A NEWSLETTER FROM DAVID CORN |
A NEWSLETTER FROM DAVID CORN |
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How Media Framing Aids Trump’s Assault on Democracy |
By David Corn October 4, 2023 |
The New York Times’ Manhattan headquarters. Brian Zak/AP |
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There was a good example last week of how clever disinformation can easily fool a smart news outlet. When the New York Times published a report on Donald Trump’s recent campaign trip to Michigan, where he courted autoworkers at a nonunion auto parts factory, it ran a photograph (in the hard-copy edition) that conveyed a distinct and pro-Trump message. |
Look at that! It seems that union guys and gals are for Trump. The photo that accompanied the online version also showed people holding “Union Members for Trump” signs.
It was no secret that Trump was speaking at a nonunion plant. How likely was it that these folks were union workers? More to the point, the Times correspondent who covered the event and wrote this story, Trip Gabriel, noted in this article, “Two people holding ‘Union Members for Trump’ signs said they were not union members.” So was this photo fake news?
The day after President Joe Biden traveled to Michigan to join a picket line of striking United Auto Workers—the first time a president had done so—the Trump campaign was trying to make it appear that Trump, too, was a champion of autoworkers fighting for better compensation. And the Times, or at least its photo editors, fell for it. That picture—worth a thousand words?—gave the impression that Trump was in like flynn with striking autoworkers, despite his lack of support for the strike and his undeniable antiunion record. Even though the Times’ own reporter had sussed out that these sign-holders might be a ruse, the paper of record placed them center-stage in its coverage of this campaign stunt. For the Trump team, mission accomplished.
While we’re picking on the Times, let’s continue and note that occasionally the mainstream media does make it easy for those attempting to undermine American democracy. After a government shutdown was averted—when Democrats came riding to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s rescue—the Times published what we in the journalism biz refer to as a “thumbsucker,” a Big Think Piece about What It All Means. This one was written by Peter Baker, a reporter and author I like and respect. But on this outing, he adhered too closely to convention.
Under the headline “To Many Americans, Government Dysfunction Is the New Normal,” he observed that many Americans had not bothered to pay attention to the drama on Capitol Hill. This, he noted,
may indicate that America at this point assumes that Washington actually will go over the cliff, because that is what Washington does these days. After all, the 11th-hour congressional deal that kept the government open lasts only until mid-November.
America, it seems, has come to expect crisis. In an era of disruption and polarization and insurrection, with a former president facing 91 felony counts in four criminal indictments and a sitting president facing an impeachment inquiry and a House speaker facing a possible move to oust him, the country has grown accustomed to chaos in the capital. Dysfunction is the new normal.
There was a word missing in this set-up: Republican. The issue is not government dysfunction—as the headline put it—but GOP dysfunction. Eventually, nine paragraphs into the story, Baker assigned specific blame to the Republicans: “What made this prospective shutdown different from those that came before was that it was less a fight between Democrats and Republicans than a fight between Republicans and Republicans. Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost control of his narrow majority and was pressed toward a shutdown by a handful of hard-liners who defied him, forcing him to turn to Democrats to avoid it.”
Yet the framework of the piece was that government is all one big mess. This would seem to indict both Democrats and Republicans. And Baker’s depiction of a sitting president “facing an impeachment inquiry” can be read as casting fault on the president—when a more accurate description would be that the Republicans have recklessly launched an impeachment inquiry without solid evidence of presidential wrongdoing to satisfy the demands of extremists within their ranks.
As I wrote recently, it can be hard for major media outlets to break free of established practices that benefit bad-faith actors and purveyors of disinformation and chaos. We’ve seen that in the coverage of the House Republicans’ bogus impeachment crusade. Just by reporting the GOP effort in a supposedly straight manner, news organizations end up amplifying baseless charges and assist the Republican attempt to smear Joe Biden with innuendo and unproven allegations and assertions. It is tough to cover disinformation without boosting its signal.
In the case of the autoworkers photo, the Times got hoodwinked by the Trump campaign spinners. And Baker went too deep into his grand point about the big mess of government and placed in secondary position the essence of the problem: Republican recklessness and disarray—which has also been on display this week with GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz’s push to boot McCarthy from the speakership.
Now that we’re in perilous times, with an indicted, violence-promoting, wannabe autocrat likely to bag his party’s presidential nomination and go on to have a good shot at regaining the White House, there’s little room for mistakes. If major news outlets characterize the problem at hand as overall discord and disorder—without prominently emphasizing who is causing the trouble—then the serious threat now posed to American democracy is underplayed.
Trump tried to mount a coup and overturn an election and incited a seditious riot. He called for suspending the Constitution so he can be reinstated as president. He dined with a prominent antisemite and a white nationalist. He endorsed the bonkers QAnon conspiracy theory. He suggested the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed. And his election-denying loyalists in Congress who support the January 6 terrorists do his bidding and pursue a course of radical obstructionism. The crisis facing America is not the nonfunctioning of government. It’s the extremist GOP assault on democratic institutions and rules, norms, and customs. If many or most Americans don’t understand this, it is partly the fault of the media.
The Times certainly has done great work on this front. (See the article revealing Trump’s authoritarian aspirations for a second term.) But constant vigilance is necessary. When the media slip back into old habits—such as when reporters cover Trump as just another frontrunner—they make it easier for the domestic enemies of American democracy. These days, the job is not to print (or broadcast) all the news that’s fit, but to ensure that citizens have all the news that fully and accurately explains the danger at hand.
Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com. |
Last week, I published a story reporting that Cornel West, the fiery progressive academic, antiracist campaigner, and Green Party candidate, was scheduled to appear at a forum advocating an end to US assistance to Ukraine and share the stage with far-left activists and radicals. Those people included leaders of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a communist organization that calls for the revolutionary overthrow of American capitalism (and sneers at reform) and that backs the Chinese Communist Party and the rule of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Also on the line-up: ultra-left commentators who worked for Russian-controlled media outlets. One of the organizers of the event, the ANSWER Coalition, was begun by the Workers World Party, a small political sect that split from the Socialist Workers Party to support the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Another sponsor was Code Pink, an antiwar outfit that has taken a soft line on China’s human rights violations.
All the participants in this forum share the view that the Ukraine war is, as West calls it, a “proxy war” instigated by NATO and the United States, and they seem to believe that the US—not Vladimir Putin—is responsible for the lack of a peaceful resolution.
In my article, I pointed out that while pursuing his presidential campaign—which could eventually place him in the position of a spoiler who benefits Donald Trump’s attempt to regain power—West was making common cause with left-wing extremists. Not surprisingly, a few of the people I named took exception, with some commenters on Twitter (or X) decrying my piece as redbaiting.
West is free to associate with whomever he wants as he opposes US aid to Ukraine. And communists are free to be communists and espouse the revolutionary overthrow of American society. And folks in the US are free to openly work with Russian propaganda outlets. But they are not free to go uncriticized. As a presidential candidate, West ought to be subjected to deep and wide-ranging scrutiny. This includes an examination of his associations. As a prestigious public intellectual, West grants a measure of legitimacy to those with whom he appears. When he headlines an event featuring communists who hail authoritarian leaders and far-leftists in league with Russian disinformation outlets, he validates these people. Imagine if a conservative presidential candidate hooked up with far-right extremists who called for a total ban on abortion and birth control and the criminalization of homosexuality. That sure would be a story.
It's not redbaiting to accurately report on the political circle of a presidential candidate. As he campaigns for the Green Party’s presidential nomination, West can pick his allies—and voters can judge him for these decisions. |
Why Do GOP and Trump Donors Like Bobby Kennedy Jr.? |
Here’s another story I broke: the identity of the couple who recently held a swanky fundraiser at their LA estate for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been running for president as a Democrat. At that event, which featured Eric Clapton, $2.2 million was raised for the anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist. The heretofore unnamed hosts were tech billionaire Aubrey Chernick and his wife Joyce. In recent years, they have donated to several Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and to pro-Trump political action committees. Yet now they were backing Kennedy. Because of his anti-vax crusade? Because he’s trying to cause trouble for the Democrats? Maybe both. There are other prominent GOP donors who have cut checks to RFK Jr., while Steve Bannon and Fox News have talked up his candidacy.
Some on the right have decided it’s worthwhile to back a brand-name Democrat and disinformationalist aiming to undermine Biden. But a few days ago, Kennedy Jr. hinted that he’s likely to announce next week that he will drop out of the Democratic contest (which he has no chance of winning) and instead run for president as an independent in the general election (which he has no chance of winning). If he manages to gain a spot on enough state ballots—or attain ballot status in critical swing states—might he, too, become a spoiler who helps Trump? Given that his standing among Democrats has fallen and he receives more support in the polls from Trumpish Republicans, it’s unclear at this point what his impact would be on a Biden-Trump contest. But should he go forward with an independent or third-party run, let’s keep an eye on whether he continues to draw financial assistance from Republicans. That will be a strong indication of how GOP strategists assess the Kennedy Jr. effect.
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The Watch, Read, and Listen List
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Crooked: The Roaring ’20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal, Nathan Masters. These days there’s a lot of jibber-jabber from MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump about the supposed weaponization of the Justice Department. It’s all bunk meant to distract from the multiple federal indictments of the former guy. And, of course, there are notable examples of the Justice Department during the Trump years, especially under Attorney General William Barr, engaging in political perversions. Yet if you want to read about a truly outrageous instance of DOJ politicization, I commend this thrilling history of a 1920s scandal written by Nathan Masters, an Emmy Award–winning host and producer and librarian.
Crooked opens with a dead body in an expensive and fancy Washington, DC, apartment. It had belonged to Jess Smith, who was found with a .32-caliber revolver in his hand, a bullet hole in his right temple, and his head stuffed inside a metal waste basket, which rested on ashes of burned papers. He had been wearing silk pajamas at the time of his expiration. Smith happened to be the very close friend of Harry Daugherty, the Republican attorney general in the administration of President Warren Harding. So close that he and Daugherty shared this swanky pad, which sparked the obvious speculation about the nature of their relationship. And so close that Smith was widely regarded as Daugherty’s fixer, which was quite a busy and lucrative position, given that Daugherty was corrupt through and through. At a time when the interior secretary was taking bribes for handing out no-bid oil leasing contracts—the Teapot Dome scandal—Daugherty and Smith were suspected of pocketing huge amounts of cash for doing favors for a variety of people and corporations. Consequently, there were plenty of questions about Smith’s death, as well as the lavish lifestyle led by Smith and Daugherty.
When Harding dies a few months later, Daugherty’s position in the cabinet becomes precarious. (He had been a major behind-the-scenes political force who had guided Warren into the presidency.) And Burton Wheeler, a hard-charging Democrat from Montana known for his fiery denunciations of monied interests and mining companies and recently elected to the US Senate, places Daugherty in his investigative sights. It’s a clash of titans: a prairie populist seeking to uncover the corruptions of the capital city versus a master of the transactional politics of smoke-filled rooms. And Masters marvelously captures all the drama, which comes to include private detectives, blackmail, hidden bank records, a money belt stuffed with $75,000 in cash, a mysterious woman witness, a onetime secret operative for the Kaiser, one of the nation’s biggest bootleggers, and a host of scurrilous charges (some true) that fed the hungry scandal media of the day. (Wheeler got that witness to tell all by slipping her whiskey.)
Wheeler’s inquiry produced testimony indicating Daugherty and Smith had engaged in a wide variety of illegal activity, including selling pardons, liquor permits (which during Prohibition would allow the holder to buy and sell booze, supposedly for medicinal purposes), and preferential treatment for firms with matters pending before the Justice Department. They also appeared to have pocketed $180,000 for not vigorously prosecuting fight promoters who distributed a movie of a notable Jack Dempsey bout. (It was illegal at the time to disseminate boxing films across state lines.) They also allegedly were behind a curious $7 million payout to a German industrialist who had challenged the US government’s seizure in 1917 of 49 percent of American Metal Company, a stake that seemed to belong to a German corporation. With little scrutiny, Daugherty’s Justice Department approved the payment, and bribery was widely assumed.
How did Daugherty fight back against Wheeler? The Justice Department initiated a prosecution against Wheeler, a practicing attorney, for allegedly violating a conflict-of-interest statute by using his office to help a client in a matter involving the Department of Interior. (Wheeler reasonably claimed that he was only representing this oil man in state, not federal, proceedings, which was kosher, and that he had merely suggested to an Interior official that the official and his client meet as part of his obligation to help his constituents.) It was a weak case and a transparent effort of the AG to seek revenge against his tormentor. Meanwhile, Daugherty ended up indicted for the American Metal Company caper.
Masters chronicles this long-forgotten scandal in page-turning fashion. I won’t tell you how it all turned out, but Crooked is indeed a rip-roaring tale. I would quibble with Masters’ claim that this was the start of American political scandals. Long before, there was the XYZ Affair, as well as Aaron Burr’s plot to seize a large portion of the Louisiana Purchase and many other untoward episodes. But the Daugherty mess did coincide with the rise of mass media and was feasted upon by the Fourth Estate. Also, at the end of the book, Masters gives short shrift to Wheeler’s ultimate fate: The progressive champion became a supporter of the isolationist America First Committee before World War II and engaged in actions that were criticized as antisemitic.
Yet in the 1920s, he was an admirable scourge of corruption. His efforts helped show how crooked Republicans were. Though at the end of the day—after President Calvin Coolidge won election in 1924 following revelations of immense scandal in the GOP-administration he inherited from Harding—Wheeler was disappointed and commented, “The people voted…for what they believed would mean material gain to themselves. The exposure of corruption here in Washington apparently made no impression upon them.” That sounds familiar.
By the way, fictionalized versions of Jess Smith and Harry Daugherty appeared in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire: |
“Who'll Buy My Memories?” Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson has been in the news quite a bit recently—and not only because he recently turned 90. This year he’s being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which might be a bit odd given he’s no rock-and-roller. But he’s everybody’s favorite, and his nomination didn’t spark much complaining. Last month, he was the closer at the 38th concert for Farm Aid, which he started in 1985 with Neil Young and John Mellencamp. Bob Dylan performed a surprise and slightly rough-around-the-edges three-song set at the show.
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And when congratulations poured in for Jimmy Carter’s 99th birthday on Sunday, Nelson was one of the notable celebrants. He and Carter have a long history; the former president has through the years occasionally joined Nelson onstage to perform “Amazing Grace” or “Georgia on My Mind.” (Carter even would mock-play the harmonica on “Georgia on My Mind.”) |
But none of this is why I’m mentioning Nelson today. Recently I heard a tune of his with which I was unfamiliar: “Who’ll Buy My Memories?” It appeared on The IRS Tape: Who’ll Buy My Memories?, his 39th studio album, released in 1992. The disc features only Nelson and his guitar—no band—and was recorded to pay off a huge debt to the IRS. Two years earlier, the feds had claimed Nelson owed $16 million in back taxes and seized many of his assets. (His accountants had not paid his taxes for years.) The album generated $3.6 million, but the IRS wanted $9 million more.
Nelson wrote this song decades earlier with Eddie Noack, another country and western singer and songwriter, and it was first recorded by country singer Joe Carson in 1963. Nelson’s pay-the-taxman version is haunting and captures the essence of his bourbon-smooth vocals. It reeks of nostalgia and regret. The combination of simple-but-elegant lyrics (“A past that's sprinkled with the blues / A few old dreams that I can't use / Who'll buy my memories / Of things that used to be?”) and his baritone voice is magnificent.
In 1985, Stephen Holder, a New York Times music critic, described Nelson this way: “By most technical standards, Willie Nelson's keening nasal baritone is dynamically limited and unpretty. Yet he uses the innate physical qualities of his voice to create the aura of a storyteller-philosopher, steadfast in character, whose view of the human condition is fatalistic but compassionate.” I beg to disagree with that first sentence. This is damn pretty. If the song moves you, as it did me, you can thank the IRS.
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Read Recent Issues of Our Land |
September 30, 2023: Trump loses a battle in his long war on reality; GOP donors look to Gov. Glenn Youngkin; comedians make a serious gun-safety video; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Marjorie Taylor Greene); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
September 27, 2023: Donald Trump, stochastic terrorist; Joan Osborne’s regrets; Invasion’s slow pace; and more.
September 23, 2023: Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia: What the heck?; a killer attack ad for abortion rights; an apology for Chile; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Rep. Victoria Spartz); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
September 19, 2023: The threat of Cornel West; Nils Lofgren sings about truth; Gus Russo deconstructs the latest JFK assassination revelation (or is it?); and more. September 16, 2023: Can the media meet the challenge of the GOP’s bogus impeachment?; why Mitt Romney should read American Psychosis; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Tim Gurner); the Mailbag: MoxieCam™; and more.
September 12, 2023: The right-wing authoritarian threat beyond Trump (Project 2025); American Psychosis and C-SPAN; Barbie and the corporate exploitation of exploitation; the Rolling Stones’ stereotypical “Angry”; and more.
September 9, 2023: A story too immense (Rudy Giuliani and Russia)?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Tucker Carlson); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
September 6, 2023: One of the best books I’ve ever read; the Mailbag; Full Circle offers a fascinating neo-noir trip; and more.
September 1, 2023: Can Donald Trump rally be barred from the 2024 ballot?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Tucker Carlson): the Mailbag; Jade Bird and LP belt it out (separately); and more. August 26, 2023: The bottomless cynicism of Tucker Carlson; the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more. |
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Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com. |
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