Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter opened his show on CNN this Sunday with a warning about the extremely dangerous propaganda we're seeing generated from Trump and his allies at Fox "News" and in the Republican Party.
Now if we could just get his network to follow his lead and quit putting Trump apologists and propagandists on their panels so they can pretend their coverage is "balanced" by giving these people a platform to spread their lies.
STELTER: Robert Mueller is investigating Russia's attack on the American election. But now, he is under attack. And this new assault is not coming from Moscow. It's coming from Fox News headquarters right here in New York. And it's coming from the White House. It's an anti-Mueller, anti-FBI feedback loop, claiming that Mueller's probe is hopelessly biased and downright corrupt. [...]
This is the feedback loop in action. I want you to see it over and over again. Fox, Trump, his aides, GOP lawmakers, all of them, they're taking a legitimate issue, the discovery of a Mueller team member who expressed his hatred of Trump in text messages, and then they're blowing it up, trying to discredit the entire probe.
Now remember, that team member was removed from the probe when the text messages were found. But every day it's something new, some new reason to claim that special counsel is illegitimate. So as you watch the coverage, try to notice how this works.
Notice how right wing commentators and GOP lawmakers are echoing each other. And pay close attention to the banners on the bottom of Fox's screen.
Last night, I can't believe this, Fox was asking if the FBI has engaged in a coup. This morning, the banner said the investigators are in the hot seat. This isn't just an alternate reality. This is a reversal of reality. Obviously it's Trump World that's on the hot seat.
Four Trump associates have been charged with crimes. Two of the four have pled guilty. Mueller is investigating a massive fire, and everyone can see and smell the smoke. But this, instead, is what the president is hearing.
PIRRO: The only thing that remains is whether we have the fortitude to not just fire these people immediately but to take them out in cuffs.
That is Jeanine Pirro, one of Trump's informal advisers, not just calling for firings but arrests.
Look, I don't say this lightly but these FOTs, these "friends of Trump's", are talking like propagandists. This sounds like propaganda. This sounds dangerous. Pirro is demanding a cleansing at the FBI. Sean Hannity is calling Mueller the “head of the snake.” Other Fox hosts are calling the FBI corrupt and out of control. Rush Limbaugh describing it as a coup and guests on these programs are comparing the FBI to the KGB.
The conservative media choir is telling Trump that Mueller is out to get you, trying to reverse the outcome of the election. It doesn't get any more dangerous than that.
