Dean Obeidallah: Giving Marjorie Taylor Greene a platform isn't good for America

[Celerity]

Les Moonves may be gone from CBS, but it appears his mindset continues at “60 Minutes.” And that may be good for “60 Minutes,” but it’s definitely not good for America.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/03/opinions/60-minutes-marjorie-taylor-greene-interview-obeidallah/index.html

Last year, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia spoke at a white nationalist event organized by Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes that caused Republican leaders to denounce her. Last week, Greene’s Twitter account was temporarily suspended by the Elon Musk-headed platform over a tweet with a graphic referring to a “Trans Day of Vengeance,” as she denounced a planned transgender rights rally. And come Tuesday, Greene has announced plans to protest in New York City when former President Donald Trump is expected to be arraigned on an indictment of more than 30 counts, calling the proceedings against him an “unconstitutional WITCH HUNT!”

But on Sunday, Greene was featured on CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview the long-running show promoted on Twitter with the tease: “Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, nicknamed MTG, isn’t afraid to share her opinions, no matter how intense and in-your-face they are. She sits down with Lesley Stahl this Sunday on 60 Minutes.” The images attached to this tweet by “60 Minutes” include Greene and Stahl walking through the US Capitol, taking a stroll outside and Greene showing Stahl something on her phone.

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In the segment that aired Sunday night, Stahl noted the congresswoman had moved from the fringe to the GOP’s front row in two years despite a “sharp tongue” and “some pretty radical views” as well as “over the top” comments such as “the Democrats are a party of pedophiles.” Stahl also referred to video of Greene chasing a Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor, still maintaining that the 2020 election was stolen and failing to criticize Trump over spending. (The interview was conducted before news of his indictment.) But Stahl didn’t mention Greene spoke at a white nationalist event a year ago while a member of Congress or her extreme anti-Muslim views and her defense of January 6 rioters.

Criticism of CBS for amplifying Greene has been swift and well-deserved even before the program aired. Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois tweeted beforehand: “Wow. Insane that 60 min would do this.” (Kinzinger is a CNN senior political commentator.) Journalist Molly Jong-Fast also slammed “60 Minutes” with the tweet: “Attention is currency and 60 minutes is spending its currency on the Jewish space lasers woman.” (Jong-Fast was apparently referring to Greene’s past claim that a massive California wildfire was started by “a laser” beamed from space controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family.)

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[Walleye]

1. The Democrats say the Republicans want to cut Social Security

On the other hand the Republicans say the Democrats are all pedophiles. See how that works?

[AverageOldGuy]

2. With the 60 Minutes interview of MTG . . .

. . . is CBS now chasing the Fox viewers?

[Celerity]

3. They have been for ages: Leslie Moonves on Donald Trump: "It May Not Be Good for America, but It's

Damn Good for CBS”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/leslie-moonves-donald-trump-may-871464/

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Leslie Moonves can appreciate a Donald Trump candidacy. Not that the CBS executive chairman and CEO might vote for the Republican presidential frontrunner, but he likes the ad money Trump and his competitors are bringing to the network.

“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,” he said of the presidential race.

Moonves called the campaign for president a “circus” full of “bomb throwing,” and he hopes it continues. “Most of the ads are not about issues. They’re sort of like the debates,” he said.

“Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now? … The money’s rolling in and this is fun,” he said.

snip

[dalton99a]

4. For balance, CBS will present an interview with Matt Gaetz or George Santos

or some equally fearless patriot

[Ahna KneeMoose]

7. Next Week On 60 Minutes: Stahl vs Santos

A no-holds barred 3-round extravaganza

My cents predicts: Santos in two (!)

[Cha]

26. And, "smart". :(

[markodochartaigh]

29. And OANN will soon be presenting

AI deepfakes of Democratic politicians partying live with Jeffrey Epstein and burning Bibles. And those deep fakes will be massively shared by both AI bots and Maga humans, and one quarter of the US electorate will base their vote on them.

[Celerity]

5. CNN has now changed the title, I used the original

original



new one

[Lovie777]

6. Chaos is good ratings......................

not good for the USA but damn good for ratings.

News outlets don't give a damn about the USA.

[Ligyron]

8. They're capturing viewers.

Even a lot of us are tuning in (is that phrase still used?) to see this circus act. Oh, what outrageous thing will she say next?

Next thing you know, MTG will show up on Wrestle Mania and I'll bet she's cast as a "good guy".If nothing else, this woman knows what it takes to make herself famous in America and she's even better at it than Madonna.

[jaxexpat]

9. How will they top this?

Perhaps:
> "Parasitic fashion", an exclusive expose' of the latest tapeworm and deer-tick accessories.
> "joking around the crematorium", the lighter sides of A. Hitler.
> "it's just not fair", the lifestyle struggles of J. Dahmer.
> "when you're high, there's no limit", the C. Manson story

[Celerity]

10. I could see Manson actually saying that back in the day

"when you're high, there's no limit"

[TNNurse]

11. I did not watch by choice,

but my first thought was that MTG would just be encouraged by the attention.

This was not needed.

These reviews do not change my mind.

[PatSeg]

12. I have rather mixed feelings about it

Many mainstream people watch 60 Minutes and not all of them are paying attention to Marjorie Greene. Highlighting the danger isn't necessarily a bad thing, but a lot depends on how Stahl handled the interview. I haven't watched it yet, so I could feel differently if and when I do.

[Marius25]

14. Stahl praised Greene for being "smart and fearless"

It completely normalized Greene and will likely make her more popular with people who don't know what a fascist nutjob she is, because Stahl did nothing to point that out.

[PatSeg]

20. Oh damn

That is awful. CBS must really be desperate for ratings. I've heard Stahl ask tough questions in many of her interviews, even with Donald Trump. It should have been easy to expose Greene, she tells the world everyday what a truly horrible human being she is.

[PatSeg]

22. Okay, I watched the interview and Overtime online

and Stahl asked good questions. She did not praise Greene for being "smart and fearless". She said that Greene came from the construction industry where she was "known to be smart and fearless and has a history of believing in conspiracy theories".

Stahl asked Greene about her controversial tweets and obviously wasn't buying that it was staff, not her.

When questioned about raising the debt ceiling, Greene said, "I don't think we have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem". Classic republic tagline and Stahl didn't let it go. "You know something? That's glib," Stahl responded.

They played a video clip of Greene chasing after a survivor of the Parkland School shooting. Stahl questioned her about some of the outrageous things she has said starting with "Democrats are pedophiles". "They are not pedophiles. Why would you say that?" After Greene's ridiculous answer, Stahl made a face and said, "Wow".

Greene complained about "name calling" from the media and Democrats and Leslie said "Pedophiles?"

Obviously, there was more, but for the most part they weren't softball questions and though Stahl came across as relatively pleasant, she wasn't letting any of Marjorie's crap go unchallenged.

[Caliman73]

30. My take on the situation.

I have not watched the interview either so I cannot answer as to how Stahl did. What I think about the whole thing however is this:

Even allowing Greene to go on 60 minutes was a bad move. Greene is really not an important person in American Politics. Even someone as gross as Mitch McConnell at least has standing. He was the Senate Majority leader and he still sets the agenda for the Republicans in the Senate. I despise McConnell, but he has impact in politics. Greene has done almost nothing in her time in the House. She represents one out of 435 districts, and while she supposedly wields power over the spineless McCarthy, her only currency right now is the stupid shit that she says, which gets her attention. 60 Minutes gave her national attention, not to mock her for her stupidity, but to "talk about it". The only thing Stahl and 60 minutes could have done to pull the idea out of the fire is to do what Jon Stewart did to Tucker Carlson all those years back. Stewart made Carlson look like a fool and essentially got Crossfire cancelled. Carlson is still bitter about that.

Greene is a stupid, loud, but small fish right now. While Stahl and 60 Minutes think maybe they exposed some of her unseemly attributes, the reality is that right wing authoritarians will use every tool at their disposal to get their ideas into the mainstream. Whether it is perceived positively or negatively, it is part of the conversation now. They operate through "force of will". This has been used by extreme right wing groups like fascists since the rise of Mussolini and Hitler. They use "liberal" institutions to imbed themselves into the body politic so that they can assume the levers of power and destroy liberal and democratic institutions. When we give them a platform, "for the sake of objectivity" we sign our own death warrants.

Regardless of how people may think or feel the interview went, Greene herself is celebrating. That should say how the interview went. She will win re-election in her specially gerrymandered district and the longer she is in Congress, the more opportunity she will have to mainstream her extremely stupid and harmful ideas. 60 Minutes did no one any favors regardless of whether they pitched her some "hardballs" yesterday.

[PatSeg]

33. Well said

I am uncomfortable giving such a person a national platform, however, I do view her as potentially dangerous and think that should be communicated to the people who don't follow politics the way we do. I don't think her appearance portrayed her in a positive light, but I'm sure she is probably happy with it. Like Trump, she thinks any attention is better than no attention which is evident by her many outrageous public stunts over the past couple of years.

In more ordinary times, I'd predict that Marjorie would crash and burn with all the crazy crap she pulls, but apparently we live in a time where anything goes, the nuttier the better. The ridiculous world of reality TV has actually escaped the tube and slipped into the real life. A big chunk of the population thinks it is normal.

God, I hope her fifteen minutes are up pretty soon.

[Ferrets are Cool]

13. It was done for ONE reason. Ratings.

Every network would KILL to be the first to interview Satan.

[DownriverDem]

15. I disagree

Americans needed to see the nutjob. Lesley Stahl held her own.

[inthewind21]

21. I agree

However, we do have a large number of the voting population who can't seem to form a single thought for themselves without some "celebrity" telling them what to think. See MAGA loons. This has been an issue for a very long time. See American Idol votes VS US Presidential election votes. And then there's the rest, of which a very large number, let the non thinking followers off the hook and blame it all on the celebrities, the media, the republicans, cheating and whatever else can be thought of. As a country, we tend to blame everyone and everything thing on something other than ourselves. It's all throughout American History.

What we see now, has been coming for a very long time. And Republicans played the long game. They got the Supreme court, stacked the federal courts, got a bunch of loons in the congress and control a bunch of state houses. Anyone who was surprised when the SC gutted Roe , hasn't been paying attention.

[PatSeg]

23. I agree

I just watched it and Stahl certainly did hold her own. If anyone was paying attention, the interview showed Greene for who she really is.

[lambchopp59]

16. My current nausea couldn't handle

Watching that Cheshire cat grin fomenting terrorism

[Loge23]

17. The normalization of crazy

The normalization of crazy continues on the MSM.
The 60 Minutes (Puff) piece on MTG was an affront to decency, as well as our democracy.
Who's next?

[JanLip]

18. I look forward

To media sending someone to interview the orange baboon in his prison cell.

[BannonsLiver]

19. I had zero plans to watch it.

But since everyone is so pressed about it I’m getting FOMO!

[twodogsbarking]

24. It has gotten the attention of the masses. Interesting.

[Cha]

25. Thank You!

[PufPuf23]

27. Thank you. Media treatment of MTG is disgusting and troubling.

Thank you in general for what you bring to DU and your energy.

[GuppyGal]

28. She already has a platform(s) in case folks haven't noticed.....drag her out into the sunlight

Trashing these threads

[Caliman73]

31. Her platform is small and insular...

What right wingers like Greene want is a larger platform.

Our problem is that we are thinking about this as if is a normal "political problem", where more discussion will allow us to "carry the day" with better arguments. That is not how right wing extremism has ever worked in history. They conduct their business through force of will. We need to remember and understand that the Fascists in Italy and the Nazis in Germany never had more than 30% support from the people. Both groups used the levers and failings of "Liberal" institutions to get into power. They want to be part of the discussion, even if they may be the "butt of the joke". Conservative groups in both Italy and Germany thought they could control the extremists to hold onto power, but they were wrong.

Sunlight will not fix this, especially the way that our American Media does "sunlight". The mainstream, corporate owned media is about ratings and access. They have a long history of cozying up to power and not challenging stupid ideas by calling them stupid. Greene may not have come out completely "golden" but she was also not completely made to look like the fool that she is. That is a win for her and her side. If she is was willing for the story to come out, she must have known it wasn't a career ending interview.

She now has a bigger platform thanks to CBS.

[SouthernDem4ever]

32. CBS must be aspiring to be Fux Nooze of the airwaves

I am almost completely done with them. I hope they enjoy their audience who enjoys not hearing the truth behind the facade.