When media build their brand by platforming fascists

It’s way past time for networks to stop running infomercials for insurrection

I’m sure the folks at CNN, NBC, and ABC thought they were doing legitimate journalism in the last few days when they amplified the lies of MAGA Republican leaders.

Under the old rules, interviews of conservative political figures were routine. But under the new realities – when conservatives have turned fascist and are assaulting our entire system, including freedom of the press – naive coverage makes news networks complicit in the impending disaster we face.

I’m referring specifically to CNN’s fact-check-free hosting of last week’s presidential debate and to NBC’s and ABC’s interviews with Trump adviser Steve Bannon before he heads to prison Monday.

The networks must have thought these opportunities were good “gets” for them in the competitive world of U.S. news coverage. They certainly advertised them as such. But the viewers didn’t come away better informed – just more thoroughly lied to. 

This network-sponsored disinformation reminded me of something I wrote early on in this newsletter, before most of you subscribed:

“When it comes time for the fascists to frog-march journalists out of the newsroom at gunpoint, the journalists will compete for the exclusive rights to cover it.”

That sentence was a play on the old saying from the Soviet Union: “When the time comes to hang the capitalists, they will bid against each other for the sale of the rope.”

Too often these days, the “rope” is being turned into a noose on national television.

A debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was simply a bad idea. I’ve been saying for months that televising a pathological liar like Trump in a live debate guarantees an unfair fight. Fact-checkers simply can’t keep up with lie after lie after lie. In this case, CNN didn’t even try to fact-check. Meanwhile, Biden had a disastrous night and did an extremely weak job of pushing back. The result was predictable – a torrent of Trump lies.

Cable news is a competitive business, and CNN wants to position itself as a reliable middle ground between Fox and MSNBC. CNN knew fact-checking would make its hosts seem biased against Trump, just as firefighters seem biased against arsonists. CNN’s superb fact-checker, Daniel Dale, was relegated to Twitter/X during the debate and showed up to do his debunking on TV more than an hour after the debate, when viewers had gone to bed or switched to “The Bear.”

The Bannon interviews on NBC and ABC were even worse in a way, because they showed such a lack of news judgment. No rational person could think the public would benefit from hearing more from the traitorous Bannon, who was pardoned by Trump for defrauding donors in a “build the wall” fundraising scheme and is headed for a four-month stay in prison for refusing to testify before Congress about the Jan. 6 coup attempt. 

Vaughn Hillyard reported on “NBC Nightly News” that Bannon “remains defiant.” Which is not a news flash. NBC also let Bannon say on its airwaves that there’s “a political war in this country” and that his end game was  “victory or death of the republic.” NBC explained why Bannon is going to prison, so I wouldn’t say the network normalized him. But it did hand him a bullhorn. 

This is a disturbing pattern with NBC News, platforming anti-democratic operatives. You’ll remember that NBC tried to hire former Republican national chair Ronna McDaniel as a commentator even though she was knee-deep in the fake-electors plot. Only a revolt from NBC’s on-air personalities compelled the network to rescind the hire. None of the higher-ups who green-lit it have been fired. 

ABC’s Jonathan Karl also interviewed Bannon and seemed to realize he’d get blowback. On Twitter/X, he defended himself ahead of time: “Why interview Bannon? He has a direct line to the Republican presidential nominee. To understand what a second Trump presidency will be like, listen to what Steve Bannon is saying.”

Karl’s interview with Bannon took up a full 12 minutes on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Karl may have thought he came across as tough on Bannon, but as usual the right-wing bomb-thrower won the exchange. Bannon wouldn’t go on mainstream media unless he thought it would help him. He was allowed to say that “an army has been awakened” and that Trump would “take apart the administrative state brick by brick.” The start of “This Week” even featured a tease to the Bannon segment that quoted him as saying, “I am a political prisoner. I feel great about it.” 

I agree there is value in exposing people who are dangerous threats to the health of our society. But when their plans and their nature are already well known to the public, interviewing them turns into a cooperative project in which both the journalist and the fascist get to build their brands.

In effect, major media are running infomercials for insurrection. 

Some journalists may think it’s good for their careers in the short term, but the ugly truth is that it could well be disastrous for America in the long term. Why can’t they see that? Why don't they care?