Media Deference to Power, From Bush to Trump

• 3:04Tim describes how mainstream media coddles people in power, depending on scoops and access for stories.
• 3:31Political figures like Ann Coulter and Rachel Maddow flipped their positions entirely based on who holds power, suggesting values mean nothing compared to the lust for viewers.
• 4:14Media deference to power in the Bush-Cheney era drove the speaker to stop practicing law and start writing about politics in 2005.
• 4:49The media's deference to the CIA and security state traces back to the Cold War and remains a huge pathology in modern journalism.
• 5:05Trump broke the brains of huge sectors of American society who believed conspiracy theories about the Kremlin controlling the US through blackmail.
• 5:44Belief in those conspiracies drove people to consider previously unethical actions now acceptable and urgent in order to stop Trump.
• 6:13Media and political elites aligned with the CIA, FBI, NSA, and neocons—agencies and figures devoted to undermining Trump—reshaping their entire worldview.
• 6:39Donald Trump became the singular figure through which political and financial elites understood the entire world.

Donald TrumpRachel MaddowAnn CoulterGeorge W. Bush