The media’s desperate search for ‘moderate Nazis’
Journalists’ denial of our political crisis compels them to invent centrists
Some mainstream news outlets seem determined to downplay the right-wing authoritarian threat while they wait for our politics to magically snap back to normal – rescued by a mighty band of middle-of-the-roaders.
Instead of focusing on an increasingly radical Republican Party stealing our freedoms, they decry “our political divisions” in general, as if everyone is to blame – except for the moderates.
Centrist politicians are an endangered species in this country. In the Republican Party, they’ve been virtually extinguished. In the Democratic Party, they’ve been played for suckers over and over, and thus discredited.
Undeterred, the media invent moderates where they don’t exist. They pretend there are responsible higher-ups in the Trump regime quietly looking out for the public interest – as if Donald Trump would allow that.
The New York Times embarrassed itself last week by claiming that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had been a moderate institutionalist before his recent support for Trump’s $1.8 billion insurrectionist slush fund and tax-cheat immunity package.
The article by Glenn Thrush (gift link here) was headlined, “Trump’s Fund Shows Blanche Choosing Loyalty Over Moderation.” It said Blanche had shown “modest moderating tendencies” earlier in Trump’s current term and was “once seen by some as the most conventional of President Trump’s political appointees.”
Reality check: With Blanche serving in a top position for the last 16 months, the Justice Department has developed a reputation for misconduct in immigration-related prosecutions. Two obviously bogus cases that fell apart last week, involving the Broadview Six and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, are among the many examples of DOJ’s violations of civil rights.
Blanche also has been knee-deep in the cover-up of the Epstein sex trafficking scandal. The Times’ story didn’t even mention Blanche’s highly suspicious meeting with Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, which led to her transfer to a nicer prison, where she is “much happier,” enjoying custom meals and access to a comfort puppy.
An early version of the headline for Thrush’s story said Blanche chose “loyalty over moderation,” but it was later changed to say he chose “loyalty over pushing back.” Maybe the Times’ editors belatedly realized how stupid it was to claim that Blanche’s work in the Trump regime was ever moderate.
Such whitewashing reminds me of this Times headline from 1935:
Ah, “moderate Nazis.” By that point in Germany’s nightmare years, rival political parties were banned, the Dachau concentration camp was operating, and Jews were expelled from civil service and journalism. The Times’ article was written two days after the announcement of the Nuremberg Laws, which revoked Jews’ citizenship and prohibited sexual relations between Jews and Aryans.
That headline wasn’t just a one-time lapse. A year later, the Times wrote about “mild Nazis” in Austria who were just as antisemitic as their German allies but didn’t want to be annexed by Germany.
It appears that some members of the media are confused about what a moderate is. You don’t become a moderate just because there is someone more extreme than you. Yet Politico reported in 2023 that Trump – the president who built the Supreme Court that took away women’s bodily autonomy – had taken a “moderate turn on abortion.”
Other regime figures sometimes receive a “moderate” tag, too. Politico wrote in 2024 that soon-to-be White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, a key enabler in Trump’s march toward dictatorship, has “in the past described herself as ‘a moderate on the political spectrum.’” That same year, MSNBC (now MS NOW) called Wiles “a self-described moderate ... well respected and liked.”
Business Insider reported that former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer was “widely viewed as a more moderate member of the Trump administration because of her support for pro-union legislation.” But ideology is not what binds top regime officials together – it’s personal gratification. Chavez-DeRemer resigned last month amid allegations of an affair with a member of her security detail and other misconduct.
Then there’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He built his career as a conservative, not a moderate, but he embraced bipartisanship often enough that his fellow senators across the aisle saw his nomination as an opportunity to demonstrate statesmanship and show they would not be reflexively obstructionist toward Trump. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Rubio “a qualified nominee we think should be confirmed quickly,” and he was, 99-0.
Rubio soon showed what a mistake that was. As Politico put it, Rubio “deftly earned the president’s trust” by abandoning his past positions and doing Trump’s dirty work. Rubio has been “qualified” to support an illegal war with Iran, seize control of Venezuela’s oil, pressure Denmark to surrender Greenland, and deny food aid to impoverished people abroad.
Even so, Rubio has continued to receive fairly gentle treatment from the media, benefiting from the fact that even if he’s not a moderate, he at least appears somewhat normal. He’s not as openly Christofascist as Pete Hegseth or as blatantly dishonest as JD Vance and Howard Lutnick.
The media’s search for a political center goes on. But the right wing shows no signs of wanting to compromise, and even if it did, the left’s acquiescence would be indefensible. At this point, what would bipartisan compromise even look like?
Would the regime agree to blow up only half as many boats in the Pacific and Caribbean?
Would it agree to steal only half as many congressional seats held by Black leaders?
Would it pay off only half of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists with taxpayer money?
Many Americans who once considered themselves sincerely moderate have become radicalized in defense of democracy and basic decency.
But the media hold fast to their malpractice, mislabeling authoritarians as institutionalists – as middle-of-the-road normies.
This week’s media atrocity
After charges were dropped against anti-ICE protesters in the “Broadview Six” case in Chicago, MS NOW aired the chyron: “FEDS ADMIT TO ERRORS IN ‘BROADVIEW SIX’ CASE.” But they weren’t errors. The Justice Department violated the defendants’ civil rights on purpose. “FEDS COMMIT MISCONDUCT IN ‘BROADVIEW SIX’ CASE” would have been more accurate.
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No one but you and Marc Elias get it right; compromise is impossible.
And you can bet that although Republicans haven't complained about Trump increasing the national debt by about 3 trillion dollars (with over two years to go in his term), the mainstream/legacy media will find (i.e. invent) plenty of 'fiscal conservatives' as soon as there's a Democratic president trying to pass legislation for the common good.