There’s an earthquake kicking the ground out from under journalists and news publishers in the US, fuelled by Donald Trump’s deranged attacks on anyone who holds him to account. Journalists who kiss the ring are admitted to Oval Office press conferences where their role is to bay and snarl like hyenas at international leaders who don’t fawn over the US president or refuse to hand over their beloved countries to his dubious collection of mates.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy got a taste of it on Friday when Trump used a global audience to launch a tirade against the Ukrainian president, accusing him in a live press conference of risking the lives of millions of people and “world war three” by refusing to concede to the murderous invader, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Clown in a suit
On cue, the hand-picked MAGA newscaster Brian Glenn from the conservative Real America’s Voice cable channel joined in the ambush with a sneering question about Zelenskyy’s standard issue combat gear (which he has worn as a display of solidarity with his country’s armed forces since the start of Russia’s invasion) to the delight of a laughing crowd: “Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office and you refuse to wear a suit. Just want to see if — do you own a suit?”
His partner, far right Republican Representative and QAnon conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene (who blamed Californian wildfires on a secret Jewish space laser) posted on social media: “I’m so proud of @brianglenntv for pointing out that Zelenskyy has so much disrespect for America that he can’t even wear a suit in the Oval Office when he comes to beg for money from our president.”
The Telegraph in Britain reports that Glenn is part of a new wave of favoured conservative activists being given access to the Oval Office while traditional outlets such as Associated Press (AP) are booted out. Non-MAGA news outlets are kneecapped not because they lie about him but because they tell the truth.
Haters gonna hate
Trump has been warming up his soup of hatred of journalists for years, regularly encouraging violence against those who expose his behaviour or threatening jail for those who critique him.
The 2020 Committee to Protect Journalists claimed in its report The Trump Administration and the Media: “Trump has habitually attacked the news media in rallies, responses to reporters’ questions, and many hundreds of tweets. He has repeatedly called the press ‘fake news’, ‘the enemy of the people’, ‘dishonest’, ‘corrupt’, ‘low life reporters’, ‘bad people’, ‘human scum’ and ‘some of the worst human beings you’ll ever meet’.”
In 2016 he explained his strategy to CBS News correspondent Leslie Stahl: “You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me, no-one will believe you.”
Within days of taking office in January, he ratcheted up the strategy, kicking out media outlets that had published coverage he considered unfavourable. CNN, The Washington Post, NBC News, The New York Times and Politico were among the outlets denied office space in the Pentagon, although they were still allowed to enter the building. Replacing them were a string of right-wing publications including Breitbart and the One America News Network. None had requested Pentagon office space.
Trump banned AP from pooled press events in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One because it refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America — unilaterally renamed by the president without consultation or process. But it is the swiftness with which many news outlets — whose raison d’etre is to hold the powerful to account — have capitulated to his rage that has alarmed some observers.
Pipped at the Post
Democracies are widely regarded as poorly functioning without rigorous, jealously guarded independent journalism to shine a light into the corrupted dark corners of concentrated power. Just this week, the billionaire owner of The Washington Post, the paper globally lauded for exposing the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard Nixon, decreed that its opinion sections would accept only content that defended “personal liberties and free markets”. The opinion editor promptly resigned.
The Post’s owner, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, is one of America’s richest men. He was at Trump’s inauguration and, tellingly, was seated in front of the president’s own cabinet picks, alongside tech titans Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
The American Prospect says this marked change reduced the Post’s entire opinion section to a list of conservative talking points: “When the Post talks about ‘personal liberties’ we know that really means supporting Trump’s attacks on diversity rather than preserving minority rights. When they champion ‘free markets’ we understand the goal: tax cuts for the wealthy and dismantling the social safety net.”
The respected former executive editor of the Post, Martin Baron, told online news site Zeteo: “It’s craven. He’s basically fearful of Trump … He’s saying they are going to have an opinion page with one point of view.”
Friends in high places
Melbourne University journalism ethics expert Dr Denis Muller says Congress is captured by Trump, the Supreme Court is stacked by Trump, the Catholic Church is cosying up to him, he’s purged the military and now The Washington Post is compromised:
“That diktat to The Washington Post is an act of censorship to cater to Trump’s taste. It’s a signal to the rest of the media that the wise thing to do is ‘buckle under’. It’s caved and they should do the same.”
As the corrosion spreads, David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, wrote in his newsletter that he’s watching media institutions capitulate in real time all around him: “Trump himself said it best: ‘The first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term everybody wants to be my friend.’ ”
This accelerating phenomenon of the falling dominoes is not about news outlets that work hard to publish honourable journalism but about those that act as cheerleaders and regularly publish disinformation to advance Trump’s cause. Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of the far-right US news channel Fox News, has admitted his news outlet lied to support Trump’s claim that the election he lost was “stolen”, and continues to regurgitate the propaganda of the far right, as does his Sky News channel in Australia.
Mark their words
Billionaire Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) social media platform has always been a binfire amplifying Trump bullshit, anti-Semitism, authoritarian propaganda and white supremacist rants. And in between his Nazi salutes he’s been rewarded with a position to lead the Orwellian named “Department of Government Efficiency” where he has set about shutting down international aid agencies that feed the poor, illegally accessing Treasury computer systems, and sacking thousands of federal workers who don’t satisfy him with five dot-points about what they did last week.
You would expect the Trump news outlet cult to operate in the interests of the ascendant international bully while pretending to carry out “journalism”, but why are credible, fact-checking news outlets now falling in behind? Trump lawfare, money and fear.
Mark “I sat in the front row at the inauguration” Zuckerberg famously fired his Meta fact-checkers after Trump won the election, claiming they’d become “too politically biased” enabling the haters and conspiracy theorists which are the lifeblood of the far right to flood back to his platforms. As well, Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle legal action brought against it by Trump for suspending his accounts after the violent January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
High price to pay
Jameel Jaffer, of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, points to the capitulation of the American ABC which recently settled a defamation suit brought by Trump despite the widely held view Trump could not win. And Paramount, the parent company to CBS, is reportedly in talks to settle a multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Trump who accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Trump originally sought $10 billion and now wants $20bn.
“What I see here is media organisations that have the power to fight back against Trump but aren’t doing it. I think that’s a failure of courage,” he tells the Democracy Now podcast.
What is the outcome for a democratic society with a cowed and compliant media that has become the propaganda arm of a tyrannical leader? There are smaller courageous independent online news outlets stepping into the fray, but their reach is limited and they too can be bankrupted by simply defending one mega-sized lawsuit brought by a vengeful president with access to the public purse and a penchant for weaponising the courts.
So if you can, support the Davids marshalling their forces to stand up to the Goliaths. Stand up. Fight back.
Doing people down
Without strong new journalism players, the threat is a population that is kept in the dark and exploited while billionaire gorillas and politicians rip away spending in the public interest and guzzle taxpayer dollars in their own interest. It is environmental degradation which will make the fossil-fuel giants buckets of cash while the planet dies. It is the persecution of minorities and the end of policies based on humanity, justice and the rule of law. It is the freedom to publicly rip shreds off courageous world leaders like Zelenskyy live to air for trying to protect their people against an expansionist serial killer — and calling it “good television”.
The only law in this dystopia is the art of the kill and the securing of the fast buck. War zones, broken bodies and heartbreak become “Trump Gaza”. The ethnic cleansing of ancient lands home to millions of people becomes a grotesque AI television advertisement about waterfront real estate burnished with Trump gold statues.
Government for the people and by the people becomes a hooker on sale to the ugliest predator with the deepest pockets unless it is held to account. And as The Washington Post once famously declared: “Democracy dies in darkness.”
Nicole Chvastek and journalism ethics expert Dr Denis Muller will launch their new Truth Lies and Media podcast tomorrow.
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From Australia Trump’s actions are seen already as a coup d’etat when Court decisions are ignored and unconstitutional executive power alleged and acted upon. Unions need to start to act to protect their workers and the country. Could not happen in Australia. There would be a general strike.
It would take another 10 to 15 years for this situation to happen in Australia.
Look at what Howard did to the public education system and know that was what Regan did to the US public education system.
Poor, under educated people are happy enough if they have work. When the jobs and other work dry up because the industry they were educated for leaves town, a stirrer and shyster such as Trump has a fighting chance.
When I worked in the US my dive buddy and her husband patiently explained what was happening to their country and its education system. (they were 65 and 76 at the time) I thought “This couldn’t happen in Australia”.
After watching how the Gonski report was used to gut the public education system, now I know if is probable rather than possible.
I’ve just started watching the Mussolini tv series. It is extraordinary how his modus operandi seems so much like Trump’s pattern of behaviour. God forbid.
I think you have it the wrong way around….
Which parts are wrong?
Logically, that which follows must be after that which it is following: Trump’s behaviour follows a similar pattern to that of Mussolini’s!
I can’t believe that in my 83 year of life I can see the makings of a Hitler-like man return to bully his friends and allies using the same playbook of lies and fear with all the illegal trappings Hitler used, surrounded by craven acolytes who stand silent to watch him pontificate and snarl rude slogans and mutter nonsense.
Age will outstrip him as all of us are impermanent in this life, but the damage will be done by the time he has fallen fully into dementia or senility. No wonder he’s in such a hurry to rule his country and make American the laughing stock of the world.
There is no turning back, just ask Murdoch if his younger wives and various youth potions have succeeded in keep age and agility at bay. He, it is said, works hard to remain young and able to inflict wounds on leaders he doesn’t like and command people in his employ to obey his rules.
Good luck Donald J, if you loose your money, loose your power and your life, you will not be surprised how corrupt and shallow your followers are to your memory. Perhaps Musk has promised you a second life on the planet Mars where you can remain intact complete with blonde hair and orange make up, embalmed for all eternity.
Th capitulation of the media is beyond comprehension. How this man has been able to grab power and virtually bring a greater part of the world to its knees, and the free press, is beyond belief. Overriding all the moral guards that have been put in place to ensure people live with dignity, safety and ensured their human rights.
Thank you so much for bringing independent assessment and coverage of these rapidly unfolding events. Events which Australia will undoubtedly have to accommodate at some level.
Unethical cowardly journalists determined to keep their jobs are the problem. Democracy is dead, Murdochracy et al reigns.
Not only is the media in thrall to Trump it is has also capitulated to the Zionists. The bias in reporting on the Israeli genocide is quite disgusting . The ABC and the western media are ccmplicit in the genocide of the Palestinians.
We are all appalled by The Trumpet (big noise but out of tune, with plenty of one-off hits). But, despite the outrage and shock, no-one has taken him on politically, diplomatically nor really intellectualy. Why not? Is everyone waiting to see what comes next? Or, are we scared of the bully? Come on, lift your game. Trump is a fool puppet in the hands of the fossil fools, big tech heads and political arse lickers. These bunch of sychophantic idiots want excessive profits but will soon undermine themselves through pride, greed and jealousy. But, how to undermine The Trumpet – his softspot is not his history nor current bluster, it is through undermining and scandalising his staunch family members – a media blitz on the ‘naughty children’, split them, get them to judge Trumpet as a father leader!?
This is a fair assessment of the diabolical situation we face. But as journalists you need to be careful not to uncritically quote others.
Dr Muller’s says that the Catholic Church is cosying up to Trump. This is a lazy generalisation. Less than a handful of conservative bishops in the US have given Trump a soft ride, but the Catholic Church as an institution through Pope Francis unequivocally supports democratic rights, social justice, diversity and the climate.
It is right-wing largely protestant evangelical christians cabal supporting Trump as some kind of saviour in a terrible perversion of the Christian faith.
I can but wonder what hold putin has over trump. Did Russian money bail out his bankruptcies (he never did release those tax records) or does the “piss tape” really exist or is all this and more or something else altogether.
This is a simply a sign of the bigger malaise of the USA, which is that money (neo-capitalism) and the desire for money has now usurped morality and dignity. We see a country in decline, where ‘frreedom’ to own a gun is more important than the 50,000 lives a year lost because of them, where big food and big pharma get to poison and effectively kill people with no government intervention. The media is rolling over, (Bezos and Zucherberg are the worst, because they fear a risk to their businesses (ie money), when either could lose more 99.9% and be left with a measily $100m or so. Money corrupts from the inside and that is what has happened and what has made Trump what he is, and we should remember that it was America that voted for him, an America under the thrall of the lies and biases of the press (the right is simply better at these lies etc) all thanks to the founder-in-chief, one Rupert Murdoch..
The nazis used a the term Gleichschaltung for what is now happening under Trump.
Look up !!!
632040 708184OK initial take a great look at your self. What do you like what do you not like so a lot. Work on that which you do not like. But do not listen to other individuals their opinions do not matter only yours does. Work on having the attitude that this is who youre and if they dont like it they can go to hell. 258480