Why U.S. Media's Petrified Of Outing MAGA Republicans

On "Beyond Politics," former U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes asked the question of former Chicago Sun Times editor Marc Jacob, who shares some startling truths. Matt Robison expands on this, exploding the 2 biggest myths that lead the media to pull punches w/ MAGA fascists--He has The Takedown.

**transcript generated by third-party transcription software, please excuse any typos**

I'm Matt Robison and on my podcast and radio show Beyond politics that I co-host with former U.S congressman Paul Hodes we just had Marc Jacob who for 41 years was as much a part of the media establishment in America as it gets he's the former Sunday editor at the Chicago Sun Times and the former Metro editor at the Chicago Tribune two of the biggest newspapers in America and that's why former Congressman Hodes turned to him to ask why the media won't just come out and say that the MAGA movement that's taken over the Republican party is a fascist threat to American democracy and this is what Mark had to say because the media to a large extent is uh serving itself instead of serving the public um I think that the media the media is scared of telling the truth when it comes to horrible things happening in politics the uh you know nobody was set up for this kind of this rise of of fascism and it is fascism uh this rise of authoritarian sentiment and also the the willingness the criminality the willingness of the Republican party to cheat in elections now that's a great answer and we're going to put that whole show up on this video channel and also make it available as audio on the Beyond politics podcast so I hope you'll subscribe to both of those but his answer also kind of begs a question there are two reasons why I think the mainstream media won't be more honest and I call Shenanigans on both of them the first is the notion that good journalism requires equal balance between the two political parties well that's not true journalism requires Fidelity to the truth it's also historically untrue if you're not familiar with it do yourself a favor and Google Edward R Murrow he was the most respected journalist in America for decades and in 1954 when we saw the rise of another right-wing politician he gave one of the most important broadcasts in history we will not walk in fear one of another we will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history in our Doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men not from Men Who feared the right to speak to associate and to defend the causes that were for the moment unpopular this is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent or for those who approve we can deny Our Heritage and our history but we cannot Escape responsibility for the result there is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities that broadcast led to a Nationwide backlash against McCarthyism and the downfall of that Rising right-wing Zealot George Clooney made a whole movie about it Washington State University named an entire College of communication after Moreau and the award for outstanding contributions to public radio is called the Edward R Murrow award the point is if one of the most celebrated journalists in history the Paragon of integrity and journalistic fairness could devote his most famous broadcast to calling out a right-wing demagogue there is nothing in the journalistic code of ethics that prevents anyone from doing the same thing today so what about that other reason that journalists and media organizations are afraid to say outright that these fascist manga types are a vile threat to America well I think they've been gaslighted they've been hoodwinked by the Republican propaganda campaign claiming that the media is somehow biased against them no look at the facts when it comes to television Fox News absolutely annihilates the competition last August it had 94 out of the top 100 cable shows it doubles MSNBC's average nightly audience and it has more than three times CNN's now what about radio almost all of the most listened to shows are right wing scroll down the list you have to get all the way down to number 12 to find anyone who's liberal in fact you have to Wade through a hundred million listeners before you get down to the estimated 6 million for Liberal Tom Hartmann how about newspapers and local news websites legitimate news sources are evaporating in the last 15 years more than a quarter of America's newspapers and half of its journalists have disappeared what's taking their place are online local news sites that look like legitimate news sources but are actually simply Republican propaganda bills it's true there is an explicitly liberal network of local news sites they operate eight websites the conservative network has more than thirteen hundred finally there's the 800 pound elephant in the room the online world foxnews.com has more than 100 million