Thread by @JeffSharlet

As a journalist w/ 20 years on the far right beat, I'm going to close-read @60Minutes' MTG segment. To start: "MTG is as famous as they get." That's their justification: fame. AKA popularity. AKA the fundamental currency of fascism. 1/

Stahl: "[MTG]'s gained her national celebrity--some say notoriety"--Ok, but what do *you,* the journalist who has supposedly studied MTG, say, Lesley? That statement reveals the poverty of faux-objectivity. It's not objective--its subjectivity favors fame. 2/

Stahl on @60Minutes: "Before Congress, [MTG] helped run [the family biz], known to be smart & fearless, & has a history of believing in conspiracy theories." & yet, believing in conspiracy theories means being gullible, naive, & fearful. Which is it, 60 Minutes? 3/

First ad in the video of @60Minutes MTG... thing is an ad that amiably spoofs conspiracy theorists to promote a tax prep service. Tee-hee-hee! Conspiracy theories are just silly fun, right? & doesn't everybody hate taxes? (This, not overt rhetoric, is how fascism grows.) 4/

Stahl begins her MTG interview in dark kelly green, MTG in sleeveless royal blue. Two blondes. Why am I talking about what women are wearing? Because that's how TV works. This softens contrast, make what shld, in this case, be adverserial, seem like simply variations. 5/

Stahl: "We looked up some words"--apologetic smile--"that have been said about you." MTG, nervous, humanizing laugh: "Ok." List of crude terms. Shot of MTG swallowing. Poor woman, right? Shrugs. "You're used to it," says Stahl, invoking "strong woman" trope. 6/

Stahl: "How much have you styled yrself after Donald Trump?" MTG, in response to this T-ball of a question, "hmm." Stahl: "People say, you are--Trump in high heels." What is the effing purpose of this question, @60Minutes? What did you possibly imagine you'd learn? 7/

The ball's been set on a T for MTG. Surprise, she knocks it out of the park. "We both come from the same industry, construction, & I also have a plain speaking style." Q Stahl *cld* have asked: People say you draw from the same well of racism & paranoia. Is that deliberate? 8/

Never fear, Stahl follows up! "But also, he's often in attack mode. & you appear to be." "Attack mode" over what? Stahl doesn't say. That'd be rude! Politics isn't about anything but style, right? 9/

MTG rightly recognizes Stahl's "tough" follow-up as another softball: "YEAH," she says. "But I think our gov't deserves it." Viewers, unaware as yet of MTG you know, *believes,* may be thinking, "Gosh, that's right--I want politicians who challenge power!" 10/

Next @60Minutes gives us a quick montage of "outlandish," "even thuggish" MTG, shouting & aiming a gun. But her sin, it suggests, is that she disrespected Biden. Over what? So far, no clue. Nothing but a conflict of style & manners. 11/

Stahl, over footage of MTG at speaker's podium: "In just 2 years, Greene, 48, has moved from the fringe of the party to the frontrow, w/out changing either her *style*" (emphasis Stahl's) "or her views." What views? Still no word. Cut to MTG, boasting of being authentic. 12/

Stahl sits passively as MTG takes it away w/ story about how she''s called crazy, then colleagues go back to districts & discover constituents want them to support her, & realize maybe she's not crazy. Stahl politely smiles. Cut to MTG w/ constituents. This is campaign video. 13/

At last! Almost 1/3 thru @60Minutes MTG segment, 1st mention of any actual beliefs: on the debt ceiling. Right. Because that's how MTG built power, w/ reasoned argument on debt. F-me, @60Minutes, what happened to you? 14/

& here's Stahl's first "wait-a-minute," straight outta 1987: "Trump is as much responsible for debt"--conceding classic conservative argument that "debt" is more important than, you know, the human beings MTG demonizes and incites violence against. 15/

"Objective" Stahl, to MTG: "Would you be willing to vote for compromise, in other words, raise some taxes?" This is what "objectivity" means to MSM: "compromise" at any cost, first & foremost on micro-movements of capitalism from hard right to center right. 16/

MTG, gleeful at this legitimization: "I don't think we have a revenue problem... we have a spending problem." Stahl hits hard: "You know something? That's glib." No shit, Sherlock. But my concern w/ MTG isn't glibness; it's the hate. 17/

"That's glib," Stahl continues, and then, stating the center-right ideology of @60Minutes as fact, "the two sides have to come together & hammer it out." Tell us, Lesley--what shall we "hammer out" w/ MTG's Jewish space lasers? W/ her attacks on trans people? 18/

OMG. Stahl just won't stop. Cueing up MTG on "spending," and then, her version of hard hitting: "But would you compromise?" So, if MTG will move the tax needle a few points, the rest of the fascism is ok? 19/

Then @60Minutes plays vid of MTG chasing Parkland survivor @davidhogg111--first evidence, almost 1/2 thru, of extremism--& quotes "things she's said that're over the top." Huh. What is this "top" you speak of, Lesley Stahl? How far over it are fascists? 20/

"They are not pedophiles," Stahl says, rolling her eyes. "Why would you say that?" My question for Stahl: Why, if you know anything about the movement of which MTG is a leader, wld you ask that, other than to normalize her by implying it's "just" rhetoric? 21/

Let's look at Stahl's now infamous "wow. Ok," in response to MTG's pedophile comments. Stahl tilts her head, looks up, smiles, puffs her cheeks--& that's it. She believes she's still the center of things, MTG the fringe, & that her eyeroll will take care of this. It won't. 22/

Then, Stahl: "The question *really* is, can't you fight for what you believe in without"--etc. No, this isn't what the question *really* is, unless you're proceeding from assumption that MTG doesn't actually believe hateful things & has good faith aims. 23/

To be continued. Time to pick up my kid from school. This 60 Minutes interview... future media scholars will look at this from the wreckage of MTG's America and weep. (Not really! I don't believe MTG will win. But this sure is a boost to her.) 24/...

Back to MTG's @60Minutes. This isn't an interview. It's not journalism. It's a meeting of power styles. Lesley Stahl, arching an eyebrow from what she thinks is still the center, MTG goggle-eyed from what she knows now is, at least, the center of her party. 25/

MTG: They call me names. "Racist, anti-semitic." Stahl responds not by noting MTG's explicit racism & antisemitism by saying, essentially, "you do it, too," by calling Democrats "pedophiles." As if Dems calling MTG racist is equivalent to MTG calling them pedophiles. 26/

In the old establishmentarian center-right politics practiced by Stahl here under cover of "an interview," "name-calling" is one of the worst political sins. "Racist" or "pedophile"? Tomatoes, tomahtoes. What Stahl wants--demands--is "compromise." 27/

Damn. Stahl: "[MTG] also still calls the 2020 election stolen." Clip of MTG doing just that. And... bupkus. No statement that this is false. Transition to chummy walk outdoors. "Born & raised in Georgia..." 28/

Stahl: "[MTG] now lives in an upscale neighborhood of her home district." No mention of MTG's district shopping. The visual does some work, but you could almost miss the giant elephant statue in her yard, or not think about the plantation-style columns... 29/

More hardhitting questions from @60Minutes, as they stroll MTG's estate: "How many acres do you have?" MTG: "I have ten acres." Lesley Stahl: "Ooh!" Lifestyles of the rich and fascist. 30/

Stahl notes MTG is now "worth" $11 million, but "she says her parents struggled financially." *She says.* Isn't it @60Minutes' job to do more than repeat what an established liar "says"? 31/

Stahl is relentless! Relentlessly softballing. (Which is unfair to softball.) "What did [your dad] think of your style?" A chuckle. "Your pitbullness?" Here we see the clash of styles: Stahl finds it tacky. She doesn't realize she's saying exactly what MTG wants & needs. 32/

"Your mother?" continues Stahl. "Did she ever say 'Marjorie? You need to tone it down?'" This is doubly grotesque, a kind of gender policing--mothers instructing daughters on "femininity," & implying problem w/ MTG's hate is its style, not its substance. 33/

On we go, with a down-the-line Horatio Alger telling of MTG's story, leading to a weightroom, where, says Stahl, marveling over MTG's barbell, says MTG "discovered her brazen gutsiness." I guess gutsiness is one word for calling for executions of yr colleagues... 34/

I don't fault @60Minutes for footage of MTG working out. If we want to understand nature of her fascist appeal, that's part of it. (& say that as someone who loves the gym). But there's zero contextualization, zero contemplation of strength as political aesthetic. 35/

Lesley Stahl performs surprise at the news that MTG sees herself in opposition to much of the GOP, & puzzles over why MTG doesn't blame Trump. Trump, in Stahl's implied narrative, is the rotten apple in an otherwise sound orchard. 36/

As @plmanseau points out, b-roll of the "journalist" enjoying a happy stroll w/ the fascist is, in essence, advocacy for the normality of the fascist. Here's Stahl, smiling! Here's MTG, smiling! Locals, smiling! See? It's not so bad. (So goes the logic.) 37/

Here comes Stahl's idea of tough stuff: Gently pushing MTG on her past social media, liking a tweet advocating assassination of Pelosi. That's bad stuff! What's worse is what MTG continues to espouse. It wasn't a "gaffe." 37/

Stahl keeps asking MTG if she "apologizes" for statements MTG, lying, says she didn't make or like. Imagine rightwing show asking me if I "apologize" for pro-LGBTQ+ views. Pointless. Those are my views. & those are MTG's. Stahl desperately seeking a "normal" that isn't there. 37/

Stahl lets MTG rant. Only implicit apology I hear is Stahl's: "Let me button this up and move on." She does so w/ a list of MTG's views. (At last.) Clearly, MTG is supposed to deny them. MTG says, "Yep." And, basically, "thanks for the media!" 37/

Ends on MTG at a rally, & this false statement: "The question for her and the country is, can she expand her brash MTG brand beyond the rightwing populist base?" But neither MTG nor the country are asking that. No, Lesley, MTG won't moderate. 38/

Conclusion: Lesley Stahl has never read Yeats, never even imagined that the center might not hold, never imagined it was in question. She believes she's inside, looking out at MTG, & thus doesn't imagine MTG a real threat. She's eager to "compromise" w/ MTG. And so she has. 39/39

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