The deplorableness of Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and CNN
The deplorableness of Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and CNN
PLUS: Why Elon Musk platforming Alex Jones and Andrew Tate is deeply un-American
I have always enjoyed year-end lists going all the way back to my childhood when I would always be excited to get my hands on the annual Life “Year in Pictures” edition that would coincide with Time’s Man/Woman of the Year (it was called this until 1999, when it was changed to Person of the Year). So it was with that same excitement that I started reading
’ year-end compendium of deplorables at .Honestly, I didn’t get very far before being hung up on this artwork banner depicting the “creature cantina” of MAGA villains, soulless cynics, frauds, accused criminals, seditionists and disordered narcissistic personalities:
Wow. Truly.
The Bulwark list seems exceptionally well thought through to me. It has properly included most all of the growling n’er-do-wells in their appropriate ordered ranking of scumbaggery and deplorableness leading up to the most deplorable of all: the erratic antisemite Elon Musk.
The Bulwark story concludes with a tweet first mentioned by them earlier this past week that announced the X conversation between Alex Jones, Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist, the accused rapist and sex trafficker Andrew Tate and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is a first-rate demagogue, blowhard and conspiracy theorist (see video commentary on this below). Here is the post, which though appalling and disgusting, is not the point:
Why did CNN host a town hall with Vivek Ramaswamy this week?
Ramaswamy accused federal law enforcement of committing the January 6 insurrection, and said September 11 was an “inside job committed by the US Government.”
Why is Vivek Ramaswamy being given an hour of airtime on CNN to spread his poisonous venom and lies?
Why did Mark Thompson, the new CNN CEO, sign off on this hour after the previous debacle under the tenure of his predecessor Chris Licht about which I’ve written?
Appalling doesn’t begin to describe the decision, which refutes CNN’s stated mission as a news organization. The Ramaswamy broadcast was the equivalent of a snuff film. The gratuitous nature is the point. This is what broadcast nihilism looks like. It is the journalistic receptacle for the type of cynicism espoused by the MAGA Congress. It is terrible for America, which can get some satisfaction that so few actual people are watching, but that isn’t the point. The point is the editorial malpractice bordering on misconduct.
The result isn’t just cringeworthy, but abominable.
VIDEO COMMENTARY: Why Elon Musk platforming Alex Jones and Andrew Tate is deeply un-American
I discuss the recent Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Andrew Tate and Vivek Ramaswamy. This is not pushing forward the cause of free speech, but the un-American causes of hatred and violence:
For some this may be a freedom of speech issue, but I agree with your assessment. Surely major media outlets have a moral obligation to demand a standard of responsibility for those they (whether admitting it or not) give a prime time platform.
Agreed on the Bulwark’s list. This week’s House vote on an impeachment “inquiry” featured 100% yea votes from Republicans, which tells me that Democratic leadership from Biden on down should stop referring to “MAGA Republicans” as if they were a subset of Republicans. They are not. They are today’s Republican Party. Period. Call them Repugnicans (as I normally do), or fascists, or seditionists, or whatever, the fruit of decades of fear mongering.