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 shows and Facebook groups are just part of the pro-Trump Fantasyland,” Brian Stelter, CNN’s Chief Media Correspondent, said on “Reliable Sources” Sunday. “There is a lot of debt to go around.”

Stelter said Big Tech and conservative media organized and echoed President Donald Trump’s lies that led to the siege. Trump incited the rioters with an election fraud message that was circulated on right-wing media and social media platforms. Those posts quickly spread to the deepest, ugliest layers of the Internet, from InfoWars to 8chan message boards.

“People say Donald Trump and the Internet are bringing out the extremists,” CNN correspondent Elle Reeve told Stelter on Saturday. “But I think the reality is a reversal of that: that Donald Trump plus Internet is bringing extremism to the masses,” said Reeve.
Ahead of Wednesday’s events, Trump supporters gathered virtually on various social media platforms, including Twitter, TikTok and Parler, the now banned social media platform popular with conservatives. Many called for violence.
According to a letter from CNN Business, Amazon Web Services has reported 98 examples of Parler posts encouraging and inciting violence in recent weeks. Amazon, Apple and Google have banned Parler due to his lack of ability – or desire – to moderate the hateful, violent speech on the platform. But that kind of insidious speech stays on Google’s YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and many other mainstream social media networks.

Despite some efforts to keep the most hateful and violent parts of their networks in check, including Trump’s ban from Facebook and Twitter last week, Big Tech has largely failed or been unwilling to take hold of the worst aspects of social media . The siege of the Capitol was planned on those platforms.

“Facebook’s own research found that two-thirds of the time a user joined an extremist group on Facebook is because Facebook’s proprietary algorithm recommended it,” said Adam Sharp, former Twitter head of News, Government and Elections.

Sharp had changed his mind when it came to kicking Twitter’s president.

“I didn’t think Twitter or any other private company should condone the record of this president,” he said. “[But] The president’s violations of law and Twitter’s policies when it comes to threatening Congress are so blatant because he is the president and because he crossed that very specific constitutional line. “

The role of right-wing media in violence

The riots in the Capitol were triggered by politicians and media empowering Trump, who for years ignored warnings that such a thing would inevitably happen, CNN says. Jake Tapper tweeted on Thursday.
“The disturbing scenes that took place on national television on Wednesday were a natural result of the lies and conspiracy theories about the presidential election that have been passed on to Trump 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. That’s a step in the right direction, and one that other conservative media hosts need to take to prevent future incidents like the Capitol riots, Julie Roginsky, Democratic strategist and former Fox News contributor, said of Reliable Sources.

“Fox News can stop this,” Roginsky said. “They can stop this by bringing the truth to power.” She added, “I suspect the Murdochs know that [Trump is] on the loose. “

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

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

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

And Fox’s Tucker Carlson was quick to say that the violent acts had nothing to do with racism, despite the police offering little resistance to the largely white crowd. Police have been relatively more vigorous against black protesters in recent months.

“Whatever you think about what happened yesterday, what was racist about it? Nothing of course. There was nothing racist about it,” he said on his show.

By the weekend, talks about Fox 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’re trying to go ahead and put it in memory. They’d rather complain about Twitter.”

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