wing media sphere on American politics.

Mistrust of the democratic electoral process has become rampant among Americans, particularly Republican voters. This trend carries profound consequences: widespread disputes over election results and resistance to the peaceful transfer of power threaten to undermine the very fabric of American democracy. It is, therefore, essential to understand why mistrust is spreading. No analysis is complete without a thorough accounting of the role of right-wing media in US politics. Weapons of Mass Deception challenges the conventional wisdom that right-wing media outlets like Breitbart News and Fox News function primarily as news organizations, using empirical analysis to demonstrate how they more closely resemble political organizations. Analyzing nearly four million online articles published by thirty major right-wing media outlets, Yunkang Yang finds that disinformation consistently ranked among the highest engagement stories between 2017 and 2020. Internal emails, Federal Election Commission filings, legal documents, and conversations between right-wing media employees illuminate the organizational patterns and practices underlying this data. Yang highlights the risk of "privatized political patronage," as platforms pursue both profits and strategic political objectives on behalf of their funders, owners, managers, and political allies. He further reveals the complexities of the right-wing media sphere and argues that when these goals align across networks, they can form a powerful political machine capable of misleading millions of Americans. Ultimately, this book reveals how organizations spread disinformation for partisan aims by exploiting the credibility afforded to traditional journalism, and it lays the framework for understanding how disparate right-wing media outlets coalesce into a unified weapon of mass deception.

Mistrust of the democratic electoral process has become rampant among Americans, particularly Republican voters. This trend carries profound consequences: widespread disputes over election results and resistance to the peaceful transfer of power threaten to undermine the very fabric of American democracy. It is, therefore, essential to understand why mistrust is spreading. No analysis is complete without a thorough accounting of the role of right-wing media in US politics.Weapons of Mass Deception challenges the conventional wisdom that right-wing media outlets like Breitbart News and Fox News function primarily as news organizations, using empirical analysis to demonstrate how they more closely resemble political organizations. Analyzing nearly four million online articles published by thirty major right-wing media outlets, Yunkang Yang finds that disinformation consistently ranked among the highest engagement stories between 2017 and 2020. Internal emails, Federal Election Commission filings, legal documents, and conversations between right-wing media employees illuminate the organizational patterns and practices underlying this data. Yang highlights the risk of "privatized political patronage," as platforms pursue both profits and strategic political objectives on behalf of their funders, owners, managers, and political allies. He further reveals the complexities of the right-wing media sphere and argues that when these goals align across networks, they can form a powerful political machine capable of misleading millions of Americans.Ultimately, this book reveals how organizations spread disinformation for partisan aims by exploiting the credibility afforded to traditional journalism, and it lays the framework for understanding how disparate right-wing media outlets coalesce into a unified weapon of mass deception.