Thread by @kegill

This @CJR @lyzl essay is gold.

It reinforces @chucktodd essay in @TheAtlantic about Roger Ailes and FOX 'news': "Ailes helped destroy Dukakis by making him seem an other to many Americans."

@TuckerCarlson stokes fear of "the other" for personal gain

cjr.org/the_profile/tu…

Read it.

Then think about who @TuckerCarlson's propaganda benefits. (Tucker Carlson inherited wealth and has a net worth of more than $8 million.)

cjr.org/the_profile/tu…

As @lyzl notes, think about the power imbalance between interviewer and subject.

@TuckerCarlson is a millionaire several times over. He has "Status. 2.7 million viewers. He holds the attention of the president."

And @lyzl?
"I might be 'the liberal elite,' but I buy groceries at Wal-Mart, live in Iowa, and after 12 years of working as a writer, I still can’t get many outlets to even respond to my pitches."

"What happened to make a rich white man the vox populi? How did I, a mom in the Midwest who can’t afford health care, become the humorless, censoring, liberal elite?"

I do not watch cable TV 'news'.

I do not watch Tucker Carlson, even on YouTube, and I did not watch Bill O'Reilly. My healthy skepticism of TV 'news' predates cable.

Frankly, cable 'news' is frightening.

And if you've been avoiding it, go read @chucktodd at @TheAtlantic , too:
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

READ. It's far easier to engage reason (put a check on knee-jerk reactions) when contemplating words on a page (paper or screen) than it is when you're treated to propaganda served up as moving pictures and sound bites.