Thread by @ThePlumLineGS

1) This is extraordinary.

Sinclair is now reportedly requiring dozens of local stations to air a segment that defends the tear-gassing of migrants and describes them as an “invasion of our country.”

I’m not sure we’ve figured out how to conceptualize this adequately.

*THREAD*

2) The segment is classic agitprop. It whips up hysteria about a crisis that has “greatly escalated,” and bashes “the left” for undermining the military and refusing to “abide by the rule of law:

https://twitter.com/pamela_vogel/status/1067474802552840193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1067474802552840193&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthinkprogress.org%2Fsinclair-migrant-caravan-tear-gas-93cfc3f5d754%2F

3) This is nonsense. The rule of law dictates that migrants have the legal right to apply for asylum, not that they represent a breach or an infestation (a word Trump loves) or an “invasion.”

The segment smoke-screens this central fact with chaotic, frightful imagery.

4) If anything, *Trump* has undermined the rule of law, by sending in the military to bolster GOP campaign propaganda -- an extraordinary act of official misconduct.

Sinclair is lending air cover to this campaign and flirts with endorsing violence against asylum-seekers.

5) The larger context is important. This isn’t conservative opinion. It's *disinformation.*

During 2016, Sinclair played a big role attacking “fake news” on Trump’s behalf.

I recount this story in my book, in a chapter on the "pro-Trump media machine":

amazon.com/Uncivil-War-De…

6) The decline in confidence in the news media is real. But it’s mostly a phenomenon among *Republicans.*

And under Trump, this is at a new high.

My book offers polling data confirming this:

amazon.com/Uncivil-War-De…

7) The attacks on the independent press aren’t working too well on the American mainstream, thankfully.

Majorities of overall Americans trust the news media, not Trump, to tell them the truth.

But *huge* majorities of Republicans trust Trump:

amazon.com/Uncivil-War-De…

8) According to @mmfa, the migrant segment will run on over 100 local stations as part of its “must run” series.

Sinclair has broadcast similar agitprop defenses of Trump amid the child separations and after Charlottesville white supremacist violence:

mediamatters.org/blog/2018/11/2…

@mmfa 9) Fox News has been absolutely plastered with similar hysteria-fomenting imagery of the migrants for weeks.

Sinclair and Fox News together reach a whole lot of people. It would be useful to know how many.

As @JuddLegum says:

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1067524091668774919

@mmfa @JuddLegum 10) A Dem strategist said something recently that is still nagging at me:

“Trump is carrying on a conversation with his voters under the radar that we just don’t understand. Democrats are not carrying on this same kind of conversation with their voters.”

Worth thinking about.

@mmfa @JuddLegum 11) Anyway, my book tells this broader story about Trump, the demonization of the press, and the current disinformation plague. It looks at what scholarship and political science tells us about their larger implications.

Hope you’ll check it out. FIN

amazon.com/Uncivil-War-De…

@mmfa @JuddLegum CODA: I just want to stress one point.

Sinclair and Fox haven't merely pushed pro-Trump propaganda on migrants and other things.

They have *also* amplified Trumpian attacks on the *independent* press. A disinformation twofer!

From "An Uncivil War":

amazon.com/Uncivil-War-De…