Liberal media outlets aren’t satisfied with merely seeking to disqualify Donald Trump from future influence over national affairs. They are seeking to judge and punish all of conservative media as responsible for the Capitol riot.
In Thursday’s New York Times, their columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a piece asking “Can We Put Fox News on Trial With Trump?” Kristof wants cable companies to remove Fox News.
On the front page was an article against talk radio. Online, the headline was:
How Right-Wing Radio Stoked Anger Before the Capitol Siege
Shows hosted by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other talk radio stars promoted debunked claims of a stolen election and urged listeners to “fight back.”
To older media watchers, it was quite comparable to how the Times and others tried to blame conservative talk radio for the Oklahoma City federal building bombing of 1995. A team of four reporters criticized the radio hosts as the splenetic "id" of conservative thought:
....the often unguarded nature of talk radio, where hosts indulge in edgier fare than on TV networks like Fox News and listeners call in to say what they really think, insulated from the scrutiny of people they disagree with.
The result is something of an id of American conservative thought. Hosts’ intemperate remarks on race, immigration and other subjects lend the shows a renegade feel and keep listeners loyal and emotionally invested.
The Times relied on a radio monitoring team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which transcribed what was said on leading conservative programs between November 22 and January 5.
A New York Times analysis of those transcripts found that, on “The Sean Hannity Show,” which is carried by more than 600 stations, the election was referred to as fraudulent, rigged, stolen or illegal in 35 out of the 45 episodes transcribed by M.I.T. in that period, including comments from guests and callers. The election was referred to as fraudulent, rigged, stolen or illegal in 32 of 45 episodes of Mr. Limbaugh’s program transcribed in that same time span.
And yet, that had to admit "After the Capitol riot, the same hosts denounced the violence. 'Every good, decent honorable American would condemn all violence,' Mr. Hannity said on Jan. 6."
They also noted Limbaugh said on December 16 Biden “didn’t win this thing fair and square, and we are not going to be docile like we’ve been in the past, and go away and wait till the next election.” But there's a difference between feeling the election was unfair -- just as Democrats have done in 2000 and in 2016 -- and inciting a riot.
What the liberal media will find in conservative thought is the suspicion that they want to close down all debate over this election, heavily reliant on mail-in voting; and they want to shut down conservative opposition to the swamp that has just retaken the reins of power. They want to shame and intimidate Trump and members of Congress as well as curtail the conservative social media world. They want to deplatform or cripple Fox News and conservative talk radio. It feels like they're going for full cancellation.
