CNN’s Brian Stelter decided not to start the first episode of so-called “Reliable Sources'' of 2022 on a good note. Instead, Stelter continued to rehash the same tired ad hominem attacks he leveled all throughout 2021 by accusing his political opponents of “moving toward fascism”.
The reliably liberal Reliable Sources host had Atlantic senior editor David Frum on to discuss the bizarre opinion piece he wrote in July 2021 declaring Trumpism is really fascism. As Stelter usually does, he asked Frum a leading question to get the answer he wanted:
You wrote about halfway through the year that as people try to justify January 6th, as Trump allies try to justify it, we're moving toward fascism, that Trumpism is moving toward fascism. Do you still feel that way now, about a year later?
After teeing up that softball, Frum responded by first redefining words saying “fascism is a popular movement that justifies violence in the name of some kind of overthrow of outdated institutions and to create some kind of national regeneration.” After that he went into a rant accusing Republican voters of not being horrified by “violence anymore, they're increasingly accepting it.”
Stelter replied with his typical arrogance claiming “there are conversations about that here on CNN and on MSNBC” about the alleged fascism in the Republican Party in the aftermath of the January 6th riots. He ended with another leading asking “do you think the rest of the national news media is taking the aftermath of January 6th seriously enough? Is there enough focused coverage on this?
Frum replied by whining that the coverage was difficult to keep up with, and argued it has been that way since 2015, seemingly alluding to Trump’s first run for President. “There is a scandal and then another scandal and then another scandal. There’s an outrage and then another outrage and then another outrage,” he said.
He acts like this wasn’t the media’s fault by creating the rapid fire panicked coverage during the Trump years.
Continuing his whining further, Frum added:
We kept saying through the Trump Presidency, the mantra–at least in the beginning of it, the mantra that many people used was the phrase, this is not normal. This is not normal. But the truth is now we have to accept, this is now normal. This is now normal.
Frum continued on by asking if this would be the future of American politics in 2022 and 2024, and if not, what can be done to “keep the country true to its democratic and liberal traditions?”
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To read the relevant transcript of this segment click “expand”;
CNN's Reliable Sources
1/2/2022
11:32:30 AMBRIAN STELTER: You wrote about halfway through the year that as people try to justify January 6th, as Trump allies try to justify it, we're moving toward fascism, that Trumpism is moving toward fascism. Do you still feel that way now, about a year later?
DAVID FRUM: Um, the Trump, what is fascism, what do we mean when we say that? Um, in, to my way of thinking, fascism is a popular movement that justifies violence in the name of some kind of overthrow of outdated institutions and to create some kind of national regeneration. Well, that’s what you hear more and more from the people who are minimizing this. There is an accepta— they're not horrified by the violence anymore, they're increasingly accepting it. And they're accepting too that our institutions, the institutions of the United States, are so defective that they need to be overthrown and rebuilt and renewed in some radical new way with violence always in the background as the tool by which this will be done.
STELTER: So, certainly there are conversations about that here on CNN and on MSNBC but do you think the rest of the national news media is taking the aftermath of January 6th seriously enough? Is there enough focused coverage on this?
FRUM: Well, it's difficult to keep up. That's been the story since 2015. I mean, there is a scandal and then another scandal and then another scandal. There’s an outrage and then another outrage and then another outrage. We kept saying through the Trump Presidency, the mantra–at least in the beginning of it, the mantra that many people used was the phrase, this is not normal. This is not normal. But the truth is now we have to accept, this is now normal. This is now normal. And it's not normal in the sense of justifiable or laudable or acceptable, it's normal in the sense of this is our reality, this is what is going on. And, and the central question, a central question of American politics for the future is going to be in 2022 and 2024 what -- do you accept this and if you don't accept it, what will you do to keep the country true to its democratic and liberal traditions?
