An ultra-MAGA YouTube channel suddenly has competition as the Trumpiest streaming channel, just as the original channel shows a soft-spot fo
Zachary Petrizzo at The Daily Beast:
As Donald Trump faces mounting legal problems, the former president has consistently turned to one of his favorite YouTube channels, the fiercely pro-MAGA “Right Side Broadcasting Network,” to spin the news in his favor. And yet, RSBN—as it’s colloquially known—is facing criticism for not being Trump-y enough from an unlikely source: current and former staffers. The YouTube channel has survived by attracting the most loyal Trump followers, who want to see the entirety of Trump’s rallies, and by using cheaper, less experienced broadcasters to live stream and offer commentary on the former president’s latest moves. But more recently, people closely affiliated with RSBN have been detecting a slight shift in the channel’s editorial stance. And with a new pro-Trump streaming channel waiting in the wings, RSBN sources suddenly think their employer may soon be supplanted as Trump’s favorite online streaming network. Five current and former RSBN staffers who spoke to The Daily Beast said the pro-Trump media group has been showing some warmth toward Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, much to the chagrin of these ride-or-die Trumpers.
“It’s just a bad business move if you’re going to go in on DeSantis, which obviously the base is not a fan of, and the poll numbers reflect that,” one former RSBN correspondent told The Daily Beast. Another source familiar with RSBN operations said that when DeSantis initially entered the race, “there were questions raised about how to cover him.” This source said there was “blowback” from RSBN superfans that the network was uncritically covering DeSantis.
[...] While the network, which once billed itself as a “rag-tag bunch of media outsiders,” has since become the leading network for streaming Trump rallies, there is a new rival for that title. Live From America TV, which goes by the acronym LFA TV, wants to become what RSBN is for YouTube but on Rumble. (Rumble is the conservative video platform that hosts Trump’s social media network, Truth Social, and is trying to overtake YouTube in its own right.)
So far, LFA TV has enlisted former RSBN talent, including former pundit Mike Crispi, and RSBN’s former vice president of operations, Liz Willis.
[...] The growing rift between RSBN and LFA TV may have come to a head Saturday evening, as Crispi and Willis broadcast the Trump rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, for the newer network. On the same riser at the rally, their old RSBN co-workers were right next to them. On Rumble Saturday afternoon, LFA TV found itself with prime placement, on the right-wing streaming platform in the “picks” section of the homepage, just below the far more established RSBN in the main square.
A competition between original MAGA favorite RSBN and upstart LFA TV for the most MAGA streaming network is on.