New findings from Media Matters reveal that right-wing news broadcaster Real America’s Voice published QAnon conspiracy theory content on its platform in 2018 and 2019, exposing the outlet as directly propagating QAnon-aligned media.
Real America’s Voice broadcasts a lineup of right-wing shows hosted by fringe media personalities, including former Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Gina Loudon, right-wing media personality John Fredericks, and former guest panelist on NBC’s Meet the Press David Brody, among others. While these personalities have hosted QAnon-linked individuals on their shows in the past, new reporting demonstrates that Real America’s Voice has directly endorsed and promoted the conspiracy theory to its viewers.
Articles published on the Real America’s Voice website are labeled with tags that list the topics discussed in the piece. In reviewing content posted in 2018 and 2019, we found that several posts published under the byline “AMERICA’S VOICE ADMIN” include the tags “q anon,” “qanon,” “qanon latest new posts,” “today’s q posts,” “qanon.pub,” “q posts,” “qanonposts.com,” and the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA” (an abbreviation of “where we go one, we go all”).
Some of the QAnon content on Real America’s Voice does not include one of the associated tags. These untagged posts mention QAnon websites, discuss other QAnon influencers and shows, or include the hashtag “#QAnon” within the post itself.
The majority of the posts that include a QAnon-associated tag or mention the conspiracy theory are sourced from two conservative influencers: Black Conservative Patriot and Maggie VandenBerghe, also known as FogCityMidge.
In 2018 and 2019, Real America’s Voice frequently re-posted videos analyzing QAnon “drops” posted to YouTube by Black Conservative Patriot. All of these videos embedded on Real America’s Voice’s website have been removed by YouTube and are not available to watch on either platform. However, the written content discussing the video subject matter is still available on the website.
This content includes conspiratorial analysis of QAnon posts, discussion of the “deep state,” and other baseless ideas tied to the conspiracy theory.
Black Conservative Patriot appears to be an active conservative influencer peddling conspiratorial content online. Based on his social media profiles, he has pushed QAnon content on Twitter and has promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy theory on Instagram and Twitter. He also operates a Patreon account and has a YouTube channel he’s monetizing via pre-roll advertisements running before the start of his videos. QAnon influencers and related content are banned on Patreon, Twitter, YouTube, and both Instagram and its parent company, Facebook.
Since 2019, Black Conservative Patriot has seemingly tried to rebrand himself away from QAnon on some social media platforms. For example, his Patreon account description does not mention the conspiracy theory directly and he explains that he is “one bogus strike away from losing the ability to upload to our channel for two weeks and two away from losing our channel altogether” on YouTube.
Posts and videos sourced from conservative influencer Maggie VandenBerghe often include QAnon tags at the bottom but do not directly discuss posts from “Q,” the central figure of the conspiracy theory. VandenBerghe has a history of pushing QAnon-aligned media and has regularly appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast War Room: Pandemic. She is purportedly working on a movie about “anti-white” violence and “the growing hatred of white people in America.”
Real America’s Voice’s endorsement of QAnon aligns with its hosts’ extremist views and further solidifies the broadcaster as a danger to American democracy.