Far too many Americans aren't aware of how far the GOP has gone down the road of authoritarianism while abandoning democracy and this is mostly the media's fault. Is the media blind and delusional in not seeing what is right in front of their eyes, too cowardly or profit-oriented to rock the boat or are they complicit in this lurch away from democracy? Either way, our democracy hangs in the balance and it is long past time to call the GOP what it is. The party that wants to kill democracy, serve only the obscenely wealthy and help them get their serfs back.

Goodbye, CNN's Chris Licht. But what's the lesson? https://robertreich.substack.com/p/goodbye-cnns-chris-licht-but-whats?

#TheyWantTheirSerfsBack
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#TheRichHateDemocracy
#TheRichOwnTheMedia

"CNN sought to move to a "center" that no longer exists
ROBERT REICH

As I predicted yesterday, Chris Licht is out at CNN.

David Zaslav — CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN — delivered the news this morning to CNN staff, noting that Licht’s job "was never going to be easy" and that Licht had "poured his heart and soul into it."

What should CNN or any other media enterprise learn from this debacle?

The lesson is that Licht’s goal of shifting CNN from anti-Trump confrontation toward an imagined political center was doomed from the start, because there is no longer a political center.

For years now — since Newt Gingrich took over the House in 1995 — Americans have been moving toward either authoritarianism or democracy.

The old political center of “liberal” Republicans like Jacob Javits and Nelson Rockefeller and “conservative” Democrats like Scoop Jackson and Joe Lieberman (and, some would say, Bill Clinton) has been disappearing.

Before Newt there had been stirrings of rightwing fascism — led by Father Coughlin, Huey Long, and Charles Lindbergh in the 1930s, Joe McCarthy in the 1950s, and by George Wallace, Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew in the 1960s.

But Newt turned the growing anger of the non-college white working class into the beginnings of an authoritarian political movement that would undergird the Republican Party for the next thirty years.

By 2016, Donald Trump was helpful to anyone who still had trouble making the choice between authoritarianism and democracy. Trump required they take sides.

Chris Licht’s predecessor at CNN was Jeff Zucker, who understood that the only big pool of viewers available to CNN were those who still believed in democracy. Zucker competed mightily with MSNBC for them.

Trump was helpful to Zucker in the same way he was helpful to Americans who had trouble making the choice. Trump forced viewers to choose between Fox News and the alternative, thereby giving Zucker’s CNN a fitting nemesis.

CNN’s new management came along at a time of establishment confusion over whether the old political center would return after Trump. America’s business establishment — including Warner Bros Discovery billionaire John Malone — hoped it would. But that proved a pipe dream. The division between authoritarianism and democracy is now too deep. If anyone had any doubts, CNN’s Trump town hall should have erased them.

What especially confused Chris Licht and the rest of CNN’s management was the difference between being politically partisan, and standing up against authoritarian demagogues. They assumed that holding Trump accountable for what he did (and continues to do) was inconsistent with so-called “balanced journalism.”

Wrong. It is not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy. That’s where CNN’s audience wanted — and presumably still wants — CNN to be.

That’s where most Americans want the nation to be."

The media's misinforming the public about the GOP hostage-taking over the debt ceiling is dangerously close to disinformation and propaganda! The changes the GOP wants are only conducted within the budget process, yet they lack the votes to enact their dream list that way, so they are using the relic that is the debt ceiling to try extortion instead of democracy. They are threatening the livelihood and financial well-being of America and Americans to get their donor's wishlists enacted. Only the Democrats care about and are being motivated by America and American's well-being in this manufactured crisis, and the GOP is leveraging the Dems caring to enact concessions.

The hostage-takers don't care about the hostages, and the public ought to be aware of that! Yet the media is pulling their lame bothsidesism again and willfully misrepresenting this situation to the detriment of us and our country. This is yet another example of how most of the mainstream media is used by their wealthy owners to mislead Americans so they can achieve objectives that the rest of us don't want.

The rich have needs and goals that are not in the interests of America or average Americans. When the wealthy own media, our democracy is missing it's fourth pillar!!

The debt ceiling debacle is NOT a "partisan standoff"
"It was completely manufactured by Kevin McCarthy and his House Republicans"
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-debt-ceiling-debacle-is-not-a?publication_id=365422&post_id=123808361&isFreemail=true

#GOPHatesAvgAmericans
#TheRichOwnTheMedia
#TheRichHateAvgAmericans
#GreedKillsDemocracy

"This morning, the credit-rating agency Fitch put the nation’s AAA rating on a watch list, citing “increased political partisanship” over the debt ceiling. I just heard ABC attribute the standoff on the debt ceiling to “polarization” in Congress. NPR blames the fight on “hyper-partisanship” in American politics. Reuters blames the stalemate on lawmakers “digging in on partisan positions.”

“Partisan standoff” is the way most of the media is now characterizing the fight.

Hello?

Enough with the “both sides” reporting on the debt ceiling.

The current fight over raising the debt ceiling — and the growing possibility the United States might default on its debts — is not because of partisanship. It’s not due to political polarization. It’s not because lawmakers are “digging in” to “partisan positions.”

Republicans alone manufactured this looming disaster.

In order to become speaker, Kevin McCarthy made a deal with right-wing MAGA House Republicans to use the debt ceiling as a way to hold America hostage and force the Biden administration to come begging.

McCarthy and his band of MAGA crazies don’t give a fig about the national debt. Hell, they had no problem raising the debt ceiling three times under Trump — while providing trillions in tax cuts for the rich.

This current fight is entirely theirs.

The “both sides” reporting is misleading the public and giving a free pass to McCarthy and his extremists.

I admire Joe Biden, but he should not have allowed the media to so badly mischaracterize what’s happening. He never should have begun negotiating with McCarthy. Biden has the bully pulpit; he should have addressed the nation by now, pointing out that this fight is manufactured entirely by House Republicans.

The media’s reporting is inexcusable.