Conservative Journalism & Field Efforts to Offset Liberal Colleges and Traditional Media
Noel Wilkins becomes TBOR Action’s third full-time Field Director (Eastern) with additional duties as Communications Director. His promotion to Eastern Field & Comms Director continues TBOR Action’s tradition of combining conservative field work and journalism to advance policy in the face of the influence of liberal colleges and traditional media.
Wilkins is based in Orange County, Virginia, in the Piedmont Region west of Richmond. The map shows the recent media hits being posted on www.takebackaction.org and the location of Wilkins as well as Southern Field & National Grassroots Director Byron Shehee and myself as Midwestern Field Director & President.
Wilkins' regional duties will complement his continuing to secure national coverage for TBOR Action’s efforts, including Fox News Radio outlets across the country and NewsMax. He addresses an evolving conservative media landscape that now also includes the new conservative composite Citizen Free Press (replacing the Drudge Report which was bought by Never Trumpers after reaching a billion visits leading up to the 2016 election). Other composite sites, such as www.offthepress.com, augment a growing network of state-based outlets like the Star News Network (e.g. The Iowa Star, as well as outlets in AZ, FL, GA, MI, MN, MO, NC, OH, PA, TN, TX, VA and WI) and my former employer Breitbart News.
Beyond these growing conservative networks, TBOR Action’s reach focuses on the 78,207 reached recently via text (only 0.2% opted out all year). While the majority of those cell phones belong to Wisconsinites active in at least one conservative event, group, or activity, more than 13,000 are names entered in my phone over the years of running policy or political efforts in the other 47 continental states. Our email list is larger than the text list at 113,748 tested emails, but even our more widely read and forwarded emails or texts reach less than a million, far short of the conservative media networks–such as the 28 million listening to the Sean Hannity radio program on which I have appeared.
While each Field Director oversees what would be two full-time positions in most organizations, TBOR Action’s focus on working with conservative grassroots leaders and activists to win conservative policy victories mandates that everyone work the field. Only after listening to hundreds of activists at training sessions (e.g. www.takebackwi.org) do we feel equipped to advocate for the most important conservative policies via media as well as at thousands of doors, events, state capitols–not to mention successful zoning hearings and an 191-17 record in referenda.
The decision to promote Wilkins is in response to key policy projects in Virginia; the group is still settling on potential projects in either Iowa or Nevada before naming a Western Field Director. Wilkins's specialty is Comms, having overseen efforts for the US Senate race in Ohio prior to joining the Comms team for a gubernatorial candidate in Wisconsin. He’s also worked in state and congressional offices as well as taken on door-to-door canvassing and phoning efforts to go beyond traditional Comms duties–providing, similar to the backgrounds of myself and Shehee, a perfect fit for TBOR Action.
Anyone who listened to my national Fox News interviews Thursday recognizes the challenge all conservative Comms Directors face. Several interviews focused on Americans’ lack of faith in institutions including the media, where divisions prevent outlets from even covering the same stories. In addition to the importance of national media like Fox News and NewsMax, the convergence of TBOR Action’s Grassroots and Comms efforts culminates in important talk radio interviews from leading local hosts with huge followings from Wisconsin (e.g. Meg Ellefson) to Alabama (e.g. Joey Clark). Further reach is given by some who built a state-specific site (e.g. Jessica McBride’s Wisconsin Right Now after 10 years as an award-winning reporter for Wisconsin's largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).
In addition to reaching the giant audience of Just the News in this story on TBOR Action first documenting abuses at the Penn Biden Center, reach can be complemented by more traditional conservative outlets that covered that story (Tucker Carlson and National Review). The need also remains to reach out to traditional outlets such as this network-affiliated interview with a top 25 TV market (Indianapolis), or to fight for equal time such as our story “Voters shouldn’t be fooled by push for National Popular Vote” in the Hill.
The First Amendment can only truly work to enable Americans to make informed decisions if the Left's dominance of college campuses and traditional media–plus the billions of dollars from liberals impact policy and political campaigns–is balanced by strong conservative grassroots and alternate media outlets. As Rush Limbaugh famously said when he started the talk radio revolution, “I am not balanced, I am the balance.”