Check out today's article and interviews in Salon.com by Chauncey DeVega, who looks at the spectacle of the MAGA convention, and the press's failure to do their journalistic duty in this election cycle:
"On Monday, Donald Trump made an appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. His face was bandaged from the injury he received from a failed assassination attempt last Saturday in Pennsylvania. The bandage is his badge of pride and courage, a symbol of the blood sacrifice he wants his MAGA people to believe that he is prepared to make to 'protect' them as he becomes America’s first dictator.
Predictably, but no less disturbing, the delegates and other Republican-MAGA loyalists at the convention erupted with cheers when they saw Trump, their fists raised in the air, chanting 'Fight, fight, fight!' These were the words that Trump said as he raised his fist on Saturday after being shot. 'Fight, fight, fight!' is the new battle cry of the Republican Party and the MAGA movement and the other neofascists." (our emphasis)
"Fight" was also the central message he delivered on January 6 to his mob in Washington before they attacked the Capitol and caused destruction, injury and death. DeVega interviewed several authors and academics on the state of play in the struggle to save democracy from the MAGA cult, with no help at all from our chattering class. Some excerpts (emphasis added):
"...Instead of reporting on one of the most significant stories in American history, our corporate media has instead busied themselves trying to drive a dangerous narrative, and Joe Biden out of this race. Endless breathtaking coverage. Endless new cycles. Such drama! Imagine if they spent even half of this time sounding the alarms and reporting on the GOP's unrelenting attack on our freedoms and our Democracy. What in the hell is going on in these newsrooms? Republicans are literally telling us there will once again be violence if they don't get the results they want in November." Author D. Earl Stephens
"The problem arises when major news organizations’ news routines propel questionable popular narratives.
An example is the widely broadcast claim that hateful rhetoric motivated the person to shoot at Donald Trump. The call went out to 'tone down the rhetoric,' with some politicians claiming that President Biden and Democrats were the main culprits for pointing to Trump’s statement and the Republican Party’s blueprint for the future, Project 25, as a major threat to democracy. The irony was not lost on Donald Trump who, after claiming that there would be a bloodbath if he did not win the election, was said to be rewriting his acceptance speech 'as a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together.'” -- Arizona State University professor David Altheide
There will be more examples of the failures of our corporate, Republican-wired "fourth estate" as we near the election and beyond. Whether it helps elect our first dictator, time will tell.
