ADAM WEISS: The Media’s Demonization Of The Right Has Consequences

Charlie Kirk wasn’t just a colleague. He was a friend. He was someone who showed up, worked hard, and cared deeply about his family and his country. His life mattered. As I process the tragic circumstances of his death, I can’t help but turn to a deeper, more uncomfortable truth: the climate that enabled it.

For decades, America’s media institutions have cultivated a narrative that paints conservatives as dangerous, regressive, even subhuman. Every nightly newscast, every editorial page, every so-called “analysis” drips with disdain for anyone who dares to challenge the progressive orthodoxy. You don’t just disagree with the left anymore; you’re smeared as a bigot, a fascist, or worse.

This relentless demonization isn’t harmless rhetoric. It creates an atmosphere where hostility toward the right feels not only acceptable but righteous. When the press treats millions of Americans like villains, it should not shock us when some unhinged individual takes that narrative literally and turns it into violence.

Words have consequences. The media knows this when it lectures conservatives about “dangerous speech” and “dog whistles.” It never looks in the mirror. When major outlets tell audiences day after day that Republicans are a threat to democracy, when they equate conservative beliefs with extremism, they are not just engaging in biased journalism. They are laying kindling for hatred, and sometimes that hatred combusts.

Consider the language used in mainstream coverage of the right. If you oppose open borders, you are “anti-immigrant.” If you defend parental rights in schools, you are “anti-LGBT.” If you worry about election integrity, you are a “conspiracy theorist.” When media elites flatten every conservative principle into a caricature of cruelty, they strip away the humanity of people like Charlie. Once someone is dehumanized, it becomes easier to justify targeting them.

That’s what the press has done to the right: it has turned millions of good, law-abiding Americans into cartoon villains in a morality play. For years, conservatives have been warning: when you keep telling people that a whole class of citizens are monsters, don’t be surprised when someone believes you — and acts accordingly.

The hypocrisy is staggering. If the roles were reversed, if left-wing activists were being attacked in the streets, the media would frame it as a national crisis of hate. We’d see round-the-clock coverage, solemn declarations about “the soul of America,” and endless op-eds about the dangerous climate of conservative rhetoric. When conservatives are the victims, silence. Or worse — justifications. “They had it coming,” the subtext suggests, because daring to hold the wrong political beliefs apparently makes you complicit in oppression.

That double standard doesn’t just warp the narrative, it fuels division. Millions of Americans see that bias and conclude, rightly, that the press doesn’t value their lives or their freedoms. That perception breeds alienation. Alienation breeds anger. Anger, left unchecked, can erupt in violence.

No individual act of violence can ever be excused. Personal responsibility matters. Yet individuals do not commit violence in a vacuum. They act within a culture shaped by institutions; none more influential than the media. When leading outlets tell the public that conservatives are existential threats to democracy, they normalize hostility against us. When commentators sneer that half the country is made up of racists, misogynists, and extremists, they legitimize rage against us.

In this climate, the media is complicit. Its hands are not clean.

Conservatives have been calling for a return to fairness, civility, and honest debate. We do not expect journalists to agree with us. We do expect them to recognize our humanity and stop painting us as villains in every story. If this cycle of demonization continues, tragedies like Charlie’s will not be the last.

Charlie deserved far better. He was not someone who kept his head down or played it safe. He stood up for what he believed in, he defended people who were silenced, and he never hesitated to call out injustice. His courage came with a cost, but it also inspired those around him to be braver, stronger, and truer to their convictions.

Now there is a gaping void where his voice once was. That loss is not only personal — it is national. We cannot afford to lose people like Charlie, who put principle above comfort, who saw through the lies of a corrupt media and refused to be cowed. His absence leaves all of us with a responsibility: to speak louder, stand taller, and demand an end to the demonization that is tearing this country apart.

Charlie’s life was a testament to conviction. His death must be a wake-up call.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Adam Weiss is the CEO of AMW PR, Publisher of Impact Wealth magazine & the Host of Media Exposed on Real America’s Voice News. AMW PR is a New York & So. Florida based political strategy and communications firm. His firm has worked with Jim Brown, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Congressman Lee Zeldin, Eboni Williams, Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, Andrew Giuliani, Governor Haley Barbour, Steve Hilton and more.