Thread by @mattsheffield

Thread: The disinformation machine you've never heard of, how Christian fundamentalists brainwash millions

A short version of this very important #SundayRead by @anelsona flux.community/anne-nelson/20…

While there has been a lot of attention in recent years devoted to white nationalist and fake news websites, their audiences are dwarfed by Christian fundamentalist media companies.

Almost all of them are linked to a secretive group called the Council for National Policy

These media outlets, which are covered in even greater detail in @anelsona's book "Shadow Network," are constantly promoting a message of Christian supremacism and die-hard Trump fandom to tens of millions of Americans daily bookshop.org/books/shadow-n…

As traditional media outlets such as newspapers & news radio have collapsed, Christian fundamentalist radio stations & websites have multiplied. These outlets blend literalist scriptural interpretation with numerous warnings that liberals and Democrats are Satan's allies.

Hundreds of such radio stations, which are primarily operated by Salem Media and American Family Radio, have taken advantage of FCC regulatory rollbacks which allowed for a single owner to operate multiple stations in one market. This used to be illegal. Not any more.

Salem Media, which is run by two fundamentalist Christian Republicans named Stuart Epperson and Edwart Atsinger III, not only owns more than 100 radio stations and national shows, also owns many conservative websites.

Salem Media also owns Regnery Publishing, a right-wing book house. It uses its radio and web networks to drive sales of its authors. It also uses its connections to Republican politicians to drive bulk purchases of its authors, and to directly subsidize them through Regnery.

Salem, AFR, & other right-wing media enterprises have mostly operated under the radar, at least compared to Fox News and Rupert Murdoch.

The primary goal of all these entities is make Republicans fear and mistrust other media outlets so that they can be readily monetized.

For the more explicitly religious operations such as Salem and AFR, the other purpose is to keep out moderate Christians and secular conservatives.

The Religious Right works just as hard to censor and deplatform moderate conservatives as to lift up extremist ones.

For the most part, religious right radio companies have little competition.

As @anelsona notes "Oklahoma, for example, has six NPR stations, mostly in cities and college towns, while Bott and American Family Radio have a combined twenty stations blanketing the state."

Local right-wing radio has also been a consistent incubator of Republican politicians, including Mike Pence, who started off as an Indiana radio host. Many other Christian fundamentalist politicians got their start thanks to this network. Salem is now trying to push Charlie Kirk.

Despite competing to some degree w/each other, far-right Christian media entities work secretly behind closed doors through a networking organization called the Council for National Policy. At the state and local levels, they have been extraordinarily effective and made millions.

Please help us get the word out about this important political story by retweeting this thread and purchasing Anne's book. Thanks for your help! /end bookshop.org/books/shadow-n…

PS: To read more great articles like Anne's please follow us at @DiscoverFlux.

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