According to AllGov.com, news and polling results aggregator Media Matters for America reported recently: “Trump in 2015 had received 234 minutes of coverage among NBC, CBS and ABC evening news broadcasts, while Sanders got only 10 minutes of coverage from the Big Three. ABC gave Sanders the least amount of time, with only 20 seconds of stories broadcast about the Sanders campaign on World News Tonight. Those figures don’t include reports about events such as debates in which all candidates participate.”
If Fox News and CNN had been included, the data showing the disparity in coverage would have been far greater.
As capitalism moves more and more toward monopolies and the merging of capital as Lenin described in his “Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” there are only six U.S. corporations that control 90 percent of the media— GE, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner and CBS.
U.S. mainstream media seek to mask the links between the hatred spewed in the debates, host shows and news reporting each day and the newly emboldened extreme right-wing activity. These media Big Six claim they are just “saying what is on people’s minds,” deliberately ignoring the significant uptick in people who have become interested in socialism as a result of the Sanders campaign.
The Big Six media willfully fail to connect the dots between:
- The call by GOP frontrunner Donald Trump for registration of groups of people, in particular Muslims and Arabs, and their exclusion from society or entering the U.S., as well as fascist actions that threaten the Arab and Muslim community;
- The demonization of Latino immigrants in the most disgusting and racist way;
- The rise of armed attacks against Black organizing and resistance like the AME church massacre in Charleston, N.C.—a horrific act that took place only six months ago and is now nearly forgotten by the media, and the recent armed attack on Black Lives Matter protesters; and
- The recent armed attack against Planned Parenthood, in essence sending a message to push back the women’s movement and the right to abortion to conditions decades ago.
It appears that a significant sector of the ruling class is testing the waters to encourage a fascist movement in the U.S. in light of the worsening conditions of the workers coupled with sustained fight-back such as the Black Lives Matter movement, the fight for $15 minimum wage, and struggles for other basic rights that are denied in class society.
Fascism is defined by Marxists as a form of capitalist rule that the capitalists resort to in times of extreme social and economic crisis. Although all forms of capitalist rule are racist and vicious, fascism involves the mass mobilization of disaffected sectors of the middle class to smash workers’ organizations. One way to promote this movement is to re-legitimize racism to heighten divisions.
Polls show that millions of people support the program put forth by Bernie Sanders that includes “racial justice,” women’s and LGBTQ equality, a living wage and support for social welfare programs. This shows the potential for increased organizing by the most exploited and oppressed sections of the working class.
Courageous forces have mounted demonstrations across the country whenever fascist forces have been emboldened to mobilize. Fascist elements and their media sponsors can be defeated as working people increase their determination and militancy in actions to counter the ruling-class narrative and push back fascism and its mouthpieces.
