How the Right Lost Its Mind

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How the Right Lost Its Mind Page 24

by Charles J. Sykes


  9. Ibid.

  10. Shanika Gunaratna, “Facebook Apologizes for Promoting False Story on Megyn Kelly in #Trending,” CBS News, August 29, 2016.

  11. Danny Westneat, “UW Professor: The Information War Is Real, and We’re Losing It,” Seattle Times, March 29, 2017.

  12. Kate Starbird, “Examining the Alternative Media Ecosystem Through the Production of Alternative Narratives of Mass Shooting Events on Twitter,” faculty.washington.edu/kstarbi/Alt_Narratives_ICWSM17-CameraReady.pdf.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Ben Collins, “The Vigilante Faking WikiLeaks Docs to Dupe Trump Trolls: An Expense Report That Shows Hillary Giving Money to the ‘Sharia Law Center’ Should Be Too Stupid to Believe. But Somehow It Wasn’t. Meet the Man Who Made It—and Is Baffled High-Profile People Fell for It,” Daily Beast, October 12, 2016, www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/16/the-vigilante-faking-wikileaks-docs-to-dupe-trump-trolls.html.

  16. Ibid.

  17. John Herman, “Inside Facebook’s (Totally Insane, Unintentionally Gigantic, Hyperpartisan) Political-Media Machine: How a Strange New Class of Media Outlet Has Arisen to Take Over Our News Feeds,” New York Times Magazine, August 24, 2016.

  18. “Hyperpartisan Facebook Pages Are Publishing False and Misleading Information at an Alarming Rate,” BuzzFeed, October 20, 2016, buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/partisan-fb-pages-analysis?utm_term=.thBXrODwx#.IaEMdaBNR.

  19. Cited in “Yes, I’d Lie to You.”

  20. Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind, 365.

  21. Ibid, 100.

  22. Ibid, 103.

  23. Ibid, 98.

  24. Lindsey Ellefson, “Scottie Nell Hughes Straight-Up Said ‘There’s No Such Things’ as Fact,” Mediaite, December 1, 2016, www.mediaite.com/online/scottie-nell-hughes-straight-up-said-theres-no-such-things-as-facts.

  25. Stephen Colbert, interview by Nathan Rabin, The A.V. Club, January 25, 2006.

  26. “Ballot Bluffing: A Disingenuous Article Falsely Claimed That ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Fraudulent Ballots Were Discovered in a Warehouse in Ohio,” Snopes.com, October 6, 2016, www.snopes.com/clinton-votes-found-in-warehouse.

  27. Charlie Warzel, “The Right Is Building a New Media ‘Upside Down’ to Tell Trump’s Story,” BuzzFeed, January 23, 2017.

  28. Abby Ohlheiser, “How the War Against Fake News Backfired,” Washington Post, December 7, 2016.

  29. Callum Borchers, “Blog Known for Spreading Hoaxes Says It Will Have a Correspondent in Trump White House,” Washington Post, January 20, 2017.

  30. Eric Hananoki, “22 Times Jim Hoft and the Gateway Pundit Were Absurdly Wrong,” Media Matters for America, January 25, 2017.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Ibid.

  33. “North Carolina Hillary Supporter Votes Multiple Times: Claims of Voter Fraud in North Carolina Turned Out to Be Merely a Facebook Joke,” Snopes.com, October 29, 2016.

  34. “Clinton’s Campaign Manager Robby Mook Deleted All of His Tweets Because He Was ‘Spooked’ by an FBI Investigation,” Snopes.com, October 29, 2016.

  35. Brian Stelter, “Fake Story About Obamas, Hillary Clinton Ensnares Sean Hannity,” CNN, November 1, 2016.

  36. Jim Hoft, “WikiLeaks Document Shows John McCain Requested Donations from Russians” (Updated), Gateway Pundit, February 22, 2017, www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/02/wow-wikileaks-document-shows-john-mccain-requested-donations-russians.

  37. Joe Concha, “Hannity Apologizes for Sharing ‘Inaccurate’ Story About McCain,” Hill, February 23, 2017.

  38. Charlie Warzel, “Here’s Where Donald Trump Gets His News,” BuzzFeed, December 3, 2016, www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/trumps-information-universe?utm_term=.shqp8AlRw#.gwKz5PAXx.

  39. Eric Hananoki, “22 Times Jim Hoft and the Gateway Pundit.”

  40. Julie Alderman and Brendan Karet, “What 60 Minutes Didn’t Mention About ‘Alt-Right’ Men’s Rights Activist Mike Cernovich,” Media Matters for America, March 27, 2017.

  41. Matthew Rosenberg, Maggie Haberman, and Eric Schmitt, “Trump Fires Adviser’s Son from Transition for Spreading Fake News,” New York Times, December 6, 2016.

  42. Kellyanne Conway, Twitter, April 3, 2017.

  43. Donald J. Trump Jr., Twitter, April 4, 2017.

  44. Adam Shaw, “Pro-Trump Blogger Cernovich Getting Big Scoops, Mainstream Attention,” Fox News, April 14, 2017, www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/14/pro-trump-blogger-cernovich-getting-big-scoops-mainstream-attention.html.

  9. DRUDGE AND THE POLITICS OF PARANOIA

  1. Sam Reisman, “Drudge Report Ranks #3 for All Media Publishers for Month of June,” Mediaite, July 12, 2016.

  2. John Ziegler, “Gretchen Carlson’s Lawsuit Exposes the Left/Right Media Scam,” Mediaite, July 7, 2016.

  3. Eric Hananoki, “A Comprehensive Guide to Alex Jones: Conspiracy Theorist and Trump ‘Valuable Asset,’” Media Matters for America, December 1, 2016.

  4. Ibid. See also Genesis Communications Network, The Alex Jones Show, January 13, 2015.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Genesis Communications Network, The Alex Jones Show, October 10, 2016.

  7. Eric Bradner, “Trump Praises 9/11 Truther’s ‘Amazing’ Reputation,” CNN, December 2, 2015.

  8. Manuel Roig Franza, “How Alex Jones, Conspiracy Theorist Extraodinaire, Got Donald Trump’s Ear,” Washington Post, November 16, 2016.

  9. Jonathan Tilove, “In Travis County Custody Case, Jury Will Search for Real Alex Jones,” Austin American-Stateman, April 16, 2017.

  10. Manuel Roig Franza, “How Alex Jones, Conspiracy Theorist Extraodinaire, Got Donald Trump’s Ear.”

  11. Paul Joseph Watson, “Bilderberg-Approved Perry Set to Become Presidential Frontrunner,” Infowars, June 20, 2011.

  12. KEVINAW2, “Why Is Drudge Linking to Alex Jones’s ‘Info Wars’ Site?,” RedState, June 20, 2011, www.redstate.com/diary/kevinaw2/2011/06/20/why-is-drudge-linking-to-alex-joness-info-wars-site.

  13. “A Strange Man Is Following You,” New York, April 4, 2011, nymag.com/nymag/features/alex-jones-2011-4/index2.html.

  14. Ben Dimiero, “How Matt Drudge Serves as Alex Jones’ Web Traffic Pipeline; Drudge Report Has Linked to Jones’ Infowars Site 244 Times in Two Years,” Media Matters for America, April 26, 2013.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Tweet from RedState editor Ben Howe, mediamatters.org/blog/2013/04/26/how-matt-drudge-serves-as-alex-jones-web-traffi/193780.

  17. Adan Salazar, “Drudge: ‘Why Aren’t We Seeing Hillary’s Lovers?’: Media Mogul Questions Lack of Investigative Reporting into Leading Democrat Presidential Candidate,” Infowars.com, October 7, 2015.

  18. CNN.com, October 6, 2015.

  19. Adan Salazar, “Drudge: ‘Why Aren’t We Seeing Hillary’s Lovers?’”

  20. Richard Hofstadter, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Harper’s, November 1964.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Laura Miller, “The Paranoid Style in American Punditry: Richard Hofstadter’s Seminal Take on Right-Wing Crackpots Sheds Light on the Current Anti-Muslim Panic,” Salon.com, September 15, 2010, www.salon.com/2010/09/15/hofstadter.

  24. Jonathan Merritt, “Pat Robertson, Christianity’s Crazy Uncle,” Week, October 17, 2016.

  25. “ADL Outraged at Pat Robertson’s Remarks Blaming Sharon’s Stroke on the Wrath of God,” Anti-Defamation League, January 5, 2006, archive.adl.org/presrele/islme_62/4847_62.html.

  26. “Press release: Pat Robertson’s Statement Regarding Terrorist Attack on America,” accessed January 16, 2017, www.patrobertson.com/PressReleases/TerroristAttack.asp.

  27. Marc Ambinder, “Falwell Suggests Gays to Blame for Attacks,” ABC News, September 14, 2001.

  28. Pat Robertson, The New World Order (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1991), 96.

  29. Richard C. Longworth, “Nobody Loves a Conspiracy Theory More Than Donald Trump,” Chicago Tribune, October 21, 2016.

  30. Daniel Pipes, Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flo
urishes and Where It Comes From (New York: Touchstone, 1999).

  31. Michael Lind, “Rev. Robertson’s Grand International Conspiracy Theory,” New York Review of Books, February 3, 1995. See also Ephraim Radner, “New World Order, Old World Anti-Semitism,” Christian Century 112, no. 26 (September 13, 1995).

  32. Jacob Heilbrunn, “His Anti-Semitic Sources,” New York Review of Books, April 20, 1995.

  33. Michael Lind, “Rev. Robertson’s Grand International Conspiracy Theory.”

  34. Steve Benen, “The Birthers,” Washington Monthly, March 2, 2009. See also Gregory Krieg, “14 of Trump’s Most Outrageous ‘Birther’ Claims—Half from After 2011,” CNN.com, September 9, 2016.

  35. Ibid.

  36. “Romney and the Birthers,” Public policy polling, February 15, 2011, publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2011/02/romney-and-birthers.html.

  37. Steve Benen, “The Birthers.”

  38. E. J. Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong, 436.

  39. Josh Voorhees, “All of Donald Trump’s Birther Tweets,” Slate.com, September 16, 2016, www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/09/16/donald_trump_s_birther_tweets_in_order.html.

  40. Michael Barbaro, “Trump Clung to Birther Lie for Years, and Still Isn’t Apologetic,” New York Times, September 16, 2016.

  41. Eric Levitz, “Trump Says His Accusers Are Pawns in a Globalist Conspiracy to End U.S. Sovereignty,” New York Magazine, October 13, 2016, nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/10/trump-my-accusers-are-part-of-a-global-plot-to-end-the-u-s.html.

  42. Zeke J. Miller, “Donald Trump Has a Grand Unified Campaign Conspiracy Theory,” Time, October 13, 2016, time.com/4530568/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-conspiracy.

  43. Ron Kampeas, “Donald Trump’s ‘International Bankers’ Speech Leaves Some Uneasy,” Jewish Telegraph Agency, October 14, 2016, www.jta.org/2016/10/14/news-opinion/politics/donald-trumps-conspiracy-theories-stir-uneasy-echoes.

  III. THE TRUMPIAN TAKEOVER

  10. THE FOX NEWS PRIMARY

  1. Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts, and Ethan Zuckerman, Columbia Journalism Review, March 3, 2017, “Study: Breitbart-led Right-wing Media Ecosystem Altered Broader Media Agenda.”

  2. Scott Eric Kaufman, “Conservative Radio Host Mark Levin: Fox News Is ‘Trump Super PAC’ That Will Be ‘Rubbing Their Faces in Their Own Feces’ Come November: He Isn’t Happy About the State of the GOP or Its Unofficial Fair-and-Balanced Organ,” Salon.com, May 4, 2016, www.salon.com/2016/05/04/conservative_radio_host_mark_levin_fox_news_is_trump_super_pac_that_will_be_rubbing_their_faces_in_their_own_feces_come_november/.

  3. Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Jocelyn Kily, and Katerina Eva Matsa, “Political Polarization & Media Habits,” Pew Research Center, October 21, 2014.

  4. Gabriel Sherman, The Loudest Voice in the Room; How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News—and Divided a Country (New York: Random House, 2014), 33.

  5. Ibid., 254.

  6. Ibid., 344.

  7. Ibid., 372.

  8. Ibid., 373.

  9. Eliana Johnson,” How Trump Blew Up the Conservative Media: The Right-wing Media Won the Presidency—but Lost Control of Their Audience. Inside the New Power Dynamics Roiling Fox, Breitbart and the Wall Street Journal,” Politico Magazine, May/June 2017.

  10. Rob Savillo, “STUDY: Trump Won the Fox Primary, Doubling Any Other Candidate in Interview Airtime,” Media Matters for America, May 5, 2016, mediamatters.org/blog/2016/05/05/study-trump-won-fox-primary-doubling-any-other-candidate-interview-airtime/210249.

  11. “Ted Cruz: Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes ‘Have Turned Fox News into the Donald Trump Network,’” Media Matters for America, May 3, 2016, mediamatters.org/video/2016/05/03/ted-cruz-rupert-murdoch-and-roger-ailes-have-turned-fox-news-donald-trump-network/210192.

  12. Jennifer Senior, “Review: Megyn Kelly Tells Tales Out of Fox News in Her Memoir, ‘Settle for More,’” New York Times, November 10, 2016.

  13. Dylan Byers and Dana Bash, “How Roger Ailes Is Shaping Donald Trump’s Debate Prep,” CNNMoney.com, September 7, 2016, money.cnn.com/2016/09/07/media/roger-ailes-donald-trump-presidential-debate-preparation.

  14. Ibid.

  15. “New York’s Gabriel Sherman: Sexual Harassment ‘Was Encouraged and Protected’ at Fox News Under Roger Ailes,” Media Matters for America, July 26, 2016.

  16. Gabriel Sherman, “Rupert Murdoch Is Turning Fox News into Trump TV,” New York Magazine, January 5, 2017.

  17. Eliana Johnson, “How Trump Blew Up the Conservative Media.”

  11. LIMBAUGH’S FLOP

  1. Rush Limbaugh, “If Donald Trump Didn’t Exist, the GOP Would Have to Invent Him to Win,” Media Matters for America, December 17, 2015.

  2. Nicole Hemmer, Messengers of the Right, 263.

  3. Ibid., 271.

  4. John Ziegler, “How and Why the Conservative Media Sold Its Soul to Facilitate Trump’s Nomination,” Mediaite, March 15, 2016.

  5. Ethan Epstein, “Is Rush Limbaugh in Trouble? The Talk Radio Host Is as Influential as Ever, but His Business Model Is on Shaky Ground,” Politico, May 24, 2016, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/is-rush-limbaugh-in-trouble-talk-radio-213914.

  6. “Butt Sisters are Safe from Newt and Rick,” Rush Limbaugh Show, Transcript, February 29, 2012.

  7. “Updated: Limbaugh’s Misogynistic Attack on Georgetown Law Student Continues with Increased Vitriol,” Media Matters for America, retrieved on March 5, 2012.

  8. Ibid.

  9. David Jackson, “Limbaugh Apologizes to Sandra Fluke,” USA Today, March 3, 2012.

  10. “Sandra Fluke Says Rush Limbaugh’s Apology Doesn’t Change Anything,” ABC News, retrieved on March 6, 2012.

  11. Ethan Epstein, “Is Rush Limbaugh in Trouble?”

  12. “Are We Being Fair to Rush Limbaugh?,” CNN.com, March 5, 2012.

  13. “George Will: Republican Leaders Are Afraid of Rush Limbaugh,” ABC News, March 4, 2012.

  14. Eric Boehlert, “Why Reports About Rush Limbaugh’s Contract Renewal Don’t Mention the Price,” Media Matters for America, August 2, 2016.

  15. Eric Boehlert, “Rush Limbaugh Demoted to Another Irrelevant, Ratings-Challenged Station in a Major Market,” Media Matters for America, June 17, 2015.

  16. Darryl Parks, “How’s Limbaugh’s Station in Pittsburgh Doing?,” blog post, July 26, 2016, darrylparks.com/2016/07/26/hows-limbaughs-station-in-pittsburgh-doing.

  17. Caleb Howe, “Limbaugh: I Never Took Trump Seriously on Immigration Anyway,” RedState, August 29, 2016.

  18. Tim Mak, “Talk Radio Gets Angrier as Its Revenues Drop,” FrumForum, August 6, 2009.

  19. John Avlon, Wingnuts, 112.

  20. Jon Favreau, “Longtime Listener, First-Time Candidate,” Ringer, September 6, 2016, theringer.com/how-the-far-right-media-controls-donald-trump-3d077ca46a21#.igawfzvkp.

  21. Maggie Haberman, “Rush Limbaugh Rallies Listeners to Donald Trump’s Defense,” New York Times, July 20, 2015.

  22. Premiere Radio Networks, Rush Limbaugh Show, November 11, 2015.

  23. “Limbaugh: I Never Took Trump Seriously,” Daily Rushbo, August 29, 2016, dailyrushbo.com/limbaugh-i-never-took-trump-seriously.

  24. Allahpundit, “Rush on Trump’s Maternity Leave Plan: Do You Really Think People Still Care About Small Government?,” Hotair.com, September 14, 2016, hotair.com/archives/2016/09/14/rush-trumps-maternity-leave-plan-really-think-people-still-care-small-government. See also Allahpundit, “Rush: If Done Right, a Gigantic Infrastructure Stimulus Could Be Popular and an Economic Boon,” Hotair.com, December 5, 2016.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Michael Gerson, “Rush Limbaugh’s Blessing of Trump Is Killing Conservatism,” Washington Post, March 28, 2016.

  27. Charlie Sykes, “Yes, Talk Radio Is Different in Wisconsin,” Right Wisconsin, March 28, 2016, www.rightwisconsin.com/opinion/perspectives/yes-talk-radio-is-different-in-wisconsin. See also Nolan D. McCaskill, “Trump Walks Into #Nevertrump Radio Buzzsaw,” Politico, Marc
h 28, 2016.

  28. David Weigel, “‘Stop Trump’ Forces See an Opportunity in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin,” Washington Post, March 23, 2016.

  29. Rush Limbaugh, May 3, 2017, dailyrushbo.com/Limbaugh-media-are-jealous-as-they-can-be-that-trump-responded-to-criticism-from-me/.

  12. THE BIGOTS AMONG US

  1. John Hayward, “Paul Nehlen: Paul Ryan Is a ‘Soulless, Globalist Snake, and We Smoked Him Out of the Snake Hole,’” Breitbart.com, August 9, 2016.

 

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