Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang criticized the media Monday for its coverage of President Trump, saying that it has failed to explain his appeal.
“I would say I think our media has done us a disservice by overly simplifying why Donald Trump is our president today,” Yang said at a rally in Chicago.
Yang said that the media was wrong to blame Trump’s election on racism, Russia, ignorance, immigration, Facebook, or the FBI, among other narratives.
“The reason Donald Trump is our president today is we automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs,” he said.
Yang, whose upstart campaign has recently gained media attention, has called for a new agency to monitor “fake news.”
“‘Fake news’ is a rampant problem,” says Yang on his campaign website. “The rewards for publishing inflammatory content are high with no real penalty. At the extreme end, those who wish to misinform the American public can do so with little fear of repercussions.”
He proposes creating a new office, called the News and Information Ombudsman. The office would have the power to “investigate complaints of deliberate, persistent and destructive misinformation published by media companies and on social media.” The head of the Ombudsman would be given authority to levy fines as necessary.
Unorthodox ideas have been a staple of Yang’s campaign. The centerpiece of his platform is a call for a universal basic income that would give every adult $1,000 a month, no strings attached. Recently, Yang has raised a discussion about circumcision, with a debate planned on the issue with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.
Yang’s policies have made him a favorite in some corners of the Internet and created tangible support that has propelled him to a spot in the first Democratic debate this June.
