Trump’s moves against media outlets mirror authoritarian approaches to silencing dissent
"David Letterman Says Kimmel’s Suspension Is ‘Just Not How This Works’ “We all see where this is going,” the longtime late-night host said of ABC’s move to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show after pressure from the Trump administration."
Related: Orban's strategy, now Trump's, excerpt .. Now, a mafia state is an absolutely centralized system in which one person, the patron, the don, distributes money and power. And so in order to build a mafia state, such an aspiring patron needs to strip other agents of their money and power. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=176101945
Seeing much like early Orban's, Erdogan's, Lukashenko's regimes, and guess like early Hitler days... "Right now it can't really be fact checked as shitface made everything dark and not to talk to the press. Is anyone else seeing nazi germany's hitler here?" Trump triumphant: How his White House will be different this time " [...]There’s No Denying It Anymore: Trump Is Not a Fluke—He’s America [...]Never forget their big picture -- Meet the Apostle of Right-Wing Christian Nationalism .. [William "Dutch" Sheets] [...]The new Republican fringe is done with the separation of church and state. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175717992
Politics Sep 18, 2025 3:22 PM EDT
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against the media unlike any in modern U.S. history, making moves similar to those of authoritarian leaders that he has often praised.
On Wednesday, Trump cheered ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show after the comedian made remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that criticized the president’s MAGA movement: “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
It was the latest in a string of attacks against news outlets and media figures he believes are overly critical of him. Trump has filed lawsuits against outlets whose coverage he dislikes, threatened to revoke TV broadcast licenses and sought to bend news organizations and social media companies to his will.
The tactics are similar to those used by leaders in other countries who have chipped away at speech freedoms and independent media while consolidating political power, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close Trump ally whose leadership style is revered by many conservatives in the U.S.
“What we’re seeing is an unprecedented attempt to silence disfavored speech by the government,” said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. “Donald Trump is trying to dictate what Americans can say.”
Is Trump taking cues from Orbán?
Trump’s approach to governing has drawn comparisons to Orbán, who has been in power since 2010. The Hungarian leader has made hostility toward the press central to his political brand, borrowing Trump’s phrase “fake news” to describe critical outlets. He has not given an interview to an independent journalist in years.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says Orbán has built “a true media empire subject to his party’s orders” through allies’ acquisitions of newspapers and broadcasters. The group says that strategy has given Orbán’s Fidesz party control of about 80% of Hungary’s media market. In 2018, Orbán’s allies donated nearly 500 news outlets they had acquired to a government-controlled conglomerate, a group that included all of Hungary’s local daily newspapers.
Opposition parties complain that they get just five minutes of airtime on public TV during elections, the legal minimum, while state broadcasters reliably amplify government talking points and smear Orbán’s political opponents. Hungary’s media authority, staffed entirely by Orbán’s party nominees,has threatened nonrenewal of broadcast frequencies to keep outlets in line and forced the liberal-leaning station Klubrádió off the air.
“Here, they bought outlets and replaced editorial staff wholesale,” said Hungarian media analyst Gábor Polyák.
[Insert: Conservative media concentration continued -- WBD chair emeritus and cable TV titan John Malone slams CNN as ‘left-leaning, anti-Trump’ "On conservative media control/concentration - Nine years ago [...]"How the US right wing is taking over news media and choking press freedom" Noted also that Sinclair's group was part of the vicious conservative "swiftboating" effort against John Kerry in 2004." https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=176698065]
The moves against independent media, along with Orbán’s systematic capture of Hungary’s democratic institutions, prompted the European Parliament in 2022 to declare that the country could no longer be considered a democracy.
Polyák said that while the American media landscape is far larger and more diverse than Hungary’s, he’s been struck by the willingness of major U.S. companies to accommodate Trump’s threats.
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