David Corn: It's Time to Use the F-Word for Fox

[babylonsister]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/11/fox-news-tucker-carlson-documentary-fascism/


It’s Time to Use the F-Word for Fox
Tucker Carlson’s new “documentary” has all the hallmarks of fascism.
David Corn
Washington, DC, Bureau ChiefBio | Follow

snip//

Enter Tucker Carlson. Pushing the racist “replacement theory“and vaccination resistance on his nightly Fox News show is apparently not a full-time job for him. He has started producing long-form pieces for the network. The first one, to be released today, promises to reveal the “true story” behind the January 6 insurrectionist attack on the Capitol that Trump incited. Look at the trailer for this propaganda:

The 1/6 assault, the show suggests, was a “false flag” operation, meaning it was orchestrated by the US government to create a ruse to justify an outright Deep State war on conservatives—a “patriot purge.” Carlson features someone who claims that “the left is hunting the right and sticking them in Guantanamo Bay.” The “new” war on terrorism, he tells us, is aimed at white Americans, under the guise of combatting white supremacy. In other words, the Biden administration is coming for you. And it’s coming with attack helicopters—redeployed from Afghanistan—and guns.

This is what fascism looks like. Big lies, martial music, scare-‘em imagery, and the accusation that a corrupt elite is waging a secret war against the common folk and true patriots—including the 1/6 marauders and Fox viewers. This agitprop is even more dangerous than Carlson’s usual yapping. Anyone who buys his latest guff would certainly feel justified in resorting to violence. After all, if they’re hunting you, don’t you need to take extreme measures in response? (One prominent white supremacist now being sued for his role in organizing the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has submitted court filings showing how he was encouraged by Carlson’s broadcasts.) As of Friday morning, this trailer had been viewed on Twitter at least 2.6 million times.

snip//

On Thursday, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) turned down a request to appear on Carlson’s show with a sharp reply from her spokesperson to Carlson’s top booker: “Tucker has had countless opportunities to explain to his viewers that the election was not stolen. Instead, he continues to promote dangerous conspiracies using the language that provoked violence against law enforcement and our Capitol on January 6. Liz will not participate in that.” This is the model for responsible Republicans. The problem: there are almost no responsible Republicans.

It’s unlikely the Greenblatt letter will persuade the Murdochs. They and Carlson long ago demonstrated they are beyond shaming. And Cheney’s boycott won’t move the network or its most-watched fomenter. But it is time to recognize that Fox has gone far beyond serving merely as a purveyor of right-wing and pro-Trump spin. With this new Carlson joint, Fox is fully embracing the hallmarks of fascism. Any reluctance to call it that only assists the fascists.

[FoxNewsSucks]

1. It's been time for years already

[Evolve Dammit]

7. About twenty!

[olegramps]

30. I have posted this several times. It is blue print the Republicans have used for forty years.

Fourteen Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3


Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

2. All fascists propagating violent propaganda should be booted from WH briefings.

For starters. Cause even the WH seems reluctant to call fascists fascists or their fascist propaganda fascist propaganda.

Fuck the noise that Fox will unleash over that…maybe it will arouse the corporate msm to stop turning their backs on democracy and the cancerous tumour in their media midst.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. I actually agree with this

Fox has no reason to be there anymore.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

5. None whatsoever, the disguise of being a legit news organization long ago peeled off.

Why can we see and the White House see monster so clearly, yet refuse to banish the monster from at least the White House, our House, if not the television?

[FoxNewsSucks]

8. I never understood why the legit journalists

stood up for Fox when Obama was gonna move them to the back row, and maybe considered booting them.

If a grocery chain threw 7-up out, Coke and Pepsi would be fighting over the shelf space, not telling the store to put 7-up back.

Fox is supposedly a competitor, or at least playing one on TV, so why not let them get kicked out?

[Harker]

24. I'd guess that it was from a misplaced sense of comraderie...

and perhaps a belief that mutual protection would be taken as a sign of shared journalistic independence and integrity.

Or maybe more like Neville Chamberlain announcing, "peace in our time."

[KS Toronado]

9. We need all Democrats in congress and the White House

to start calling the reQublicOn party fascists/fascism. Should help get MSM up and running in reporting about
the dangers of fascists/fascism and point right at the people promoting it. Our Democracy depends on it.

[Beartracks]

19. If Dems start using that term, then perhaps the MSM would have to start explaining what it means.

It's got to be understood that the term isn't being used pejoratively, but factually. It wouldn't be name-calling; it would be identification.

===========

[olegramps]

29. I believe the major problem is they don't want to jeopardize the loss of their ad revenue.

As a consequence they down play anything that could alienate any business support. I think it is safe to say that Republicans dominate the entire revenue stream they are dependent on especially in the printed press but also it applies to the internet ad income.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Long past time for that...nt

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread babylonsister.

[ancianita]

10. Fucker Carlson is how you mobilize fascist crowds now that the old WH jackal is gone.

I'm still not happy that these journalists are still so late to the party, though. It's as if right wing extremism has to point a gun to their heads for them to SEE what we had been seeing build up to that collective drive to violence during Obama's term.

[czarjak]

11. White Supremacy to spare where I live. They'll tell ya too.

[MissMillie]

12. After correctly reporting AZ election results, Fox lost a lot of viewers

They are VERY desperate to get them back.

The one thing they got right in all their years of broadcasting, and they are paying for it.

[StClone]

16. Truth is Toxic to FOX

Their viewers are TFG and when airing the facts they flee. And, so-called independents are nothing but unmotivated Cons whose inertia override is motivation by Right Wing propaganda to push their outrage into action. Both are mostly lost causes and we are in a very dangerous place as to voting, to Society, to Democracy, and to life on this planet.

[YoshidaYui]

13. seems to me they must be breaking some law about inciting violence

why is no one suing them out of existence ?

[Martin Eden]

14. Carlson is committing stochastic terrorism.

People will die as a direct result of his inflammatory propaganda.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

15. It still amazes me that right-wingers get so worked up...

... about pure fantasy, to the point that they actually commit violence (such as the Jan. 6th insurrection) against their supposed "others".

Just like people who used to burn "witches", genocide of the Jews in Nazi Germany, etc.

[imaginary girl]

17. Oh, I had another F word in mind ...

Guess they both work!

[thenelm1]

18. "The 1/6 assault, the show suggests, was a "false flag" operation, meaning it was orchestrated by...

...the US government to create a ruse to justify an outright Deep State war."

Umm, tell me again who was president (i.e. "the US gov't&quot on 1/6? JHC. This is journalistic malpractice in the extreme.

[Beartracks]

21. Brought to you by the people who blame Obama for 9/11.

[pwb]

20. I would include all Cable news in that, and C-Span which

is also provided by the same Corporate fascists allowing the same speech on the floor of the Congress.

[thesquanderer]

22. re: "attack helicopters--redeployed from Afghanistan" -- Wait...

... didn't Fox already tell us that we left all our attack helicopters in Afghanistan for the Taliban to use?

[Cha]

23. FUCK OFF Fox FASCISM

[JohnnyRingo]

25. He used to be that good boy on Crossfire.

...well not a good boy, but his occasional deference to the Ragin' Cajun made him seem like a harmless frat goof in a bowtie. He was even the likable one when impaneled with Bob Novak.

So what the hell godless streak of evil invaded his very soul, turning it into a charred cinder of it's former image? I'm just asking the question, as Tucker would say.

[Progressive Jones]

28. I remember those days. He was a harmless hack. I always thought he'd fade into obscurity. nt

[essaynnc]

26. When do the ransomware people hit Faux News?

I be they could make a fortune from them if they locked down all their broadcasts..... How about the hacker group Anonymous? Bet they could take em' down, probably a whole lot easier than the government could..... Unless, of course, the government took them down and blamed Anonymous.... That's a thought !!!!

Oh and by the way, I read an article on DU about a month ago about the most watched network in the armed forces was Fux due to "it's popularity". Have we taken them offline for our military yet? Isn't that kind of WORSE THAN counter-productive?

[Kid Berwyn]

27. Better late than never.

From 2014:

FOX News' Roger Ailes is a Big Fan of Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's favorite NAZI filmmaker.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10024342344

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

31. Any reluctance to call Fox fascist only assists the fascists.

Democrats, take heed.