The Huffington Post has up a warning from ABC’s Johnathan Karl on Trump’s running again for president in 2024. According to Karl, well, I will let him tell you why he has his underwear in knots:
If Donald Trump eventually decides to run for president again in 2024, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl warned it may be “the greatest challenge ever facing campaign reporters.”
Karl posed multiple questions on the problems of reporting on a possible third Trump presidential campaign in a lengthy interview with Deadline published Friday.
Such as, “How do you cover a candidate who is effectively anti-democratic?”
And, “How do you cover a candidate who is … also running against the very democratic system that makes all of this possible?”
Karl, the author of “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” said reporting on Trump would be “tremendously challenging” because “now, more than ever” he “is just saying things that are not true, that are designed to misinform, that are designed to erode credibility and belief in our electoral system.”
Emphasis is mine.
It’s not tremendously challenging, if you and the others reported accurately Mr. Karl. All you have to do is report that Trump and his fellow Republicans are FASCISTS!
noun
(sometimes initial capital letter) a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
(sometimes initial capital letter) the philosophy, principles, or methods of fascism.
(initial capital letter) a political movement that employs the principles and methods of fascism, especially the one established by Mussolini in Italy 1922–43.
I even found a Middle School Level definition for poor Mr. Karl and his fellow reporters.
If that is too pedantic for you Mr. Karl, you might want to read this list of 14 characteristics of fascism written by Umberto Eco:
- The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
- The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
- The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
- Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”
- Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”
- Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”
- The obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.”
- The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
- Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”
- Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”
- Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
- Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”
- Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”
- Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”
By Golly, I think Trump and his movement fit in nicely with fascism!
Their are two “reasons” why Karl and his ilk in the Media are “troubled” about covering Trump NOW. And they are really rationalizations and not reasons.
- First, their paymasters are major corporations that insist that both political parties be treated the same. It is the corrupt and lazy “bothsiderism” we have all come to hate. With bothsiderism, the economic status quo remains the same. This is because voters are told their is no difference between voting between a Democrat or Republican. This works to the benefit of Republicans who believe that deregulation and tax cuts are the end all and be all of government. Democratic and some indepedent voters get discouraged and stay home when they are repeatedly told that Democrats are just as corrupt as Republicans, while Republican voters show up to vote. IF Trump and the Republican Party are identified as fascists by the lazy and corrupt Media, this would end bothsiderism.
- Second, if Karl and his ilk called out Republicans for their fascism, Karl and his buddies would loss their precious “access” to Republican sources. Because the news is now 24/7, reporters have to find stories to fill up the air time. It’s much easier to buddy up to a Republican willing to manipulate the Media news message than go out and find some midlevel government worker who can give you the reality on the ground. Would Karl have gotten any inteviews with Trump if he had called Trump a fascist? Hell no! No interview, no book!
So we have the Kabuki theater of reporters “wrestling” with their so called “objectivity.” And it is one of the major reasons that the rest of us will have to suffer to stop Trump and the Republicans. Karl is too busy counting his royalties.