As the left and right try to define their opposition ahead of November’s midterm elections, the media are clearly taking sides. According to a new NewsBusters analysis, the media has condemned conservatives and Republicans 86 percent of the time when they compare Democrats to communists or jihadists. However, when liberals compare Republicans to Nazis and fascists, only five percent of such analogies were rebuked.
For this study, NewsBusters analyzed all news programming from PBS, MS NOW, and CNN as well as the morning and evening newscasts from ABC, CBS, and NBC from August 1 through August 15.
I Did Nazi That Coming
During the study’s two-week runtime, analysts counted 19 analogies comparing conservatives or Republicans to fascists or Nazis. Of these, only one was rebuked. All of these occurred on either MS NOW or CNN.
That the media only condemned comparing conservatives to Nazis or fascists five percent of the time is consistent with a 2022-2023 NewsBusters study on the same topic.
Examples of uncondemned Nazi analogies included CNN’s Erin Burnett wittingly idly by as former Trump legal counsel Ty Cobb reacted to Todd Blanche being sworn in as attorney general, “I think there was a summer night in 1934 when Hitler consolidated his power surrounded by Himmler, Goring, and Goebbels. This is reminiscent of that to me, because you've got Blanche and Bove, who saw the president through a trial that resulted in 34 felony convictions. You've got Stephen Miller and Kash Patel.”
MS NOW host Joe Scarborough, who in the aforementioned 2022-23 study was declared king of the Nazi analogies, huffed, “And you look at Hispanics, what David Drucker said: they're having to carry their papers now. This is like - this is what happened in the Soviet Union. This is what happened in Nazi Germany. Hispanics are having to carry their papers.”
The one time a fascist analogy was denounced came from former GOP North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, who denounced both sides, “And I think we need to go back to our history books and even distinguish between communism and fascism. You know, one was Stalin and one was Hitler. And they come at the bottom of a circle. Being a political science major from way back when, it's labeling, where people have very little knowledge of what the labels mean, is a very common political attack mode, by both parties in America. And it's a sad commentary. And sometimes the media falls for it too.”
Comrade Solidarity
Throughout the study’s runtime, there were a total of 78 communist or jihadist analogies made over the six networks. Most of these were not directly from media personalities, but some variation of “Trump says” or “Republicans accuse” Democrats of being communists or, in Abdul El-Sayed’s case, a jihadist. Of the 78 analogies, 67 were in some way condemned.
Examples of such condemnation include PBS News Hour anchor Amna Nawaz lamenting, “What we have seen from Republicans on the messaging front so far is some anti-Muslim rhetoric already… But the president is also talking about a rising communism threat. None of these candidates are communists.”
MS NOW’s Vaughn Hillyard mourning to Eugene Robinson, “Okay, so El-Sayed is a self-described capitalist, but do Democrats need to forcefully push back against this latest red scare in order to win this race?”
ABC reporter Jay O’Brien made sure voters knew El-Sayed self-identifies as a capitalist, “Trump branding El-Sayed a communist. The candidate is backed by some of the country's leading socialists, but he insists he's a capitalist himself. And tonight he's making it clear he's ready for the attacks, including any aimed at his ethnicity or his Muslim faith.”
O’Brien’s colleague Rachel Scott did likewise as she teed up a clip of El-Sayed, “The President trying to focus on El-Sayed branding him as a communist. El-Sayed saying he’s ready for the attacks.”
CNN’s Audie Cornish and MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire joined Hillyward in accusing Republicans of using “Red Scare” tactics.
Conclusion
For the media, there are two separate sets of rules for the upcoming election. In order to call someone a communist, the media appear to believe you must be a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA to be considered a communist. If someone identifies as a democratic socialist, then they must be identified as a democratic socialist with a special emphasis on “democratic.” Never mind the fact that the Democratic Socialists of America praised Fidel Castro during this study’s runtime.
By contrast, media reporters, anchors, and commentators want to continue to smear Republicans as Nazis and fascists without criticism.
Notes and Methodology
Shows analyzed include all news programming from PBS, CNN, and MS NOW as well as ABC's Good Morning America and World News Tonight, CBS's CBS Mornings and Evening News, and NBC's Today and Nightly News.
For Nazi and fascist analogies, NewsBusters analysts conducted a SnapStream search for the terms “Nazi,” “Nazism,” “Hitler,” “Goebbels,” “Himmler,” “Holocaust,” “Gestapo,” “Fascism,” “Fascist,” “Mussolini,” and “Germany.”
For communist and jihadist analogies, analysts conducted a SnapStream search for the terms “communism,” “communist,” “Marxism,” “Marxist,” “Lenin,” “Stalin,” “Mao,” “jihadist,” and “Sharia.”
A condemnation could either be made explicitly by a media personality, or a reporter could follow up with a clip of the accused politician defending themselves.
All analogies must have been made in the context of domestic policy, so any references to Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union as an analogy for a foreign policy failure were not included.
Similarly, because neo-Nazis really do exist and people like Hasan Piker openly praise Mao, any discussion about them or similar groups or people were not included.
