Slate’s editor-in-chief said Tuesday afternoon that GOP front-runner Donald Trump is the closest thing to a fascist that he has seen in his life, and called on media to stop contributing to the billionaire businessman’s continued political success.
“Trump’s not a fascist, but he’s the closest we’ve been to one in my lifetime. The media must stop abetting his rise,” Slate’s Jacob Weisberg said on social media.
Weisberg has made it no secret that he deeply dislikes the casino tycoon, and has repeatedly lamented the GOP candidate’s unexpected success in the 2016 Republican primary. Since last fall, he has argued that media is partly responsible for Trump’s sudden political success.
“What could possibly be the attraction of this puffed-up billionaire buffoon? The first thing to say about the Trump phenomenon is that a mutually gratifying symbiosis with the press drives his popularity,” he wrote in August 2015.
“Media attention propels Trump’s numbers, and his numbers justify more coverage. His candidacy makes the primaries into a remunerative and enjoyable story, even though everyone knows it is guaranteed to fall to pieces by the time the primaries get fully rolling in February.
Weisberg is not the only editor at a major media organization to offer a full throated rebuttal of Trump’s candidacy.
The Huffington Post editorial board was an early adopter of this newsroom trend, first relegating all news relating to the real estate mogul to the “entertainment section,” and then later attaching an editor’s note to each Trump-related story denouncing him as a racist bigot.
“Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.,” reads a note that comes attached at the conclusion to all stories involving the leading Republican candidate.
The editorial boards of the Washington Post, National Review and the New York Times have also come out against Trump, publishing multiple treatises on why the front-runner is a terrible and dangerous candidate and why he is unfit to be the president of the United States.
