The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is always right, while the Reich on the right, the Republican Reich is wrong. However, most Americans never get to learn that, because the Republican Reich controls the media though the vile tactics of Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten.
Democracy depends on a free and independent press, which is why all tyrants try to squelch it. They use seven techniques that, worryingly, President-elect Donald Trump already employs.
1. Berate the media.
Last week, Trump summoned two-dozen TV news anchors and executives to the twenty-fifth floor of Trump Tower to berate them for their reporting about him during the election. For twenty minutes he railed at what he called their “outrageous” and “dishonest” coverage. According to an attendee, “Trump kept saying, ‘we’re in a room of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong,’” and he called CNN a “network of liars.” He accused NBC of using unflattering pictures of him, demanding to know why they didn’t use “nicer” pictures.
Another person who attended the meeting said Trump “truly doesn’t seem to understand the First Amendment. He thinks we are supposed to say what he says and that’s it.”
2. Blacklist critical media.
During the campaign, Trump blacklisted news outlets whose coverage he didn’t approve of. In June he pulled The Washington Post’s credentials. “Based on the incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting of the record setting Trump campaign, we are hereby revoking the press credentials of the phony and dishonest Washington Post,” read a post on Trump’s Facebook page…
From <Robert Reich>
I’ve shared two of the seven techniques listed. Click through for the other five.
17 Responses to “Robert Reich on Fuhrer Controlling the Media”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
The one that strikes me as being, not perhaps new, but taken beyond what has been previously seen, is #7 – Bypass the media and communicate with the public directly. I am not myself on Twitter, but you'd have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to see his tweets. In fact, I expect I am not seeing all of them, but what I am seeing is so loud it drowns out the media. And other people, much smarter people, are communicating on Twitter as well, and they are getting drowned out as well.
I have mixed feelings WRT Trump on Twitter. I’m moving to the idea it’s a good thing: He just keeps adding more and more rope by which to hang himself.
Most likely a good deal of people who voted for him did so holding their noses & only because they couldn’t stand Hillary. Now that she’s out of the picture – barring some deus ex machina miracle with the recounts (we can hope, can’t we?) – he has the spotlight all to himself … and it’s doubtful his delusional diatribes are endearing him to those nose-holding voters.
If you think any of his voters will turn on him because of anything outrageous he says now, you have more faith in people than I have. I expect some of his voters to turn on him, yes, but only when he doesn't follow through on a few of the outrageous things he said before the election, not because of anything he says.
I agree. Rather than take responsibility, most of the hold their noses set will respond like the three monkeys, covering their eyes, ears and mouths.
And here I thought I was a cynic!
Well, you kind of are. A cynic thinks people are 100% driven by self-interest. TC and I think that even self interest is less powerful than hatred – and the self esteem it is used to bolster. So – now you know who has a lower opinion of humanity even than a cynic. Is there a term for us?
Well, I'm sorely tempted to say "Trumpkins"
😉
But note that I did NOT include all Trump voters – I limited it to those who voted for him because they can't stand Hillary.
His faithful minions will forgive him for anything – including shooting someone on 5th Avenue.
I'd say cherished belief. If you ever listened to The Point by Nielsen, "You see what tou want to see, and you hear what you want to hear."
There's a larger range of media and some entirely new ones at that nowadays, but apart from that this is all straight out of "Dictatorship for dummies", based on Joseph Goebbels' propaganda manuals. And the mainstream media allow it to happen, afraid their ratings will drop or their readers will leave them, and they'd be out of a job.
Sage advice from Mr. Reich.
I don't know anything about tweeting, or twitter. I usually see/read it after the fact.
I find it interesting that DT can talk spitefully, spew hatred, but as soon as a paper reports it, they get banned. Scary, scary times ahead!!!
This is a very sick bastard, with virtually no idea about how a Democracy works, nor does he give a damn! It is all about him, and he is doing what playground bullies do. Oh, maybe that's really why he got rid of Christie, 'cause , you know, he's "…not a bully!" Or is it that there is only room enough for one bully in this playground?
The German politicoes of the early 1930' thought that making Hitler the Chancellor, would be safe, because, they expected, he'd wind up virtually buried under the mass of bureauocratic tape that they knew to be part of being a Chancellor. "Well, boys, he said, in effect, I can't be bothered with your expectations, I'm doing things my way!" THAT IS WHERE RUMPY IS GOING! "Screw protocol, and the rest, this is my game, and I will make the rules!" I have a wild guess to make: He will wind up owning Twitter!
I assume you mean owning Twitter financially, since he seems to already "pwn" it in the internet slang sense. Well, he is "for the birds", so I guess it fits.
He apparently thinks he was elected emporer someone needs to tell him we don't have those here.
Lenin said if you control the media then you control the people.
Drumpf has the attitude of an absolute ruler . . . his way or the highway. That is not democracy. That is an abuse against democracy.
I read the article by Robert Reich – did it say 'lie and cheat and then blame everyone else for what I do' – for that is what he does, and what the Right does, and for some bewildering reason it seems to work. Why such a lot of people don't seem to have memories and to be able to compare what someone says now with what they said in the past, is something that should concern us all.
It did strike me, when his Twitter response to the death of Castro was on the news, that a very similar tweet looks fair to be said about his reign in four years time. (Yes, I did mean reign).
God help us all.
Trump is an excellent reason to not be on Twitter – there is no such thing as bad publicity in Trump's world so maybe we all just start ignoring the banana-butt?
Thanks and hugs!!