(Richard Drew | Credit: AP)
Bill Owens, the Executive Producer of 60 Minutes, resigned today, stating, “Over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.” This is in light of Donald Trump suing CBS and urging the FCC to “punish” 60 Minutes for its reporting on Greenland and Ukraine.
Owens follows in the footsteps of several Washington Post columnists who have recently resigned due to billionaire Jeff Bezos’s editorial hijacking of the once esteemed paper to kowtow to Donald Trump. It seems Democracy Dies due to cowardice, bending the knee to aspiring authoritarians, and billionaires’ interference.
On election night, Trump, a former host of a reality TV show who appeared in Home Alone 2, invited UFC Founder Dana White to the stage to address the MAGA faithful to celebrate his victory. In turn, White took the mic and praised Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and the Nelk Boys for being instrumental in winning over men who helped Trump, a convicted criminal and rapist, return to the White House.
Recently, Media Matters in America released a study revealing that the right-wing now thoroughly dominates the media landscape, which includes social media platforms. The richest man on Earth, Elon Musk, bought Twitter and transformed it into an echo chamber for MAGA propaganda and Nazis. Fox News remains the juggernaut of a dying cable news industry. Comedians and podcast hosts like Rogan and his manosphere parrot many right-wing talking points and cultural war tropes. Right-wing activist Chris Rufo, a former filmmaker, deliberately manufactured the CRT and DEI bogeyman and laundered the phantom menace through mainstream outlets.
Years ago, Steve Bannon openly said that the media, not Democrats, were the enemy. Yet, establishment media keeps trying to placate a MAGA movement that sees them as “the enemy of the people” and “the deep state.” Instead of building a robust counter-voice and fighting back, many Democrats and alleged progressives have decided to bend the knee and sanewash MAGA’s deliberate cruelty to court their base. Gavin Newsom and Bill Maher come to mind. But, there’s also CNN that pays Scott Jennings handsomely to act as a right-wing WWE heel and troll its own guests.
It seems there’s always affirmative action for “conservative” voices on establishment media to perform a “both sides” coverage, but that flexibility and openness are rarely afforded to progressive or POC voices.
In this Chai Talk, I invited Aaron Rupar, editor of Public Notice and a fellow media masochist and tired dad, to describe how the right-wing thoroughly dominates mainstream media through bad-faith talking points, repetition, and complicity of establishment journalism spaces. Rupar has spent over a decade religiously watching Fox News and tracking the right-wing media ecosystem. He understands how they operate and why they’ve been so successful. In this talk, Rupar also gives his advice to the majority, including Democrats, on how they can compete with right-wing media and win back the culture war.
This Live conversation was recorded right before news broke of 60 Minutes allegedly capitulating to Donald Trump. The timing, sadly, was exquisite.
Give us a watch!
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