Fox News announced on Jan. 10 that Jesse Watters would become the permanent host of the network’s weeknight 7 p.m. hour in two weeks. CNN was the worst network, with Erin Burnett being beaten by Fox in that hour by a rotating roster of substitute hosts over the past year.
CNN’s Brian Stelter tweeted, “Jesse Watters is a logical choice for Fox’s 7 p.m. time slot—the evening schedule is now full of flamethrowers—from Watters through to Greg Gutfeld.”
Oliver Darcy joined in: “The installment of Watters into the 7 p.m. time slot cements a strategy Fox initiated soon after Trump lost re-election: Even more right-wing commentary, even less news.”
Permit me to repeat that Stelter put an “expert” on his “Reliable Sources” show who proclaimed Donald Trump would kill more people than Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Mao Zedong combined.
CNN has made so many comparisons between Trump and Hitler that it sounds like Fake History Channel. This was the Sunday evening schedule on CNN, the night before the Stelter/Darcy flamefest.
First, at 9 p.m.: “Fareed Zakaria’s Special Report: The Fight to Save American Democracy.” Then at 10 p.m.: “CNN Special Report, ‘Trumping Democracy: An American Coup.’” At 11 p.m., another hour: “Attack on Democracy: The Roots of Trump’s Insurrection.”
Somehow, it’s never “flamethrowing” to assert that Trump’s echoing Hitler. Zakaria announced, “Donald Trump is not Adolf Hitler. But Weimar’s death highlights a danger for all democracies, specifically the way conservative elites, determined to keep the left out of power, align themselves with an anti-democratic demagogue. The story in Germany began with a big lie.”
Zakaria and his select voices named-checked Hitler twenty-four times. At one point, Zakaria proclaimed, “Within weeks, Adolf Hitler made himself a dictator. He was soon killing his enemies and rivals, as well as many right-wing insiders who had helped him rise to power. Democracy in Germany was dead.”
Right next to it? A sound bite of Trump: “They’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” This implies Trump endorsed killing off enemies and rivals.
Zakaria added: “Its lessons for America are sobering.” Then, he aired Harvard professor Steven Levitsky smearing the conservative movement: “The willingness of mainstream conservatives to back into potentially authoritarian options, because of fear of their rivals, is something that I think we’re seeing playing out in the United States today.”
That’s some serious flamethrowing. This is a new trend. In 2019, Zakaria dragged the conservatives with another Sunday night ragefest titled “State of Hate: The Explosion of White Supremacy.”
Explosion?
In 2016, Zakaria hosted Sunday night specials praising Barack Obama and calling his enemies racist fanatics. He preposterously concluded the show by claiming Obama’s administration “was largely scandal-free, and he did it all the while under a microscope, because he looked different.”
Benghazi, Fast and Furious, IRS abuse, Hillary Clinton’s email server? Never happened.
The silliness and dishonesty didn’t stop there. Van Jones underlined alleged Republican racism by claiming, “I can’t name one thing that this Congress supported this president on in eight years. You have to have an extraordinary explanation for this level of obstruction.”
So, taking down Osama bin Laden—the Republicans didn’t support that? Actually, hundreds of Obama-signed laws were passed by Congress under Republican control.
Wildly exaggerating historical events would fit the CNN formula to borrow from Darcy: Less and less news, more left-wing rage.
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