Compliance and Cowardice
Everyone in a position to fight against Trump's war on democracy is caving in.
It started with MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Long established as the “insider” morning show on cable news, it had functioned for the last four years as an anti-Trump gathering place. Editorializing from the hosts decrying his corrosive effects on democracy and two-party politics, news stories covering the varied criminal investigations, lawsuits, and trials, and panels where guests would speak out against him.
The Monday after Trump’s win, we were treated to this.
They went to Mar-A-Lago, supped with the future king, and returned to Rockefeller Center, fully capitulating to a man they spent four years saying was a danger. Why? Because they were worried about Trump’s IRS going to the Nixon playbook, auditing them, and Trump’s FBI investigating them for everything. Their corporate overlords at Comcast already see the danger coming and want to spin off MSNBC/CNBC away from the main NBC network. Instead of using their power, of which they have some if they choose, they ceded it. They complied in advance. They let fear win.
Next up was ABC News. Having battled Cheetolini for months over his lawsuit for defamation because George Stephanopoulos used the word “rape” instead of “sexual abuse” regarding Trump’s conviction in civil court for his assault of E. Jean Carroll, ABC decided to settle. Not only did they agree to donate fifteen million dollars towards a Trump presidential library, which is a massive violation of journalistic ethics, they threw poor George under the bus and apologized. The judge in that civil case had himself stated it would be hard for most people to know the difference, since rape was used as a colloquialism by the general public for any type of penetrative sexual assault. This didn’t matter to ABC, who had an excellent defense under the law. They complied in advance. They let fear win.
On Monday, Trump held a news conference, where he was asked if he foresaw any other legal action against bloggers, podcasters, or independent media. He turned around and immediately brought up the Selzer Poll, the famously accurate pre-election poll for the Des Moines Register in Iowa that had its first major miss this year, saying Harris would win Iowa by three when Trump won by double digits. Polling has become much more difficult in the Trump era—reasons vary from Trump voters lying to pollsters because they know that he’s not popular to those same voters not answering calls from pollsters (whether that is because they often come in as blocked caller IDs or because Trump voters are inclined to believe polls are rigged is unknown)—so Selzer being off this time is not surprising. Nobody is perfect.
What was surprising is that Trump hinted he might take legal action. On Tuesday, he sued her and the Register for “consumer fraud and brazen election interference.” From NBC News: “The suit states that “Millions of Americans, including Plaintiff, residents of Iowa, and Iowans who contributed to President Trump’s Campaign and its affiliated entities (the “Trump 2024 Campaign”), were deceived by the doctored Harris Poll” and that the “polling ‘miss’ was not an astonishing coincidence — it was intentional.” It attacks Selzer’s reputation as a standard-bearing pollster, alleging that the polling miss showing Harris with a lead in Iowa that never materialized was intended to sway the race. The suit argues a pattern by Selzer of attempting to influence political races in favor of Democrats and that her large platform offers ‘a significant and impactful opportunity to deceive voters.’”
Donald Trump is waging lawfare. Selzer had already announced exactly thirty days ago she would no longer poll elections, so why sue her now? Why file a lawsuit that will likely be tossed on sight? Opinion polls, by their very nature, are First Amendment protected acts. This is designed to do the same as the ABC News lawsuit—Trump wants to intimidate news organizations into compliance with his wishes, in all facets of their operations. He is moving to take hold of the information sphere, and this is why he’s partnered with Elon Musk. Musk bought Twitter and distorted it, twisting the algorithms and pumping it full of pro-Trump, pro-crypto, and extremely bigoted disinformation. Trump wants to leverage that against mainstream media, and he will use every tool at his disposal. Making Elon and Vivek Ramaswamy heads of a stupid, unconstitutional “department” is one of those tools. It’s a lot easier to stifle dissent when you’re attacking people’s livelihoods.
Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, is astronomically wealthy. Trump has cowed him into submission. Bezos has given a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration after having killed the paper’s editorial endorsement of Harris before the election. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, is going to put an “AI bias detector” on their stories, which given his friendship with Musk, is certainly going to mark anything that doesn’t slobber all over the MAGA viewpoint as “biased.” Comcast and Disney are massive corporations with hundreds of billions of dollars. They have been cowed into submission—Morning Joe is a massive public face of Comcast’s cable brands, and they’ve silenced themselves; Disney settled the ABC News lawsuit, as noted above. How do you think regular folks like you and I will fare when faced with these pressures?
Our Constitution, written with the express aim of not allowing a king to take hold, did not factor in the corruption of the other branches of government. It did not believe such a thing was possible. The Founders did not envision the world we live in now, the technological reach that exists, the historic amounts of consolidated wealth that induce men and women to sell their souls. The Supreme Court rewrote the entire history of the nation earlier this year, including its deliberate and distinct checks on executive power, by ruling that Donald Trump could not be criminally charged for illegal actions taken while acting as president, retroactively validating Richard Nixon’s claim that, “If the President does it, it is not a crime.” Nixon had appointed four of the nine justices on the Court when he brought a claim of absolute executive privilege to them in June 1974. William Rehnquist, who’d been an assistant attorney general in the Nixon administration when the actions in question took place, recused himself. The other three justices that Nixon appointed all voted against him. Look at today’s Court—Sam Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts—they would never recuse themselves for a case. Furthermore, precedent to them is something to ignore. They’ve created a new monarchy.
The end result will look like North Korea. All polls will show Donald Trump as popular. News organizations will peddle his spin as fact, serving as propaganda for the regime. Dissenters will be silenced through coercion, threats, intimidation, or use of force. If you don’t believe me, well, look at everyone I wrote about today. Do you think they’ll be the only ones?