Toward Authoritarian Rule
The movement toward authoritarian governance in our country, based on a narrative of America as a Christian and conservative nation, goes far beyond the Reawaken America Tour. Today’s post is about CNN and the dismissal of Brian Stelter, who I was only vaguely familiar with until now. His statement in his closing segment has been widely reported: “It’s not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue. It’s not partisan to stand up to demagogues. It’s required. It’s patriotic. We must make sure we don’t give platforms to those who are lying to our faces.”
Robert Reich, who I do follow (but whose name you may not know), had a column yesterday about this (https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-cnn-cancelled-brian-stelter?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email). Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration. He is a prolific writer, author of 17 books, founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and has created several documentaries. He knows what he’s talking about. (You can see his website at https://robertreich.org/.)
He writes: “For several years, Brian Stelter’s Sunday CNN show, ‘Reliable Sources,’ has been a reliable source of intelligent criticism of Fox News, rightwing media in general, Trumpism, and the increasingly authoritarian lurch of the Republican Party. [Not all Republicans support today’s leaders of the GOP who are meant in this post.] Last week, CNN abruptly canceled the show and effectively fired Stelter and his staff. Why?”
One of his common sayings is “follow the money.” CCN’s new chairman and CEO says he wants less criticism of political conservatives and more “straight news reporting” so that CNN can be “for everybody.” The new owner of CNN is Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., and David Zaslav is the CEO. … If you’re thinking you never heard of these people, neither have I, but we need to know who they are.
Robert Reich poses these questions: “How is it possible to report on Trump or Rudy Giuliani or any number of today’s Republican leaders and not speak of the Big Lie, or say they’ve broken norms if not laws? The anti-democracy movement in America (as elsewhere) is among the biggest issues confronting us today. Is reporting on it considered “straight news” or “opinion?” Wouldn’t failing to report on it in a way that sounded alarms be a gross dereliction of duty?”
What we learn from Reich is that “the leading shareholder in Warner Bros. Discovery is John Malone, a multi-billionaire cable magnate…. [who] describes himself as a ‘libertarian’ although he travels in rightwing Republican circles. In 2005, he held 32 percent of the shares of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. He is on the board of directors of the Cato Institute. In 2017, he donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration. Malone has said he wants CNN to be more like Fox News because, in his view, Fox News has 'actual journalism.’”
Reich concludes with challenging words for us all: “When you follow the money behind deeply irresponsible decisions at the power centers of America today, the road often leads to rightwing billionaires. Sadly, there are still many in America — and not just billionaires like Malone — who believe that holding Trump accountable for what he has done (and continues to do) to this country is a form of partisanship, and that such partisanship has no place in so-called ‘balanced journalism.’ This view is itself dangerous.”
The Reawaken America Tour, even the larger movement of Christian Nationalism, is but one part of a much larger authoritarian movement, funded by billionaires and spanning the globe. That in itself may sound like a conspiracy theory, but it is not. Search names like Paul Weyrich and Richard Viguerie – key organizers of the movement in the U.S. in the 1970s and ‘80s – and do a quick read of the international movement at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Right. Paul Weyrich was one among many who have opposed the Separation of Church and State and organized Christian conservatives (Catholic and Protestant) for what is now called Christian Nationalism. How do we stop this movement? It won’t be easy, but it is essential.