“First they came for the journalists …. We don’t know what happened after that.” It’s a meme, based on that famous poem from the Holocaust, that started making the rounds on social media with the inauguration in 2017 of Donald Trump and his administration’s cries of “Fake News” every time he or someone in the administration was called out for their lies.
Trump himself qaccused the media of being an “enemy of the American people” and being “most dishonest” people, even going so far as to threaten NBC’s FCC license.
So right-wing attacks on the media aren’t new, and the fact that the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, announced today (Monday, Nov.
20) that he is launching an “investigation” into the nonprofit watchdog organization Media Matters for “potential fraudulent activity.” Paxton’s announcement came shortly after X owner Elon Musk filed a federal lawsuit against Media Matters for reporting that advertisements from major brands appeared next to antisemitic posts on X.