Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Nicholas Fondacaro began an Oct. 18 post this way:
The incendiary language from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow was one of the things that inspired James T. Hodgkinson’s attempted assassination of multiple congressional Republicans at a baseball practice in 2017.
Fondacaro is lying. He cited absolutely no instance of "incendiary language" by Maddow that "inspired" Hodgkinson -- or any "incendiary language" at all. His purported proof of this was a CNN article that noted only that Hodgkinson claimed to have watched Maddow's show on social media -- which, of course, is proof of nothing, and certainly not the incitement Fondacaro is claiming.
As we've documented, Fondacaro is a very prolific liar -- something for which the MRC pays him handsomely to do, given that he remains employed there and he has not been made to correct and apologize for his lies.
The rest of Fondacaro's post was whining that Maddow wrote about warning about a likely fascist state if Donald Trump is re-elected:
Maddow was on The View to hawk her new book Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism(tying the American right to parallels with the rise of European fascism) and to discuss the topics of the day, including the 2024 presidential election. According to her, if you really listened to what Trump was saying, he was pitching an America ruled by him with no elections ever again:
I mean, the Republican Party right now has to make a decision and it's their decision to make. We have party processes for a reason, but ultimately if you listen to what Trump is saying; you don't sort of regard him as a spectacle but listen to what he's saying. He's basically portraying a future for America, if he is put back in the White House, in which we don't have another election after that.
Of course, her unsupported claims and doomsaying got the approval from the entire case including faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin.
The conversation spurred on co-host Sara Haines to assert that Trump would “cancel the news.” “Like, the news, you’re done,” she said. Maddow agreed and added: “He wants to put MSNBC on trial for treason so that he can execute us.”
She provided no evidence for that disturbing accusation.
As far as "unsupported claims and doomsaying," that's all presumably in her book, which Fondacaro apparently can't be bothered to read. As far as MSNBC goes, a month later Trump made a post to his ersatz Twitter clone whining that MSNBC "is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE" and that the government "should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity." So, yes, Trump does want to punish any critic of him (note that he did not demand that Fox News suffer the same fate even though it does arguably the same thing, but on Trump's behalf).
Fondacaro concljuded by huffing that "Farah Griffin also called Maddow’s book “phenomenal” and bragged that she “tried to be consistent in calling out right-wing moves towards fascism and extremism.” She failed to ask Maddow about how she inspired Hodgkinson’s anti-Republican extremism and attempted assassinations." Again, Fondacaro refused to cite a single instance of Maddow having "inspired" Hodgkinson -- which means that he's lying again. But, again, lying is what the MRC pays him to do.
