U.S. Media Must Sound the Fascist Alarm Before It’s Too Late
Trump’s dangerous and unhinged Truth Social rants remove all doubt about the threat he poses to millions of lives
There’s one thing that can be said about Truth Social: The Trump-owned social media platform has done more than any other outlet to reveal the moral rot festering at the core of the most powerful man on Earth.
Over the past 48 hours, Trump’s expletive-laced rants have called for the genocidal eradication of Persian civilization and mocked an entire religion, while reveling in the president’s eagerness to commit war crimes on a global scale.
Trump backed up his Truth Social claims during a Monday press conference, where he reiterated his plans to bomb Iran back “to the Stone Age,” if it doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipments of his precious petroleum.
The president’s astounding rhetoric echoes that of past fascist leaders — dictators who eventually led their countries to commit genocidal crimes and provoke world wars that cost tens of millions of lives.
Fascism’s welcome committee
The United States once mobilized to defeat the likes of Hitler and Mussolini. Today, men and women holding similar abhorrent beliefs feel welcomed roaming Washington’s halls of power.
Sadly, many mainstream media outlets are a part of that welcome committee — routinely normalizing the most unhinged language and actions emanating from this administration and its Trump-sanctioned corps of political influencers.
“Americans — especially journalists — should resist becoming inured to fascist rhetoric,” wrote Tom Nichols in this month's issue of The Atlantic. “No one should rely on euphemisms about ‘extreme’ comments or ‘fiery’ speeches. Call it what it is: Nazi-like behavior.”
Tom Nichols
That Hitler comparisons are plausible today is a shocking commentary on how far off the rails the Trump presidency has gone. That so many mainstream outlets have failed to sound this historical alarm is evidence of the ongoing failure of America's Fourth Estate.
Rather than decrying the president’s pledge to destroy a civilization or drawing up the parallels to previous fascist regimes, many at D.C.-based news organizations are dry-cleaning tuxes and poring over seating charts for the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner, to be held later this month with Trump as honored guest.
Gary Legum
What capitulation costs us
As we’ve thoroughly documented here at Pressing Issues and in Free Press’ Media Capitulation Index, the owners of most of the largest media conglomerates have taken a pass at calling the powerful to account, even when that power is as corrupt, dishonest and prone to violence as the present administration.
This concentration of the media in the hands of billionaires, private-equity firms and sprawling conglomerates poses a fundamental threat to our functioning democracy. The interests of these owners — including the likes of the Murdochs, Ellisons and Bezoses — are so deeply entangled with those of an unhinged White House that they have pressured their news outlets to downplay or normalize even the administration’s most disturbing and deadly behavior.
Another favorite tactic of Trump-aligned media is to attempt to balance Trump’s worst crimes against some imagined transgression committed by his political foes to the left.
Such both-sides framing is typical “of a corporate media terrified of being honest about anything lest it cost them ad revenues, access, or the favor of (usually) right-wing ownership,” tech writer and media critic Karl Bode wrote on Monday. “Corporate media can’t be honest about fascism because it would cost them money (they expect you to be too stupid to recognize this).”
“It comes down to this,” veteran media watcher Margaret Sullivan wrote Tuesday about Trump's Truth Social eruption. “The press, because of its own conventions and time-honored practices, normalizes him, and thus fails to get across the extreme nature of this president’s behavior. Ten years of sane-washing have had their effect. He remains in power, reelected, undeterred.”
Margaret Sullivan
The broken compact
To ensure democracy survives this era of Trumpist aggression, we need to repair a media system that has allowed far too much control over information to fall into the hands of far too few of his blind loyalists. Such an accumulation of power makes it next to impossible for the media properties under these owners to fulfill the social compact embodied in the notion of a free, truth-based and independent press.
These structural changes aren’t going to happen overnight, as millions of lives hang in the balance across Iran and the Middle East. But we must continue this work out of hope for a brighter future in time.
Still, is it too much to ask U.S. media to defend the lives of those Iranian citizens facing the barrel end of the president’s latest threats — due to be delivered in a barrage of advanced military might at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to Trump’s latest Truth Social missive? How many more must cry out or be lost in Trump’s blood-drenched spectacle before the media names present-day fascism and holds Donald Trump accountable for his crimes?
The media’s job should be to call out this administration’s ceaseless and blatant criminality — not because they’re duty-bound to present both sides of a story in the service of some deeply skewed notion of balance. But because we must believe that journalism plays an illuminating role in even the darkest times.
The media have an ethical responsibility to kindle the flame of truth and justice in the face of such unfathomable cruelty. Now more than ever.
About the author
Timothy Karr is the senior director of strategy and communications at Free Press. He’s worked as a photojournalist, foreign correspondent and editor for major news outlets. His commentary on the media has appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers worldwide. Follow him on Bluesky.
Teamwork
Compiled by Pressing Issues editors
Vanessa Maria Graber, Free Press’ senior director of journalism and media education, participated in WHYY’s third annual Civic News Summit as part of a panel program that focused on the future of local news in the Philadelphia area. In a session on how media organizations can work more closely with community leaders, Graber said local outlets need to stop treating local journalism as an extractive model.
“You have to have more empathy,” she said. “You have to care about our communities in order to cover us better. And especially when people are vulnerable, you have to be more ethical. What you do with that information and how you’re promoting it and profiting off of it.”
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The kicker
“Trying to ‘engage’ with fascism is like trying to have an intimate emotional relationship with a running chainsaw. The very act of framing fascism as a reasonable partner for dialogue is an act of propaganda that validates and normalizes fascism. Again, you’re expected to be too dim to notice this.” —Karl Bode
