Former Australian Prime Minister Lambasts Rupert Murdoch in CNN Interview

 From CNN's "Reliable Sources" Newsletter tonight:

"Market for crazy"   Most moments on cable news are ephemeral – that's the nature of the 24/7 beast – but this recent interview with Malcolm Turnbull is an exception to the rule. Ever since it aired on Sunday morning, I've been getting emails and texts and DMs about what he said and how he said it. Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister, delivered a brutal evaluation of Rupert Murdoch's effects on the world.   He spoke with the poise of a world leader who knows that many other public figures fear the repercussions of criticizing the Murdoch media empire. "People in public life are terrified," he told me, terrified that "a vendetta will be launched against them," whether through News Corp papers or Fox Corp TV shows or other forums. But that just makes this subject all the more important. His view, shared by many, is that Murdochworld has created a "market for crazy," resulting in "enormous damage to the United States."   We decided to publish the entire 24-minute interview with Turnbull on our podcast feed so that folks can hear the portions that didn't make air. Turnbull went into more detail about the impact of Murdoch media's climate denialism; the family divide between brothers Lachlan and James; and Fox's "imitators in the right wing media ecosystem." Turnbull's main point: Rupert "has to take responsibility for what he has done."     Three key quotes    -- "What Murdoch has delivered, largely through Fox News in the US, is exactly what Vladimir Putin wanted to achieve with his disinformation campaigns."    -- "One of the biggest obstacles to effective global action on global warming has been the influence of right wing populist politics, climate change denial, massively amplified by Murdoch."    -- "It breaks my heart as an Australian to see the damage that has been done to American society and American democracy by this right wing populist agenda... which is in large part all about denying the facts."   Hear the rest of Turnbull's remarks via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app...

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The Trump Era Is Summed up by the phrase "Enemy of the People"

I have to share these opening paragraphs from tonight's "Reliable Sources" email newsletter. (Subscribe here.) 

Enemy of the people

 

If someone managed to sleep through the Trump years, and asked me what they'd missed, I'd start with "enemy of the people." Why? Because Trump's demonization of the media explains almost everything. He convinced his fans that the people covering him were lying. He advised them to trust certain Fox shows and ignore practically everything else. He said he was in a "running war with the media" on his very first weekend in office, and never stopped.

 

Many times, in many influential corners of the mainstream media, there was an impulse to ignore Trump's attacks. To deprive him of oxygen. But here's the counter-argument: Americans are drinking from a poisoned well of information. It's what caused some of the fractures in America and exacerbated so many of the others. And the poison is advertised as an antidote! Whataboutism, cherry-picked controversies, cover-ups of Trump's corruption – all of it flows 24/7 from a parallel universe of news, a universe that is largely predicated on criticism of legacy news outlets. All of it relates back to Trump's endless campaign against the people who report the news. The people he labeled as the "enemy."

 

Trump said it more and more every year, between 2017 and 2020, according to Factba.se data. And his base believed it. Disdain for the media glued his base together. That's why, in my view, "enemy of the people" is the No. 1 thing to understand about the past four years. It needs to be factored into every story about governmental action and inaction, every analysis of American politics, even after President-elect Biden is sworn in...

 

 

A "cult president"

 

David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, wrote this about Suffolk and USA Today's newest poll: "What does it mean to be a 'cult president' — one whose supporters will believe and trust him no matter what any other government officials, academics, journalists, politicians, and 'professional' experts say? Donald Trump could at the very least be characterized as one of the few presidents with a cult of personality and a cult-like following."

 

"A whopping 78 percent of Republicans do NOT believe that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president," Paleologos wrote. In the poll, he wrote, "we ask a question about which television and news sources are trusted the most. Among those who trust Fox News, 16% said that Biden was elected legitimately and 83% said he was not. If you combine the next seven news sources including PBS, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC, 93% said Biden was legitimately elected and 6% said he was not."

 

Biden was elected legitimately. The widespread belief that he was not – that a vast conspiracy rigged the election against Trump – is evidence of radicalization among the Fox-GOP base. Conservative columnist and CNN contributor Matt Lewis tweeted on Monday, "As a lifelong conservative, I am still surprised by how many people I thought were like me have revealed themselves to be right-wing AUTHORITARIANS."