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new york
CNN
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The jury may still be deliberating, but Donald Trump’s media allies have already delivered their verdict to their audience.
Throughout the Manhattan hush money trial, Fox News and other MAGA media have been setting the stage for Trump’s acquittal in this historic trial, with popular personalities like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Steve Bannon lampooning the justice system and portraying Trump as an innocent victim of political persecution.
In this alternative media world, the actual facts of the incident never make it past the bubble that protects viewers from adverse developments for Trump. Instead, a dishonest alternative story is promoted as if it were true.
Not only is Trump completely innocent, Any and all While the MAGA media world is well known for its malfeasance, President Joe Biden is guilty of maliciously weaponizing government to “loafer” his political opponents. Audiences are told that Biden could not win a fair fight against Trump, so he has resorted to “election interference” to rig the justice system against Trump.
Needless to say, this story is based on baseless lies and innuendo. Biden does not control the justice system. The hush money case is being prosecuted in New York State court by the Manhattan District Attorney. And the people making waves in the case, testifying against the Republican candidate, are not Trump’s left-wing enemies, but former Trump allies, such as his former fixer Michael Cohen and former National Enquirer president David Pecker.
Nonetheless, millions who consume right-wing media are fed these deceptive stories, influencing how voters perceive current events and, more importantly, how they vote. In the Republican Party, voters get their information from outlets like Fox News, which has dishonestly defended Trump during the trial.
“Where’s the crime?,” was the slogan that was sung on Ingraham’s primetime show Wednesday, which called for him to hang a banner reading “Real Fraud” alongside photos of Biden, Judge Juan Marchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
For the next hour, Judge Jesse Watters used on-screen graphics to accuse Marchan of “leading the jury” and suggested the selection of a “stop-Trump” judge as presiding was “highly suspect.”
In a study published this week, the progressive Media Matters said Fox News has launched at least 200 attacks on Marchant alone since the trial began — a staggering figure that doesn’t include attacks on other people connected to the case, and that the study only looked at Fox News, not the many other groups that make up the right-wing media landscape.
It may be tempting to ignore the relentless onslaught of Trump’s media allies trying to disparage this case, but these forces are shaping how much of the country understands this unprecedented and momentous trial unfolding in lower Manhattan — and they serve as a reminder that if Trump returns to power, he will have at his disposal a powerful propaganda machine that will do everything in its power to justify whatever actions he takes.
