On CNN’s “Reality Check” segment on Tuesday, John Avlon expressed shock and outrage over comparisons of Dr. Anthony Fauci to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Avlon those nasty attacks on Fauci “dangerous deflections” while ignoring the countless times his own network, among others, eagerly compared Republicans to Nazis and other historical villains.
After citing two news clips, Avlon complained, “Now, for those of you keeping score at home, that’s two ‘Fauci is fascist’ comparisons from Fox News hosts in one day.” Just so the record is set straight, let’s take a look at some of the Nazi comparisons CNN has articulated or encouraged over the years:
A psychiatrist guest on Brian Stelter’s “Reliable Sources” in 2019 called President Trump “as destructive a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were in the last century,” continuing by wildly ranting: “He may be responsible for many more million deaths than they were.” Stelter did not push back on this absurd claim. He has a long history of naming Trump and his government authoritarianism by unhinged left-wing guests.
Speaking with CNN host Alisyn Camerota in December of 2019, Anthony Scaramucci called Trump supporters in Congress “Vichy Republicans” – referring to French collaborators with the Nazis.
In a special interview with Anderson Cooper in January of 2020, singer Linda Ronstadt likened America during Trump’s presidency to the Weimar Republic, saying that Trump was “like Hitler” persecuting Mexicans, “the new Jews.” Once again, there was no pushback.
Douglas Brinkley (CNN presidential historian) compared Trump to George Lincoln Rockwell who was the founder of America’s Nazi party.
In the wake of the 2020 election, CNN host Fareed Zakaria suggested that Trump’s refusal to concede paralleled Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. Months later, Zakaria once again compared America to Germany immediately prior to World War II, while his show ran the chyron “Republicans need an exorcism.”
Back in January, CNN’s Don Lemon went all-out in comparing not just Trump, but millions of Americans who voted for him, to Klan members and Nazis: “If you voted for Trump, you voted for the person who the Klan supported. You voted in favor of the Nazi-supporting person. The alt-right supporter was the one you voted for. That’s the crowd that you are in.”
Piers Morgan, CNN’s CNN anchor, attempted to trace a line between the Tea Party and Mussolini or Hitler by going back several years.
All of that isn’t to say Dr. Fauci can be subjected to violent threats. CNN attempts to paint a moral high road regarding authoritarian parallels is laughable. Following this hypocrisy and selective memory, Avlon went on to blame Republicans for distrust in media, calling criticism of Fauci “an outgrowth of the disinformation industrial complex which amplifies any negative narrative about designated enemies”:
Obsessive attempts are part of an environment that encourages polarization and misinformation. Local newspapers, which edit and verify the information, are slowly dying. This combination appears almost to reduce trust in media institutions, at a moment when it is so crucial to work together.
Avlon wonders why public trust in media is so low, while CNN contributes to the types of comparisons that host John Berman himself called “repugnant.”
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You can read the entire transcript below by clicking on Expand
CNN’s Day of the New
11/30/21
7.32.35 amJOHNBERMAN – No one can be trusted to answer all questions. Every public official is subject to criticism, even Dr. Anthony Fauci. However, some of what has been said over the past 24 hours is both new and shocking in terms historical ignorance as well as gross absurdity. John Avlon gives you a reality check.
JOHN AVALON: Dr. Anthony Fauci was the subject of a slew of partisan attacks. Fox News yesterday featured two sickly new cases.
LARA LOGAN – This is the way people tell me that he does not represent science. Josef Mengele is Dr. Josef, the Nazi doctor that performed experiments on Jews in concentration camps and during World War II. These are statements made by people from all over the world.
TUCKER CARLSON – Tony Fauci has become a much shorter Benito Mussolini.
AVLON It does make me wonder if Lara Logan is being compared to Josef Mengele if this continues. Of course that is kinda the point. It’s become a cottage business on the extreme right to hate Dr. Fauci. This began during the first months of COVID, when polls revealed that Fauci was trusted more than Trump. The Donald continued to attack Fauci, a sin which was unforgivable. Became a right-wing signifier with GOP fundraising off anti-Fauci swag, like Governor Ron Desantis pushing “Don’t Fauci my Florida” t-shirts, as his state closed in on record COVID rates this summer. Politico cites data from Bully Pulpit Interactive that shows conservatives spent $300,000.00 on Facebook ads targeted at Fauci alone in May. As the threats became personalized and more conspiratorial,
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Dr. Fauci made mistakes. It’s eminently possible, for example, to investigate the Wuhan lab leak theory without trying to blame the global pandemic on America’s top public health doctor. However, even with such degraded standards I was surprised to discover that the anti-Fauci latest outrage claimed that he had killed puppies literally. In some ways, it’s actually the perfect cartoon version of negative partisanship, where, your political opponents are not merely mistaken but evil. These people would be so evil that they’d even consider killing puppies. Normally, this isn’t the kind of thing we’d bother to reality check, but an incisive Twitter thread by The Atlantic’s David Frum made me realize this has got real traction. It went beyond the typical grifters like Donald Trump Jr. who’s selling “Fauci kills puppies” t-shirts, to actual elected officials on both sides of the aisle. It spawned memes that flooded social media, and people called Fauci’s office, threatening death with threats similar to these.
VOICEMAIL: [ Bleep ] you, Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci, I would like them to put you in an enclosure with some flies. Then they will eat your flesh and hang you from the highest branch.
VOICEMAIL: Your evil [ bleep ]. Your days may be over. Rot in hell, [ bleep ].
AVLON: Fauci responded to these attacks by telling the “Washington Post,” quote, “The constant harassment in the form of ridiculous accusations and outright lies makes doing my job and that of my staff of fighting COVID-19 pandemic all the more difficult.” Well, that’s clear. Where did the whole idea of killing puppies come from? It turns out, a White Coat Waste Project group, started by an ex-Republican operative, published blogs claiming that Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spent $375,000 on truly horrific experiments that were performed on Tunisian dogs to spread a disease caused by sandfleas. But this wasn’t the true story. According to the journal which published the study, they were not funded by the National Institutes of Health. However, the NIH has funded another experiment in which beagles were vaccinated against a disease transmitted by sandflies. This was to verify its effectiveness.
Although animal experiments might not be for everyone, David Frum pointed it out that the A- and B-experiments are perfectly acceptable to conduct research on a vaccine. These experiments had nothing to do Dr. Fauci. Now, for their part, the White Coat Waste Project’s VP Justin Goodman told CNN that “As a single issue organization, we don’t take any stand on Dr. Fauci and the NIH’s other policies or issues – masks, vaccine mandates, the overall COVID response, or frankly anything else. We’re only working to end his funding for these cruel experiments.” The group has not retracted or corrected its claims that the NIH funded the study in Tunisia. And it’s still publishing images from the study. They claim the NIH funds other studies in which the dogs are euthanized because the research has not proven a cure. CNN is unable to verify the claims. Now, I’m tempted to step back and say, the good news is that we’ve finally found some common ground between PETA and Trumpers, but that would be putting lipstick on a pig, to use a metaphor that I’m sure PETA would also hate.
The bigger issue here is the constant drumbeat demonizing Dr. Fauci. It’s an outgrowth of the disinformation industrial complex which amplifies any negative narrative about designated enemies. This is a sign of the asymmetric information war, in which some individuals profit from polarization, misinformation and local papers that fact-check and edit are disappearing. This combination appears almost to reduce trust in media institutions, at a moment when it is so crucial that we can reason together. It seems that social media algorithms spread more misinformation than the truth. It is important to disclose how these algorithm users use them. Right now, conspiracy theories and lies seem to have more publicity than real facts. Disinformation can be disorienting. This can lead to people losing their common sense. However, these nightmare visions are ultimately false. This is your reality check.
Lara Logan may like to read a Josef Mengele book before making any comments.
AVLON is a good option.
BERMAN: It’s repugnant. John Avlon, I’m grateful.
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