AUGUSTA, Maine – New results from a Maine GOP straw poll confirmed what many readers across the state have known for some time: The Maine Wire has become the most important news source in Maine for a growing share of politically engaged voters.
According to the straw poll, 40.2 percent of respondents identified The Maine Wire as their top news source. That put The Maine Wire far ahead of television news broadcasts at 13 percent, social media from traditional media outlets at 9.7 percent, and social media from friends and influencers at 7.2 percent. Among nearly 700 respondents, the message was unmistakable. The Maine Wire is not just competing with legacy media. It is beating them.
The survey results are the latest sign of a major shift in Maine’s media landscape, where readers have increasingly turned away from establishment outlets and toward independent reporting that is willing to ask hard questions, follow the facts, and stay on stories the legacy press would rather ignore.
Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson reacted to the results with a line that captured both the moment and the frustration many readers have felt with the state’s old media guard.
“RIP to the Maine ‘Trust’ for Local Pablum and the Bangor Daily No-Bid Contract,” Robinson said. “I would feel sorry for their advertisers except even their advertisers are just government agencies, NGOs, and tax-funded orgs.”
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The rise of The Maine Wire did not happen by accident. It was built through years of aggressive reporting on fraud, government waste, public corruption, immigration, and organized crime. That includes the outlet’s Triad Weed investigation, which exposed Chinese-linked illegal marijuana grow operations in rural Maine and helped push the story onto the national stage. Robinson and Graham Pollard later won the prestigious Dao Prize for that reporting.
That national reach has only expanded. Robinson’s work on MaineCare fraud has been featured on the Shawn Ryan Show, Fox News, the Glenn Beck Show, the Tucker Carlson Show and many national and local radio programs. Jon Fetherston has also appeared recently on Fox News’ Saturday in America, including segments on MaineCare fraud allegations and investigative journalism controversies, including the Lewiston Shooting fund scandal.
That growth has extended into video as well. Maine Wire TV airs every day at 4 p.m., streaming on Facebook, YouTube, X, and The Robinson Report platform. The show has become an increasingly visible and popular part of The Maine Wire brand, giving Mainers a daily place to get direct coverage and analysis outside the legacy media filter.
Taken together, the straw poll numbers, the national media appearances, the award-winning investigative work, and the growing popularity of Maine Wire TV all point in the same direction: The Maine Wire is no longer an upstart alternative. It is a dominant force in Maine media.
For readers tired of filtered narratives, safe talking points, and taxpayer-subsidized local pablum, the straw poll result simply made official what they already knew.
The Maine Wire is leading because it is doing the work.
Keep up the great work! We look forward to your evening show every afternoon. Is it true that Ben Midgley won the straw poll for Governor?
“The Maine Wire Is Setting the Pace”
Love Maine Wire so don’t take this the wrong way BUT your competition isn’t very stiff. 😉
Keep up the good work.