See No Nazis, Hear No Nazis: Why Is the Media Covering for Trump’s Fascist Base?
One of the enduring mysteries in today’s American political life is why so many Republican politicians and their friends are adopting or promoting openly Nazi symbols, iconography, and slogans.
Is it a shout-out to the hardcore racists and haters that make up the GOP’s base, all just a performance to get enough votes to win elections? Or a proclamation that the end-goal of Republican governance is the destruction of American democracy, perhaps in deference to Vladimir Putin? How about it’s being a bizarre attempt at trolling people old or well-educated enough to remember or know what Nazism inevitably leads to?
And why are America’s mainstream media so unwilling to even report on, much less discuss, all the Nazi and neo-Nazi references surrounding Trump and today’s captive Republicans?
Elon Musk, Trump’s #1 campaign donor and co-president, threw two Nazi “Sieg Heil” salutes following Trump’s inauguration, causing the media to fall all over itself trying to make excuses for his behavior. Actual, declared Nazis and white supremacists were thrown into an ecstatic tizzy, however, with the Ohio Proud Boys posting the clip with the words, “Heil Trump!”
The neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe posted the Musk clip with the Waffen SS lightning-bolt emoji; their leader, Christopher Pohlhaus, wrote: “I don’t care if this was a mistake. I’m going to enjoy the tears over it.” Other neo-Nazi, Nazi, and white supremacist groups across the web jumped in to celebrate the salute, as Rolling Stone extensively documented.
It all seems to have really picked up steam after young neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville in 2017, chanting Nazi slogans, murdering a young woman protestor, and giving Hitler salutes.
Our media completely failed to identify them as Nazis, even though they were proclaiming that themselves.
Since Trump’s endorsement of their behavior with his “good people on both sides” comment, which he continues to defend, such behavior has been emulated across the nation.
Poke anything associated with Trump and odds are Nazi memes will pop out.
The “America First” slogan was the name of an openly pro-Nazi movement in America in the 1930s, a fact that seems to have been lost down the memory hole. And Trump told his former Chief of Staff, Marine General John Kelly, that “Hitler did some good things…” along with referring to American soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.”
And then there are Trump’s attacks on the media, echoing Joe Stalin and Adolf Hitler with their “enemy of the people” rhetoric. He’s suing media outlets left and right, just like Putin and Orbán did in their early years to intimidate reporters and bankrupt opposition publications and websites.
Elon Musk just called for reporters for CBS’s 60 Minutes program—“the biggest liars in the world”—to receive “a long prison sentence.”
In an echo of Hitler’s “denunciations,” his “border czar” is even calling for the police at the Department of Justice to investigate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for telling immigrants about their constitutional rights.
After pointing out at a rally that Hitler said that Jews were “poisoning the blood” of Germany (yes, he pointed it out himself), Trump then said of nonwhites in America:
“It’s true. They’re destroying the blood of the country, they’re destroying the fabric of our country, and we’re going to have to get them out.”
The 2021 CPAC meeting featured a stage resembling the Odal Rune, a potent Nazi symbol, that drew a rebuke from the hotel hosting the conference.
In 2022, Trump dined with Nick Fuentes, a prominent and out Holocaust denier. Trump later posted a 30-second video that twice references a “unified Reich.” Trump’s buddy Steve Bannon has repeatedly endorsed the notoriously antisemitic and racist novel The Camp of the Saints” which characterizes Black Americans, “dirty Arabs,” and “feces-eating Hindu rapists” as engaging in a conspiracy to destroy white people and civilization.
His son, Don Jr., retweeted a message by a white supremacist who attacks interracial dating and queer people, “liked” tweets by another account that posts pictures of Jews with exaggerated noses, made a “joke” about gas chambers and our media, and participated in an interview with a talk show host who said slavery was the best thing to have ever happened to Black people.
When Vice President Vance visited Germany this past week, instead of meeting with that nation’s chancellor or his peer, he hung out with the leader of the Nazi-adjacent AfD party, while giving a speech in which he extensively quoted Putin’s sentiments. Proud to be known by the company he keeps…
And then there’s DOGE, the official title of the iron-fisted, massively rich oligarchs who ruled Venice for ten centuries that’s been reclaimed by billionaire Musk for himself and his work. The logo is arguably explicit, as Jim Stewartson points out at his excellent mind-war.com newsletter/website:
“On the DOGE logo there are 8 stars above the cartoon, and 8 stars on the flag inside the gear. This is another National Socialist signal. It means Heil Hitler. Musk has used this signal numerous times, in addition to quite literally doing two Hitler salutes at the inauguration.”
There are also 14 teeth on the gear that makes up the O in DOGE in the logo, a direct rip-off from Hitler’s Nazi labor movement of the 1930s, reflecting the famous “14 words” memorized by every white supremacist: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
Following that theme, Trump, Vance, and multiple Republican politicians and media figures have, for years, promoted the Naziesque “Great Replacement Theory” that posits American Jews are paying their agents in business, government, and society to hire Black, brown, and queer people and women to replace white men.
There’s so much evidence of Trump’s and Musk’s apartheid leanings, it’s pretty much impossible to deny any longer. Which raises the question: Is our media in with the Nazis, or just committed to Not-Seeing them?
Click on the link for the rest
Media Shenanigans
Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich Drags MAGA Fans Cheering Trump Press Pool Bombshell: ‘You’re Dead Wrong’
Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich hit back at MAGA fans cheering on the Trump administration’s bombshell announcement they were seizing control of the White House press pool.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Tuesday that Trump would be seizing control of the rotation and deciding which outlets cover the president’s movements — an obligation historically reserved for the White House Correspondents Association.
The move drew widespread condemnation, including from Heinrich — on X/Twitter. Heinrich, a WHCA board member, wrote:
Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich hit back at MAGA fans cheering on the Trump administration’s bombshell announcement they were seizing control of the White House press pool.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Tuesday that Trump would be seizing control of the rotation and deciding which outlets cover the president’s movements — an obligation historically reserved for the White House Correspondents Association.
The move drew widespread condemnation, including from Heinrich — on X/Twitter. Heinrich, a WHCA board member, wrote:
But Heinrich also pushed back at “dead wrong” MAGA fans who celebrated the move and schooled them on misinformatiom they were spreading. When one user wrote “The gatekeeping is over. Get over it,” Heinrich responded:This move does not give the power back to the people – it gives power to the White House. The WHCA is democratically elected by the full-time White House press corps.
WHCA has determined pools for decades because only representatives FROM our outlets can determine resources all those outlets have – such as staffing – in order to get the President’s message out to the largest possible audience, no matter the day or hour.
Moreover – in every administration, WHCA has advocated to expand access to news events, beyond just the pool. Making an event ‘open press’ or ‘pool only’ is up to the White House. Oftentimes, administrations limit access to ‘pool only’ because of security or space constraints. WHCA’s job in that scenario is to ensure that the pool includes representation from each constituency (radio, tv, wires, print, stills, new media) to get the news out to the fullest possible extent. Our job is to advocate for the MOST access possible.
Click on the link for the full articleIf you think MAGA benefits from this in the long term, you’re dead wrong. You would not have trusted the any Democratic admin to pick its own pool – but now that door is open. WHCA has never opposed the WH adding to the pool – but picking it is another story. Just wait til a Dem admin plays that same game. You’ll hate it.
Bezos Orders Washington Post Opinion Section to Embrace ‘Personal Liberties and Free Markets’
Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, announced a major shift to the newspaper’s opinion section on Wednesday, saying it would now advocate “personal liberties and free markets” and not publish opposing viewpoints on those topics.
Mr. Bezos said the section’s editor, David Shipley, was leaving the paper in response to the change.
“I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,” Mr. Bezos said. “Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical; it drives creativity, invention and prosperity.”
In his note, Mr. Bezos said that he had asked Mr. Shipley whether he wanted to stay at The Post, and that Mr. Shipley had declined.
“I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no,’” Mr. Bezos wrote.
In a note to the opinion staff, Mr. Shipley said he had decided to step down “after reflection on how I can best move forward in the profession I love.”
“I will always be thankful for the opportunity I was given to work alongside a team of opinion journalists whose commitment to strong, innovative, reported commentary inspired me every day,” Mr. Shipley wrote.
Mr. Bezos’ decision to curtail the scope of views on The Post’s opinion pages is a major departure from the newspaper’s decades-long approach to commentary and criticism. Under Mr. Shipley and his predecessor, Fred Hiatt, The Post has published a wide variety of views from the left and the right, including liberal stalwarts like David Ignatius and Ruth Marcus and conservative voices like George Will and Charles Krauthammer.
The new direction envisioned for The Post’s opinion section appears to be a rightward shift for the paper.
Click on the link for the full article
Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, announced a major shift to the newspaper’s opinion section on Wednesday, saying it would now advocate “personal liberties and free markets” and not publish opposing viewpoints on those topics.
Mr. Bezos said the section’s editor, David Shipley, was leaving the paper in response to the change.
“I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,” Mr. Bezos said. “Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical; it drives creativity, invention and prosperity.”
In his note, Mr. Bezos said that he had asked Mr. Shipley whether he wanted to stay at The Post, and that Mr. Shipley had declined.
“I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no,’” Mr. Bezos wrote.
In a note to the opinion staff, Mr. Shipley said he had decided to step down “after reflection on how I can best move forward in the profession I love.”
“I will always be thankful for the opportunity I was given to work alongside a team of opinion journalists whose commitment to strong, innovative, reported commentary inspired me every day,” Mr. Shipley wrote.
Mr. Bezos’ decision to curtail the scope of views on The Post’s opinion pages is a major departure from the newspaper’s decades-long approach to commentary and criticism. Under Mr. Shipley and his predecessor, Fred Hiatt, The Post has published a wide variety of views from the left and the right, including liberal stalwarts like David Ignatius and Ruth Marcus and conservative voices like George Will and Charles Krauthammer.
The new direction envisioned for The Post’s opinion section appears to be a rightward shift for the paper.
Click on the link for the full article
Trump and the Press
President Trump has spent years demonizing the press. He popularized the phrase “fake news” and branded journalists the “enemy of the people.” He frequently sues news outlets. His administration is investigating broadcasters. Trump and his followers falsely claim that news organizations, including The Times, are bankrolled by the government.
Bashing the press is a time-honored tradition for presidents of both parties. But Trump has gone much further, attacking the very notion of an independent news media, one that will refute his distortions. He wants journalists to parrot his views and face consequences if they don’t. In today’s newsletter, we’ll look at how the president is already acting on his threats — and what additional peril the press faces in the Trump era.
Trump’s crackdown on the press began almost immediately after he returned to office.
The White House excluded Associated Press reporters from events because the wire service wouldn’t reclassify the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. It plans to select which reporters and news outlets are part of the press pool that covers the president, a tactic used by authoritarian leaders. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating whether TV networks like CBS and PBS are operating in the public interest, as required by law. An administration official accused a Voice of America reporter of treason when he quoted someone who had criticized Trump.
Media executives and lawyers expect more of the same. The Justice Department could prosecute reporters under anti-spying laws. Some news outlets are bracing for retaliatory investigations into their compliance with immigration and tax laws.
For Trump personally, litigation remains a favorite cudgel. Last spring, he sued ABC News for defamation after an anchor erroneously said that Trump had been found liable for rape. (A jury found him liable for sexual abuse.) More recently, he sued CBS and The Des Moines Register, arguing that an edited TV interview and a faulty poll were akin to deceptive advertising. In addition, Trump’s lawyers and aides often threaten news outlets with litigation over critical articles.
Click on the link for the full article
President Trump has spent years demonizing the press. He popularized the phrase “fake news” and branded journalists the “enemy of the people.” He frequently sues news outlets. His administration is investigating broadcasters. Trump and his followers falsely claim that news organizations, including The Times, are bankrolled by the government.
Bashing the press is a time-honored tradition for presidents of both parties. But Trump has gone much further, attacking the very notion of an independent news media, one that will refute his distortions. He wants journalists to parrot his views and face consequences if they don’t. In today’s newsletter, we’ll look at how the president is already acting on his threats — and what additional peril the press faces in the Trump era.
Trump’s crackdown on the press began almost immediately after he returned to office.
The White House excluded Associated Press reporters from events because the wire service wouldn’t reclassify the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. It plans to select which reporters and news outlets are part of the press pool that covers the president, a tactic used by authoritarian leaders. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating whether TV networks like CBS and PBS are operating in the public interest, as required by law. An administration official accused a Voice of America reporter of treason when he quoted someone who had criticized Trump.
Media executives and lawyers expect more of the same. The Justice Department could prosecute reporters under anti-spying laws. Some news outlets are bracing for retaliatory investigations into their compliance with immigration and tax laws.
For Trump personally, litigation remains a favorite cudgel. Last spring, he sued ABC News for defamation after an anchor erroneously said that Trump had been found liable for rape. (A jury found him liable for sexual abuse.) More recently, he sued CBS and The Des Moines Register, arguing that an edited TV interview and a faulty poll were akin to deceptive advertising. In addition, Trump’s lawyers and aides often threaten news outlets with litigation over critical articles.
Click on the link for the full article
Nick Denton: The US is being governed by ’500 nuts on X’
Ben Smith: Do you think that Elon and the sort of folks around him sort of see the media, and the media as broadly as you say it, the whole thing, clearly and accurately or do you think they’ve lost their minds in terms of how they see us, how they see people talking about them?
Nick Denton: I think they’ve fallen for audience capture, just like Joe Rogan has in the podcast world, just like the Gawker writers did in the peak of lefty Twitter. Elon Musk is doubling down and doubling down on the most right-wing elements in his audience.
Whenever he feels insecure, he gives them some Nazi dog whistle, he’ll throw in some story about white babies on bayonets in a South African demonstration against white farmers.
So he’s absolutely race-baiting. And it looks to me like somebody who’s over-serving 3% of their potential audience, that this is a country in which policy is being made by several hundred people max on X, and they’re all, Rubio, Musk, Vance, Trump, they’re all competing for the applause from these 500 nuts on X. And that’s my media criticism of this society right now.
Max Tani: Don’t you think that that’s kind of one of the challenges that every single media company today faces because of fragmentation? Right?
There are so many options for places to get your information or so many viewpoints that are able to be expressed and surfaced to you. It’s actually quite difficult to go against your audience because once you do, somebody else is going to come and snatch them right up.
It strikes me that as far as media companies go, the only company that can really go against its audience and survive is the New York Times, everyone else- I mean, if we pissed off our audience today, I think that would be quite damaging.
Click on the link for more
Ben Smith: Do you think that Elon and the sort of folks around him sort of see the media, and the media as broadly as you say it, the whole thing, clearly and accurately or do you think they’ve lost their minds in terms of how they see us, how they see people talking about them?
Nick Denton: I think they’ve fallen for audience capture, just like Joe Rogan has in the podcast world, just like the Gawker writers did in the peak of lefty Twitter. Elon Musk is doubling down and doubling down on the most right-wing elements in his audience.
Whenever he feels insecure, he gives them some Nazi dog whistle, he’ll throw in some story about white babies on bayonets in a South African demonstration against white farmers.
So he’s absolutely race-baiting. And it looks to me like somebody who’s over-serving 3% of their potential audience, that this is a country in which policy is being made by several hundred people max on X, and they’re all, Rubio, Musk, Vance, Trump, they’re all competing for the applause from these 500 nuts on X. And that’s my media criticism of this society right now.
Max Tani: Don’t you think that that’s kind of one of the challenges that every single media company today faces because of fragmentation? Right?
There are so many options for places to get your information or so many viewpoints that are able to be expressed and surfaced to you. It’s actually quite difficult to go against your audience because once you do, somebody else is going to come and snatch them right up.
It strikes me that as far as media companies go, the only company that can really go against its audience and survive is the New York Times, everyone else- I mean, if we pissed off our audience today, I think that would be quite damaging.
Click on the link for more
This happened yesterday:
‘Millions’ may have protested Trump and Musk yesterday
Liberal activist coalition MoveOn estimates more than 100,000 joined the ‘Hands Off’ protest in Washington, DC alone.
Hundreds of thousands of people signed up to attend over 1,300 “Hands Off!” protests against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk yesterday. Today, estimates from groups involved in planning the protests suggest the protesters in the US and abroad may have actually numbered in the millions.
Activist group MoveOn is “estimating millions of attendees” went to the 1,300-plus scheduled events, with more than 100,000 turning out for the Washington, DC protest, Britt Jacovich, the group’s communications director, told The Verge via email. A press release published on the official Hands Off! website yesterday tells the same story:
Bezos has fully gutted the Post. Sad.
‘Millions’ may have protested Trump and Musk yesterday
Liberal activist coalition MoveOn estimates more than 100,000 joined the ‘Hands Off’ protest in Washington, DC alone.
Hundreds of thousands of people signed up to attend over 1,300 “Hands Off!” protests against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk yesterday. Today, estimates from groups involved in planning the protests suggest the protesters in the US and abroad may have actually numbered in the millions.
Activist group MoveOn is “estimating millions of attendees” went to the 1,300-plus scheduled events, with more than 100,000 turning out for the Washington, DC protest, Britt Jacovich, the group’s communications director, told The Verge via email. A press release published on the official Hands Off! website yesterday tells the same story:
Yet here was the front page of the Washington Post today:Millions of people flooded the streets today at over 1,300 “Hands Off!” peaceful protests across all 50 states, U.S. territories, and a dozen locations globally, demanding an end to the authoritarian overreach by Trump and Musk.
Bezos has fully gutted the Post. Sad.