Trump's latest media threats add to an authoritarian-style agenda

[LetMyPeopleVote]

In case his authoritarian-style plans weren’t obvious enough already, the Republican presidential nominee targeted major media outlets with some not-so-subtle threats.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-latest-media-threats-add-authoritarian-style-agenda-rcna174703

I won’t pretend to know what he was referring to, or whether he actually has any plans at all. But the morning after the interview, it apparently occurred to Trump that it’d be a good idea to make another veiled threat against a different media outlet. HuffPost reported:

Former President Donald Trump has alleged, without offering any supporting evidence, that Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” was grossly “sliced and diced” to make her look “more presidential” and coherent when answering questions. In a Truth Social post [published] early Wednesday, the Republican presidential nominee said Harris’ answers were “virtually incoherent” and edited “as many as four times in a single sentence or thought.”

Yes, according to the GOP presidential nominee, “60 Minutes” producers took portions of the Harris interview and then went to extraordinary lengths to rearrange them in order to help make the vice president look better.

To substantiate his outlandish claim, Trump pointed to literally no evidence whatsoever......

Stepping back, it’s worth emphasizing that we’re talking about a White House hopeful who is threatening perceived foes with prison sentences, endorsing a “strongman” leadership style, bragging about his support from dictators, raising the prospect of a temporary American “dictatorship,” and talking about “terminating” parts of the Constitution that stand in the way of his ambitions.

Trump is also arguing that his rivals shouldn’t be “allowed” to run against him, targeting immigrants with Hitler-style rhetoric while promising to create militarized mass deportations and detention camps, promising pardons to politically aligned criminals, and insisting that those who criticize judges and Supreme Court justices that he likes “should be put in jail.”

And did I mention that he has raised the specter of military tribunals for his perceived domestic political foes? Because he’s done that, too.

Trump’s plan to crack down on the free press is a key and radical part of the same authoritarian-style vision.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. 'This is dictator talk': Critics blast Trump for threatening CBS broadcast license

TFG really wants to be a dictator

Link to tweet

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-broadcast-license-60-minutes/

Donald Trump is said to have threatened to revoke the broadcast license for CBS News in an apparent response to a report by a right-wing news site that claimed "60 Minutes" made misleading edits to make Vice President Kamala Harris look better during her recent interview.....

The Trump campaign called that answer "word salad," and the former president called the edited promotional clip a "possibly illegal" campaign finance violation and suggested he would revoke the news division's license – which Trump has threatened to do to other networks, although the independent Federal Communications Commission does not license broadcast networks but only individual broadcast stations.

"He's threatening a broadcast network’s ability to operate," posted the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. "This is dictator talk."

"There are no network broadcast licenses," said veteran broadcaster Keith Olbermann. "If Trump wants to take the licenses away from the local stations CBS and the others own I'm sure they'd be delighted to have these financial albatrosses off their books."

Former prosecutor Ron Filipkowski said, "Trump now threatens the broadcast license of another media company, this time CBS and 60 Minutes."

"He has now threatened to go after NBC, ABC & CBS if elected, while each of them continue to treat him as a sane and normal candidate," he added.