CNN’s Brian Stelter compared the radicalization of ISIS members to Trump supporters who listen to the “right-wing media machine.”
“First, the best word for what is happening in America right now is radicalization. That’s what it is. That’s what this hyped-up, right-wing media machine is doing. That’s why it feels harder to talk about politics with other people,” Stelter said on his show Reliable Sources on Sunday.
“When Trump lifers are calling for troops in the streets because they lost an election, that’s radicalization. When they start speculating about breaking off and creating their own country, that is radicalization. All of this election denialism talk is radical. And yet, it is infesting the airwaves. It’s everywhere in the pro-Trump media,” he continued.
Stelter named Newsmax, Fox News, and One America News Network as “radical” and added that “if those channels aren’t enough,” people being “radicalized” go on Facebook.
Stelter then launched into how members of the terrorist group ISIS, as well as the shooters behind the devastating El Paso or Las Vegas shootings, became radicalized, often because of the internet.
“We ask how did ISIS members become radicalized? How did the shooters in El Paso or Orlando or Las Vegas become radicalized? Well, the answer very often is the internet. The digital land of make-believe. The same pipeline that helps my children learn, helps you connect with your loved ones also poisons some adults and distorts their reality,” he said.
“The body of research about radicalization is very clear. The internet creates more space for extremism, and the echo chamber effect accelerates the process. Qanon is one really clear recent example. So is ‘Stop the Steal.’ And so are some corners of the anti-vaccination movement. Reporters see what’s going on. They are seeing signs of this radicalization in American politics, and some are calling it like it is,” he continued.
President Trump has continued claiming that voter fraud occurred during the presidential election and spurred the results in President-elect Joe Biden’s favor. Just on Sunday, the president said the election was the “GREATEST ELECTION FRAUD IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY.”
Biden, however, has slammed claims of voter fraud, saying last week, “The court sent a clear signal to President Trump that they would be no part of an unprecedented assault on our democracy.”
