Rachel Maddow showed up on Alex Wagner Tonight where she delivered an insightful lesson on how the press should handle Trump and MAGA.
Video of Maddow:
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Host Alex Wagner asked Maddow about the fascists in America during the 1930s and the lessons for today.
Rachel Maddow said:
The whole point of, this I think it’s sophisticated. It wasn’t like a children’s book. But it’s sophisticated anti-fascist strategizing. And they’re saying, listen, if somebody is showing up in your town, they are trying to tell you to hate Jews, hate immigrants, hate black people, hate whatever it is, turn people against one another. There’s some other that we all need to be aligned against. They know it’s going to be controversial.
They are hoping it will affect you. They want the publicity. They might even want violence in terms of confrontations between their supporters, their thugs, and those of you who are outright. That’s what makes them feel big and important. Gives them more juice. Gives them more fundraising opportunities, moves him on to the next town.
Don’t do that. Don’t publicize them. Instead, inoculate your community against these ideas. Tell them what they are going to hear before they hear them. Tell them how these are old ideas, this is how they’ve worked out in other places. Use education to make this stuff seem a boring and old news, not salacious, and modern. And I just — I feel like it’s a media criticism — coming from the 2016 election.
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Well as to, when somebody is trying to make you outraged, that means that your outrage,that is you playing their request –Don’t let people yank your chain. Control the narrative yourself. If somebody is trying to take over the news cycle, by being outrageous, do not take the bait instead, describe what they are doing rather than let them do it through you. That’s what I think the message is and I wish we’d been better at it these last five years.
All the websites on the left and in mainstream media that repeat what Trump says to outrage readers and viewers without debunking it or providing context are acting as a megaphone for the fascists. Those people who depend on Trump outrage clicks and views are harming the country for profit.
The media got better toward the end of the Trump administration at not pushing his lies unchecked, but the damage was done, and there are far too many websites on the left that rely on salacious Trump outrage and quotes for their traffic and revenue.
Maddow didn’t say that Trump and MAGA should be ignored but that they should be educated and inoculated against. Fascism doesn’t go away by ignoring it. Authoritarians are only defeated when they are outnumbered and pushed back against.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association