During an appearance on Sunday’s Reliable Sources, New Yorker columnist Masha Gessen expressed horror that “reasonable people can disagree” about whether President Trump deserved to be impeached, describing that notion as “absolutely terrifying.” Throughout the entire segment, Gessen and other members of the panel demonstrated hostility towards the idea of any disagreement on the impeachment issue and described assertions that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election as “conspiracy theories” that have been “backed up by a Russian disinformation campaign.”
The discussion began with Stelter asking Gessen “what is different about this time versus the Nixon years, the Clinton years? Is it the conspiracy theory thinking that has dominated this entire scandal?” Maybe Stelter forgot but “conspiracy theory thinking” played a major role in the Clinton impeachment; with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton coining the term “vast right-wing conspiracy” in an effort to dismiss the allegations of wrongdoing against her husband.
Inside this bubble, there can be no honest statement against the radical view that Trump must be removed as soon as possible. Any disagreement is described as “deliberate deception” and “disinformation.”
MASHA GESSEN: You know, what worries me the most, actually, is that I think that since…since about a week ago, when we saw the legal experts testifying in Congress, I think we’ve been in new territory which is the sense that reasonable people can disagree about whether he…he should be impeached.
BRIAN STELTER: Right.
GESSEN: I think this was…this was Turley’s testimony in the Judiciary Committee. But I find it absolutely terrifying, right? And that…and I…and I…and I see that, you know, Trump is actually positioning himself to the sort of, to the fringes.
Gessen’s comment came after Mark Lukasiewicz, former NBC News executive and Dean of the Hofstra University School of Communication, suggested that those who differ from the “consensus” view about the facts surrounding the Trump impeachment case should not have a voice on legacy media outlets: “There are two competing worldview realities...We do a disservice when we serve those up.” As he attempted to make the case that the other side did not deserve to be heard, Lukasiewicz accused CNN analyst Rick Santorum of “gaslighting” and “trying to sow deep, deep, deep confusion in the American public about what is actually going on in the world.”
Lukasiewicz had previously objected to host Brian Stelter’s use of the term “theories” to describe the allegations of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 presidential election, instead preferring to refer to that narrative as a “disinformation campaign.” According to Lukasiewicz, “one of the failings of our contemporary media” is the hesitancy to describe the aforementioned theory as “deliberate deception” and “fabrication.” Lukasiewicz also contended that “calling it a conspiracy theory lends it a certain credibility.”
For the rest of the segment, panelists reminisced about the good old days when the “whole alternate reality” of Fox News did not exist. The self-proclaimed guardians of the First Amendment really miss having a monopoly in the media.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Sunday’s edition of Reliable Sources can be reached by clicking on the link. Then click “expand” to read more.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/ryan-foley/2019/12/16/new-yorkers-gessen-horrified-reasonable-people-can-disagree-about
