Media critic Sarah Kendzior had no problems at all telling the press they should see this as a war when Trump calls you the enemy. And of course, outdated and perverse practices like the White House Correspondents Dinner should be shunned.
Normally, any reference to the Nazis risks invoking Godwin's Law and is not all the helpful, but Kendzior's reference to the infamous propagandist for the Nazis, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl was especially apt here, as she also did what she did just to get along and further her career. That's just not a journalists' role. Riefenstahl was not a Nazi herself, which is why she wasn't hanged at Nuremberg, but she did as much as anyone to build up the myth of Hitler.
JOY REID: This is an administration that is mimicking some of the sort of worst traits of the sort of autocracy. Is there a special peril in this ongoing war as Donald Trump sees it?”
SARAH KENDZIOR: “Yeah, I mean, the media should see this as a war when the president declares you their enemy, declares you the opposition party and when they have that executive power and are issuing a bunch of unconstitutional executive orders. You should take that very seriously and not necessarily take your First Amendment rights for granted. That said, I think that press should continue doing their job regardless of what kind of fear this administration thinks it’s going to instill.”
“I think the obligation of the press is to serve the public and they should put that first. I think they should have been putting that first all along instead of playing a part and propping up this dictator that we’ve got going on. You know, I’m glad to see the press taking a more aggressive stance, doing more investigative pieces, acting less like a bunch of botoxed Riefenstahls propping up this guy.”
“That’s the way we need to keep going and we need to accept things have definitively changed. He is in power, this is not a campaign. This is real life."
