“The promiscuous use of Hitler and Nazi analogies in this election about former President opponents is problematic because it is antithetical to how democracy, which Vice President Kamala Harris claims to be defending, must work,” says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin. He also worries about the impact on the culture of American democracy of the open bias for Harris and against Trump on the part of so much of the mainstream corporate media.
He’s joined by Fox News and New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz who says that the bias of the media is terrible but that is balanced by the fact that legacy media is increasingly irrelevant to most Americans.
Markowicz says “the last decade has changed the media landscape. Look at the conversations going on around right now. It’s not New York Times interviews that people are sitting down with, not even Kamala Harris. It’s about maybe getting on Joe Rogan or on the Call Her Daddy podcast. It really has been the podcast election. And so, I think we’ve seen a real shift in where people get their news and what matters to the candidates. So, I don’t think it makes a difference anymore what the mainstream media pushes.”
The columnist also believes that Harris using the claim that Trump is a “fascist” as her closing argument actually enhances the Republicans’ chances of winning. “Her closing argument is no longer joy. It’s no longer turning the page. It’s now, this guy’s a Nazi. And the thing is, he was already president for four years. So, he didn’t implement any of the authoritarian policies that she’s claiming he will. In fact, he’s kind of a moderate. So, the idea that he is going to be the second coming of Hitler, that’s repulsive and not acceptable discourse. I think that makes me feel a lot better about Trump’s chances.”
She also said that to apply that smear to all of Trump’s supporters, such as those who attended his Madison Square Garden rally, is equally offensive. “To call this a Hitler rally and a Nazi rally when Jews were able to be openly Jewish at the Donald Trump Madison Square Garden rally where they had to be kept kind of behind closed doors at the DNC. They weren’t laying tefillin in the crowd at the DNC. There weren’t Israeli flags being waved at the DNC. And that’s happening on the Republican side openly and proudly. The speakers are not only pro-Israel but pro-Jewish, pro-defending the rights of Jewish students in America, defending the rights of Jewish people in America to be safe, to be free.”
Markowicz also said Harris has been tripped up by her stands on Israel because she has tried to appear as a supporter of the Jewish state while not alienating the far-left, progressive wing of her party that is both anti-Israel and antisemitic. “I think that she has failed to thread that needle. I think that she’s not seen as pro-Israel, and she’s not seen as pro-Palestinian. She’s seen as somebody who will say whatever it takes in front of the crowd that she’s in front of.”
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