Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center spent years embracing Kanye West as a popular Black entertainer who embraced Trumpism -- to the point that when he started spewing anti-Semitism, it couldn't even be moved to criticize him. The MRC even praised Ye's purchase of social media site Parler (while, of course, hiding the fact that he's purchasing it from the MRC's biggest funder, Rebekah Mercer).
So if was a bit rich to see Nicholas Fondacaro's Oct. 18 post being outraged that someone was arguing that Ye's anti-Semitism is part of mainstream conservatism:
In an appearance with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation on Monday, singer Kanye “Ye” West doubled down on anti-Semitic comments about what he called “the Jewish underground media mafia.” But in the following hour, host Dan Abrams suggested during his eponymous show that West’s disgusting comments and interest in buying the social media company Parler were strategic movies to “create a right-wing brand.”
Abrams set the tone by kicking off the show with this question:
Kanye West or Ye will buy the right-leaning social media platform Parler after being kicked off Twitter and Instagram over anti-Semitic comments. But isn't this more evidence that he is not mentally ill but just trying to create a right-wing brand?
“But from Kanye’s perspective, it appears he's just doubling down on fringe right-wing positions,” Abrams added a little bit later.
Fondacaro's description of Ye's anti-Aemitism as "disgusting" is the first criticism of it in any MRC post -- a full nine days after Ye spouted it. That utter lack of rush to judgment would seem to indicate a certain amount of comfort with such anti-Semitism -- after all, the MRC has used anti-Semitic tropes to attack Geoge Soros and former CNN chief Jeff Zucker.Fondacaro also didn't mention that the main person who funds his paycheck is also the person selling Parler to Ye.
Fondacaro went on to be annoyed that Abrams wasn't dismissing Ye's anti-Semitism as mental illness, which is how he clearly wants to frame it:
Abrams also didn’t put stock in theories that Kanye’s recent actions and outbursts were signs that he was suffering from his diagnosed bipolar disorder.
“Now, many have refused to take Kanye’s comments seriously, expressing sympathy for what they believe are clear symptoms of severe mental illness, which I think is a cop-out,” he said. “And the people who think he's mentally ill, maybe aren't giving him enough credit for believing what he's saying, including his anti-Semitism.”
To him, “[i]t seems too easy and protective of him to just say he's mentally ill” and it was all part of a machination to appeal and profit off of bigotry on the right:
[...]
“To write off this gambit as some sort of manic episode is to completely downplay his business acumen,” Abrams added. “His apparel brand has been valued somewhere between 3.2 billion and 4.7 billion. He also has a deal with The Gap and industry experts value in excess of a billion dollars.”
At no point did Fondacaro prove that anything Abrams said was wrong -- he was just mad it was said. And he certainly did not distance the MRC away from its years of promoting West's alleged right-wing values and Trump bromance.
