Reporter Molly Jong-Fast warned that the media can't stop allowing Donald Trump to operate unchallenged.
Speaking to MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan on Sunday, Jong-Fast explained that journalists are so concerned about appearing biased that they ultimately end up downplaying the seriousness of Trump's pledge to bring down American democracy as we know it. In reality, regardless of what news outlets say, Trump will attack it as partisan or "fake news."
"They want to treat things as normal, and they're worried about looking partisan," continued Jong-Fast. "I'm talking about straight news journalists, not really opinion journalists. They're worried about looking partisan, so they understate things in order to not seem hysterical. And so, what happens is the road to fascism is literally lined with stories that understate the urgency of the situation."
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She specifically cited The New York Times pre-Adolf Hitler, where they similarly hid in the clouds.
"I think the larger problem here is that the mainstream media is not built to be able to sort of protect democracy from fascism," she said. "So, when it comes down the line, they don't know what to do with it. That's what we saw again and again. And what happened with Hillary Clinton was that they were again — as Jay Rosen, my favorite from NYU, says, they're so focused on the odds that they forgot about the stakes."
Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor at Yale University, said that it's ironic that the right claims that free speech is being taken away when their flagship campaign is promising to take away free speech. Comparing Trump to Viktor Orban, he noted that the Hungarian leader forced media companies to sell to his friends using tax frameworks and the court system.
"So, we can expect that" from Trump, Stanley continued. "We're already seeing this kind of attack on universities and schools throughout the country. That's why it's so ironic that, as with everything Trump does, it's so hypocritical for him to talk about his opponents attacking free speech. That's what we're gonna see. The first thing we're gonna see is speech — critical speech being targeted by political operatives and the judicial system."
See their full conversation below or at the link here.
Media is scared to appear hysterical by calling out Trump's danger to the U.S.: reporterwww.youtube.com
