🧵Our national news media, describing lying GOP candidates as mere "skeptics," has taken sides in the battle for democracy. Fascists who lie about our electoral system aren't viable candidates for office. Media must stop softening their immorality. We need pro-truth frames. 1/
Fascism expert @ruthbenghiat explains: "The GOP's aim is to debase the whole idea of elections, so the fundamental democratic idea of relying on elections to choose leaders is compromised." The midterms are a referendum on how well America's newsrooms have conveyed the threat. 2/
Euphemisms like "election denier" convey validity to a strategic disinformation campaign. 70% of GOP voters believe lies they've been fed. News media creates a nationwide permission structure to "deny" elections. A candidate who "disputes the 2020 results" is lying. 3/
"Dispute" suggests there's something to dispute. There's nothing to dispute. "Deny" suggests something occurred to be denied. There's nothing to deny. Describing liars this way is itself a way of lying to readers - on behalf of fascists. If you're MAGA, does this read as bad? 4/
It gets much worse. Here's how @washingtonpost & @rubycramer, just weeks from election day, portrayed Kari Lake, a person who lies to everyone whose vote she wants. Voters deserve the blunt truth about candidates who lie. The subhead dubs her a "Republican phenom." Lake PR. 5/
.@MarkJacob16 nails down what's so wrong with this type of glossy coverage that only manages to imperceptibly nod at the danger. 6/
#FixMediaNow
Any frame other than one forcefully identifying the dangers of anti-democracy MAGA candidates, is a dangerous violation of public trust. Media cultivates reality. Everything we know about national politics is filtered down from coverage like that of @rubycramer. 7/
#FixMediaNow
🚨We've developed a series of guidelines for pro-democracy, pro-truth election coverage that we URGENTLY recommend our national media adopt.
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
mediaanddemocracyproject.org/prodemocracyco…
We'd love it if you checked them out and shared them as widely as possible.
We must #FixMediaNow. 8/
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