• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, June 3, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Trump, Google, and Hitler

Paul Levinson by Paul Levinson
09/03/18
in Opinion
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters

US President Donald Trump. Photo: Mandel Ngan, AFP

84
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Donald J. Trump‘s recent attack on Google, claiming that searches conducted on it were “rigged” against him – overlooking or suppressing what he considers to be his positive accomplishments and highlighting the torrent of warranted criticism of Trump in the media that constantly appears – is just the latest in his all-out assault on the media which began before he was inaugurated as president. Like many of Trump’s pronouncements, this is based on a complete lack of understanding – in this case, of how the Google search algorithm works, which is based on relevance to the topic and search history of the searcher, not whether opinions about the topic are pro or con. Trump’s attack on Google is also part of what may be the greatest threat to democracy in the history of our republic.

The assault was unleashed at a press conference in January 2017 in New York City, a few weeks before Trump assumed the office which the Electoral College had awarded him. In response to an attempt by CNN correspondent Jim Acosta to ask a question, Trump denounced the outlet as “fake news” and therefore not entitled to ask any questions of the president-elect.

This quickly proved to be the first salvo in an attack on any news about Trump from any source that was critical of him or unwelcome as “fake news.” All of the major cable news networks other than Fox were soon treated to the same epithet, as were newspapers including The Washington Post and its owner Jeff Bezos, which led Trump to attack Amazon, most associated with Bezos in the public mind, and The New York Times. In addition, Trump labeled the latter as “failing,” even though his election campaign and his presidency, and the hunger it has created for reliably reported news, has increased its circulation, just as it has for the viewership of the progressive MSNBC.

It is little surprising but deeply disturbing that Trump would turn his sights on Google and social media since they, far more than television and newspapers, are the way that most younger people increasingly get their news. Soon after his tweet about Google, Trump expanded his attack to Twitter and Facebook, saying later that same day that “Google and Twitter and Facebook, they’re really treading on very, very troubled territory. And they have to be careful.”

President Trump: "I think that Google and Twitter and Facebook they're really treading on very very troubled territory. And they have to be careful. It's not fair to large portions of the population" pic.twitter.com/yK8Vg1iBJB

— CSPAN (@cspan) August 28, 2018

This threat, because that’s exactly what it is, has disquieting parallels. Adolf Hitler and his Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels (at least they were honest about his title) called unfriendly news media “Lügenpresse” – the lying press – which is another way of saying fake news. Trump’s alt-right supporters have taken to using that Nazi term and tactic at rallies since 2016. Trump sprinkles “enemy of the people” into his tirades about the press, a favorite phrase of Joseph Stalin for anyone who spoke out against him in the Soviet Union.

In terms of what can be done about this, there’s not much other than getting Trump out of office. A better question is: what shouldn’t be done in response to Trump’s repeated assertions that something has to be done about what he perceives as misreporting about him in traditional and digital media, and the dissemination of that in social media and Google. Any government regulation of the news media, in any fashion, would be a blatant, ipso facto violation of the First Amendment, and its provision that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.”

In the 20th-century, critics of radio and television have been known to say that these electronic media need not be protected by the First Amendment, since our Founding Fathers who wrote that amendment in the 1790s, and the states that ratified it, could not have known about radio and television. The same is now also said about digital media.

I would argue that those arguments are focusing on the wrong thing: what characterizes a news medium and what makes it a conveyor of news is the fact that it is conveying news by whatever means, not how it does this by technological means. The Founders included the two media known in their day – the spoken and the written word. There is no reason whatsoever to assume they would not include electronic and digital means of news dissemination at hand today.

Further, we who believe in democracy must work hard to respect the First Amendment wherever it may be challenged. Censoring hate speech is dangerous because any news and speech that Trump deems hateful could be brought up for censorship under his regime. A better and safer approach is to criticize hate speech for what it is.

Trump has not yet censored any news medium. But neither did Hitler, until he and his Nazi party were democratically elected in the Weimar Republic in 1932. That republic did not have a longstanding First Amendment as a bulwark against the destruction of the free press which soon followed Hitler’s ascension to power.

But we in America do. And we must make every effort to keep it strong and unbridled to restrain this emerging Hitler in our midst.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
Share84Tweet
Paul Levinson

Paul Levinson

Professor of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University, New York City

Related Posts

A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather on the West side of the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021
National

Militia Leader Gets 18 Years in Prison Over US Capitol Attack

by Staff Writer
May 26, 2023
Donald Trump
National

US Supreme Court Freezes Release of Trump Tax Returns

by Staff Writer
November 1, 2022
Donald Trump
National

US Capitol Riot Probe Votes to Subpoena Trump to Testify

by Staff Writer
October 13, 2022
Steve Bannon
National

Former Trump Advisor Bannon Charged With Fraud in New York

by Staff Writer
September 8, 2022
US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Donald Trump Thanks You for Your Sacrifice

by Stephen J. Lyons
August 17, 2022
Mar-A-Lago raid
National

FBI Raid on Trump’s Home Ignites Political Firestorm

by Staff Writer
August 9, 2022
Next Post
The Cologne sex assaults sparked mass protests in Germany and a surge in support for anti-Islam PEGIDA movement

Why Liveability Indexes Need a Rethink

Saudi arabia prince purge anti-corruption

Saudi Arabia Declares Online Satire Punishable Offense

Recommended

A man holds US, Taiwan flags

US and Taiwan Ink Trade Deal as China Issues Warning

June 2, 2023
Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather on the West side of the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021

Militia Leader Gets 18 Years in Prison Over US Capitol Attack

May 26, 2023
Customers queue to enter a re-opened Zara clothes shop

EU Targets Fast Fashion in Push for Durable Goods

May 23, 2023
A billboard showing the debt limit is seen in Washington, D.C.

US Republicans Upbeat on Prospects for Debt Deal

May 19, 2023
Military hardware rolls through Dvortsovaya Square during a Victory Day military parade in central Saint Petersburg

Pressing Russia, US Shares Nuclear Warhead Data Under Treaty

May 16, 2023

Opinion

Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
A man holding a gun

The NRA’s Continuing Agenda of Fear

May 12, 2023
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

A Supreme Folly 

April 24, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post