On the Media

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Fox News is Back at the White House. Plus, No Joke, The Onion Buys Infowars. Nov 15, 2024

Show notes

Many of Donald J. Trump’s cabinet picks have something in common: a very close relationship with Fox News. On this week’s On the Media, hear about the revolving door from the conservative network to the White House. Plus, election conspiracy theories from Kamala Harris supporters go viral. And a satirical news site buys up Alex Jones’ Infowars.

[01:00] Host Brooke Gladstone speaks with Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters, about the re-opened revolving door between conservative media and the Trump administration.

[11:52] Host Micah Loewinger sits down with Anna Merlan, senior reporter at Mother Jones, to discuss the flurry of apparent Democratic voters questioning election results on social media, and why, without backing from public officials, “BlueAnon” is likely a nonstarter.

[20:05] Host Brooke Gladstone chats with Bill Adair, founder of PolitiFact and author of the new book Beyond the Big Lie, about the history of fact-checking and why the field – in desperate need of resources and reinforcements – is struggling to break through in our information ecosystem.

[33:23] Host Micah Loewinger talks with Matt Pearce, former staff writer at the LA Times, and president of Media Guild of the West, about the media’s audience problem.

[43:00] Host Brooke Gladstone calls up Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, because The Onion bought Alex Jones’ Infowars. Need we say more.

Further reading:

“Extremists inspired by conspiracy theories pose major threat to 2024 elections, U.S. intelligence warns,” by Brandy Zadrozny
"On anticipatory obedience and the media," by Ian Bassin and Maximillian Potter
Predicting the Winner: The Untold Story of Election Night 1952 and the Dawn of Computer Forecasting, by Ira Chinoy

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Why Trump is a Fascist (EXTENDED VERSION) Oct 30, 2024

Show notes

Donald Trump is being called a fascist – by his former appointees and his opponent Kamala Harris.

On Sunday, in a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, Trump and his allies traded in crude and racist insults, amplifying the nationalistic rhetoric his camp has become known for. The event drew stark comparisons to another gathering at the Garden–a 1939 "Pro-American Rally," put on by the German-American Bund, a pro-Nazi group, with 20,000 of its members in attendance.

The MAGA rally, for some, was the tipping point for calling Donald Trump a fascist. For others, it was simply another piece of evidence placed atop an already very tall stack.

Host Brooke Gladstone speaks with Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. He first warned about Trump’s fascist rhetoric in 2018, and explains why it's more important than ever to call it by its name.
A portion of this interview originally aired in our October 25, 2024, program, Fascism, Fear and the Science Behind Horror Films.

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Fascism, Fear and the Science Behind Horror Films Oct 25, 2024

Show notes

Donald Trump is being called a fascist – by his former appointees, as well as by his opponent Kamala Harris. On this week’s On the Media, a historian of fascism explains why he sounded the alarm back in 2018. Plus, the science behind why horror films make your skin crawl.

[01:00] Host Brooke Gladstone speaks with Jason Stanley, a professor of Philosophy at Yale University and who has written several books on fascism. He first warned about Trump’s fascist rhetoric in 2018, and explains why it's more important than ever to call it by its name.

[20:05] Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with science writer Nina Nesseth to explore how horror filmmakers make our skin crawl, the anatomy of a jump scare, and why all screams aren’t created equal. Her book Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films delves into question – why do we crave being scared senseless in the movie theater?

[32:50] OTM producer Rebecca Clark-Callender dives into the history of Black horror to see what it is and who it's for, ft: Robin R. Means Coleman, professor of Media Studies and of African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia and co-author of The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar; Tananarive Due, author, screenwriter, and lecturer on Afrofuturism and Black Horror at University of California, Los Angeles; Rusty Cundieff, writer and director of Tales from the Hood (1995); and Betty Gabriel, actor widely known for her acclaimed performance as "Georgina" in Jordan Peele's blockbuster Get Out (2017).

Further reading:

Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, by Jason Stanley
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, by Jason Stanley
Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films by Nina Nesseth
Horror Noire: A History of Black American Horror from the 1890s to Present by Robin R. Means Coleman

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Kamala Harris is Trying to Make Climate Action Patriotic Oct 23, 2024

Show notes

For the last few years, patriotism has been stuck in the wheelhouse of the GOP. A Gallup poll from June shows that 60% of Republicans — compared to 29% of Democrats — express extreme pride in being American. Donald Trump wraps himself in flags at each rally, walking out to God Bless America. But recently, Democrats have been taking it back, little by little. At a rally in Philadelphia, the crowd erupted into chants of, “USA! USA! USA!” and at the DNC, former Republican representative Adam Kinzinger proclaimed, “The Democrats are as patriotic as us.” That same night, Kamala Harris claimed that Americans all have the “fundamental freedom” to clean air and water, and the right to an environment free from the pollutants that “drive the climate crisis.”

A group of researchers at New York University, led by Katherine Mason, are investigating this unlikely pairing – flag-waving, steak grilling, good ol’ American patriotism and climate change. They released a new study measuring the effectiveness of this combination in changing stubborn minds. This week, host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Katherine Mason to discuss the effectiveness of combining patriotism with climate change, and how to harness peoples’ inherent psychological need for stability to promote social change.

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Can a Billion Dollars Buy an Election? Oct 19, 2024

Show notes

This election is set to be the most expensive ever. On this week’s On the Media, what does a billion dollars in campaign funds actually buy? Plus, Democrats condemned dark money for years. Now they embrace it.

[01:00] Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger explore why Donald Trump came to be so reliant on his billionaire donors. Plus, Andrew Perez of Rolling Stone details Trump’s history of promising his benefactors big favors. And Bloomberg reporter Annie Massa breaks down the relationship between Trump and megadonor Jeff Yass.

[09:48] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Kenneth Vogel, who covers money, influence, and politics at the New York Times, about the rise of the dark money political infrastructure following the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

[24:53] Host Micah Loewinger sits down with Helen Santoro, money and politics reporter at The Lever, about Kamala Harris’ robust political history as a proponent of dark money reform, and her recent about-face.
[38:16] Host Brooke Gladstone talks with Steven Sprick Schuster, professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University, to discuss if raising more money actually helps you win an election.

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