I went on the TV: mediamatters.org/video/2018/10/…
One thing I didn't really have time to flesh out -- it's new for "false flag" narratives to spread from the fringe into the mainstream right-wing media. But it isn't new for the mainstream right-wing media to provide a home for conspiracy theories more generally.
Rush Limbaugh spent the early 1990s pushing Vince Foster conspiracy theories on his audience. He was feted by the GOP leadership and was one of the most powerful figures in Republican politics for two decades. mediamatters.org/blog/2012/03/1…
Lou Dobbs was pushed out at CNN because he wouldn't stop demanding that President Obama show his birth certificate.
These conspiracy theories spread from the right-wing commentariat into the Republican congressional caucus.
The Republican chair of the House Oversight committee shot a watermelon in his backyard to demonstrate that Foster couldn't have committed suicide (he did).
Eleven GOP House members signed on to a 2009 bill requiring presidential candidates to release their birth certificates. One of them, Marsha Blackburn, is now running for U.S. Senate.
It is a very big deal that the president himself is now a conspiracy theorist. And it's also a big deal that "false flag" claims are now leaving the fever swamp and showing up on Fox. But it's important to recognize that right-wing conspiracy theories predated Trump and Jones.
