{"id":30203,"date":"2023-11-28T12:57:31","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T20:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30203"},"modified":"2023-11-28T12:57:32","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T20:57:32","slug":"four-ways-the-mainstream-media-is-quietly-helping-trump-and-his-republican-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/11\/28\/four-ways-the-mainstream-media-is-quietly-helping-trump-and-his-republican-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"Four ways the mainstream media is quietly helping Trump and his Republican allies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
ROBERT REICH<\/a> NOV 27, 2023 (robertreich@substack.com)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The mainstream media is helping Trump and his authoritarian allies in four ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, it\u2019s drawing a false equivalence between Trump and Biden \u2014 claiming that Biden\u2019s political handicap is his age, while Trump\u2019s corresponding handicap is his criminal indictments.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rubbish. Trump is almost as old as Biden, and Trump\u2019s public remarks and posts are becoming ever more unhinged \u2014 suggesting that advancing age may be a bigger problem for Trump than for Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why isn\u2019t the mainstream media reporting on Trump\u2019s increasing senescence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, every time the mainstream media reports on another move by Trump and his Republican allies toward neofascism, it tries to balance its coverage by pointing out some fault in the Democratic Party <\/strong>(such as the ongoing federal corruption and bribery case against Senator Bob Menendez).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The net effect is for readers to assume all politics is rotten. A recent Washington Post<\/em> article<\/a> was headlined, \u201cIn a swing Wisconsin county, everyone is tired of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters who are turned off by politics are less aware of Biden\u2019s accomplishments \u2014 and the media is hardly reporting on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One person interviewed by the Post <\/em>admitted, \u201cI can\u2019t really speak to anything [Biden] has done because I\u2019ve tuned it out, like a lot of people have. We\u2019re so tired of the us-against-them politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if the \u201cus-against-them politics\u201d is the fault of Democrats as much as it is Trump Republicans. In fact, Trump\u2019s GOP is the party of dysfunctional politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us to the third way the mainstream media is quietly helping Trump. It makes it seem as if the dysfunction in Washington is coming from both parties.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do Americans feel about politics?\u201d The New York Times<\/em> asked<\/a> recently, answering in the same headline: \u201c\u2018Disgust isn\u2019t a strong enough word.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the Times <\/em>failed to report is that much of the GOP no longer accepts the rule of law, or the norms of liberal democracy, or the legitimacy of the opposing party, or the premise that governing requires negotiation and compromise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday, the Times <\/em>attributed<\/a> the coming wave of departing lawmakers across both chambers and parties to the \u201cbreathtaking dysfunction on Capitol Hill,\u201d without telling readers that the dysfunction is entirely due to the Republican Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally, blaming both sides for this chaos plays into Trump\u2019s and his allies\u2019 goal of wanting Americans to believe the nation has become ungovernable, so it needs a strongman.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worse things seem, the more convincing is Trump\u2019s case for an authoritarian like him to take over. \u201cI\u2019d get it done in one day.\u201d \u201cI am your voice.\u201d \u201cLeave it all to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focusing on government dysfunction ignores Biden\u2019s steady hand. This makes America more likely to fall into Trump\u2019s and his allies\u2019 neofascist hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we head into the critical election year of 2024, the mainstream media must adapt to a new political reality: The contest is no longer between Democrats who want more government and Republicans who want less. It is between democracy and fascism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROBERT REICH NOV 27, 2023 (robertreich@substack.com) The mainstream media is helping Trump and his authoritarian allies in four ways. First, it\u2019s drawing a false equivalence between Trump and Biden \u2014 claiming that Biden\u2019s political handicap is his age, while Trump\u2019s corresponding handicap is his criminal indictments. Rubbish. Trump is almost… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[840],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30204,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30203\/revisions\/30204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}