On Thursday, MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber compared President Trump’s lawsuits about the media's false narratives to a “Soviet crackdown.”
Melber began with a false example:
They are also, unfortunately, working on some of the most powerful companies in the country. This is the connective tissue from some of the other stories we discussed tonight. Paramount and Skydance have now closed their multibillion dollar merger after paying out Trump and having a controversial Colbert cancellation, which they said was financial anyway, but adds to the entire view that Trump is able to get his way with these corporations.
First off, Paramount and Skydance paid Trump because CBS’s 60 Minutes had a major edit error from the interview with Kamala Harris less than a month before the 2024 election. The edit purposefully conveyed to the public that Harris seemed more “intelligent” with her one answer regarding Israel’s involvement with the Biden Administration, when in reality, she fumbled through the answer with her typical word-salad style. That edit had election interference to sway the public’s votes when the answer was not correct.
Second, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was canceled for financial reasons-not because the Trump administration felt like it was time to end Colbert’s night show run after losing roughly $40 million a year.
Melber insisted that Soviet-born novelist Gary Shteyngart would connect the dots to draw “parallels from that Soviet crackdown to what Trump is doing right now.
Shteyngart said he grew up with “a lot of censorship.”
Shteyngart including what books he could read from abroad, “I grew up in a very, in a system where a lot of censorship. There were very few books you could read from abroad. I remember that one book that I was allowed to read was Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, but it had an introduction by one of Stalin’s henchmen. Which was very fun introduction. Stalin wanted to purge all the, you know, whatever, Mark Twain, et cetera. But I’m very worried about the kind of confluence I see between America and the United- and Russia. One thing Russia has always done is create its own- It doesn’t just want you not to know the truth, but it tries to create a kind of alternate reality."
He added, “I think when you grow up in a totalitarian or authoritarian society, it stains you no matter what happens to you later on. I mean, I still have a sense of distrust, the sense of lack of belief in certain systems, because when you grow up without knowing what the truth is, you spend the rest of your life wondering who you are and how you belong in a society.”
Shteyngart stated regarding a “Soviet” society to Trump’s presidency, “Censoring books, like, for example, Toni Morrison, right? Which is something a high schooler would read, but still denying people the ability to read, you know, the truth about the African-American experience. That, to me, is shocking and so Soviet at heart.”
Toni Morrison books have not been "censored." Any American can go online or to a bookstore and buy one. The "ban" is about members of the public questioning books in a public library, or books assigned to students in public schools. The Left never finds it to be "Soviet" for public librarians to refuse to shelve books they don't like for ideological or religious reasons.
Shteyngart ignored how it is sensitive, deep blue districts that remove people like Twain because of the racial slurs used to convey the time period the book was written.
The United States has the most freedom in the world, especially with freedom of the press. Stop comparing your Russian upbringing to a president who wants to expose the biased agenda against him, which made the liberal media look bad.
Let this serve as an example of the left-wing media using extreme examples to take policies or motives out of context to fit their liberal agendas
Click here for the transcript.
MSNBC’s The Beat With Ari Melber
8/7/25
6:44 p.m. Eastern
MELBER: Strong words from Watergate journalist Bob Woodward there telling us this week Trump's first amendment crackdowns are, quote, “pathetic.” They are also, unfortunately, working on some of the most powerful companies in the country. This is the connective tissue from some of the other stories we discussed tonight. Paramount and Skydance have now closed their multibillion dollar merger after paying out Trump and having a controversial Colbert cancellation, which they said was financial anyway, but adds to the entire view that Trump is able to get his way with these corporations.
Trump also has an active lawsuit against the Fox News sister outlet, The Wall Street Journal, over another story that remains in the news. It's reporting over Epstein Trump links, which The Journal stands by.
And we want to turn to a novelist who grew up in Russia and knows all about hardcore Soviet censorship. Gary Shteyngart has written Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story. Just as we learned from political thinkers and authors of nonfiction, sometimes when we turn to the people who are using their voice artistically, even more broadly, it's very striking to see what they say. And when you add in the real world experience, he draws parallels from that Soviet crackdown to what Trump is doing right now. Take a look.
(Cut to video)
GARY SHTEYNGART: I grew up in a very, in a system where a lot of censorship. There were very few books you could read from abroad. I remember that one book that I was allowed to read was Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, but it had an introduction by one of Stalin’s henchmen.
MELBER: Wow.
SHTEYNGART: Which was very fun introduction. Stalin wanted to purge all the, you know, whatever, Mark Twain, et cetera. But I’m very worried about the kind of confluence I see between America and the United- and Russia. One thing Russia has always done is create its own- It doesn’t just want you not to know the truth, but it tries to create a kind of alternate reality. (Transition)
I think when you grow up in a totalitarian or authoritarian society, it stains you no matter what happens to you later on. I mean, I still have a sense of distrust, the sense of lack of belief in certain systems, because when you grow up without knowing what the truth is, you spend the rest of your life wondering who you are and how you belong in a society. (Transition)
I was seven, eight years old. I knew all the members of the Politburo by name, you know. The politics were always around you and my son, he’s 11 years old. He is his friends, they talk about Trump all the time and about Trump’s henchmen. It’s almost like that’s the idea is that they become ubiquitous. And that’s the only reality you know, even if you have parents who are saying, “okay, this is not great.” It’s the only world you know because it finds its way. (Transition)
Censoring books, like, for example, Toni Morrison, right? Which is something a high schooler would read, but still denying people the ability to read, you know, the truth about the African-American experience. That, to me is shocking and so Soviet at heart.(Transition)
I've known friends in Russia who are completely silent on social media and every other mode that they can have. There's a Russian term, a Soviet term called “writing into your desk,” meaning that you know that what you write is going to offend the authorities. So, you write into your desk so nobody else will see it. That's the danger. (Transition)
It becomes a chilling self-censorship. And that's something that I'm absolutely worried about.
