Stelter: Fox News and Facebook are part of the pro-Trump fantasy land that made the siege of the Capitol possible

Stelter: Fox News and Facebook are part of the pro-Trump fantasy land that made the siege of the Capitol possible

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“The more research I did this week, the more I realized that Fox News programs and Facebook groups are only part of the pro-Trump Fantasyland,” CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter said Sunday on “Reliable Sources.” . “There’s a lot of guilt to go around.”

Stelter said Big Tech and conservative media presented and repeated the lies of President Donald Trump that led to the siege. Trump has covered the rioters with an election fraud message spread on right-wing media and social media platforms. These messages were soon spread to the deepest, ugliest layers on the internet, from InfoWars to 8chan message boards.

“People say Donald Trump plus the internet are bringing extremists to the fore,” CNN correspondent Elle Reeve told Stelter on Saturday. “But I think the reality is an inversion of it: that Donald Trump plus the internet is bringing extremism to the masses,” Reeve said.
Before the events on Wednesday, Trump supporters had virtually rallied on various social media platforms, including Twitter, TikTok and Parler, the currently banned social media platform popular with conservatives. Many called for violence.
Over the past few weeks, Amazon Web Services has reported 98 examples of Parler posts that encouraged and incited violence, according to a letter received by CNN Business. Amazon, Apple and Google banned Parler for his lack of ability – or desire – to moderate the hateful, violent speech on the platform. But that kind of treacherous speech remains on Google’s YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and many other social media networks.

Despite attempts to curb the most hateful and violent parts of their networks, including Trump banning Facebook and Twitter last week, Big Tech has largely failed or is unwilling to seize the worst aspects of social media . The siege of the Capitol was planned on those platforms.

“Facebook’s own research showed that two-thirds of the time a user joined an extremist group on Facebook because Facebook’s own algorithm recommended it,” said Adam Sharp, former head of news, government and elections on Twitter, said.

Sharp has changed his mind when it comes to kicking off the president of Twitter.

“I did not think Twitter or a private company should whitewash this president’s record,” he said. “[But] the president’s violations of the law and of Twitter’s policy regarding the threat to Congress are so flagrant because he is the president and because he has crossed that particular specific constitutional boundary. ‘

Right-wing media’s role in violence

The riots in the Capitol were caused by politicians and the media, which allows Trump to ignore the warnings that such a thing would inevitably happen, according to CNN Jake Tapper tweeted on Thursday.
“The disturbing scenes that took place on national television on Wednesday were a natural consequence of the lies and conspiracy theories about the presidential election that have been going on for Trump’s supporters for weeks now,” wrote Oliver Darcy, senior media reporter for CNN Business. .

Some right-wing personalities distance themselves from Trump after the attack on the Capitol. This is a step in the right direction and what other conservative media hosts should take to prevent future incidents such as the riots in the Capitol, said Julie Roginsky, Democratic strategist and former associate of Fox News, on ‘Reliable Sources’.

“Fox News can stop it,” Roginsky said. “They can stop it by putting truth to power.” She added: ‘I suspect the Murdochs know this [Trump is] disconnect. “

But if there is self-reflection in Fox, Newsmax, OAN and other right-wing media, it is not universal.

Some conservative media are still spreading misinformation about the election. Some personalities on the air and on social media falsely claimed that left-wing Antifa groups were responsible for the violence on Wednesday – allegations made by videos of the attack and arrests of Trump-backed insurgents.

“There are always bad actors who will infiltrate large crowds,” Hannity said in the show Wednesday night after the Capitol siege.

And Fox’s Tucker Carlson was quick to point out that the acts of violence had nothing to do with racism, despite the fact that the police had little resistance to the largely White crowd. The police in the last few months relatively more powerful against black demonstrators.

“Whatever you thought about what happened yesterday, what was racist about it? Of course nothing. There was nothing racist about it,” he said in his program.

By the weekend, talks on Fox had shifted to Twitter’s decision to ban Trump.

“Trump’s cheering section in the right-wing media is desperately trying to downplay Wednesday’s crimes,” Stelter said. “They try to move on and put it in the memory hole. They rather complain about Twitter.”

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