Background Briefing: October 31, 2024
The Murdochs and Their Fox News Propagandists Are Laying the Groundwork For a New Civil War
We begin with how Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are laying the groundwork for a new civil war as the propagandists at Fox News cynically play with fire telling the MAGA militias and “Christian” soldiers that Trump will win in a blowout by a landslide while the polls indicate at very tight race. Clearly they are organizing another “stop the steal” scenario if Kamala Harris wins by preparing Trumpworld for a fictional victory that must have been stolen. Joining us is David Daley, the author of the new book Antidemocratic: Inside the Right’s 50-year Plot to Control American Elections, as well as the national best-seller Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count, which has been credited for kickstarting the national movement to reform redistricting. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of Salon, a senior fellow at FairVote, and has taught political science and journalism as a fellow at Wesleyan University, Boston College, Smith College and the University of Georgia. We discuss his article at The New Republic, “How John Roberts—Yes, John Roberts—Might Decide Who Won the Election.”
A “Prairie Populist” in Nebraska is Campaigning the Way Democrats Should be in Red States
Then, with a “prairie populist” in Nebraska running for the US Senate on an anti-corporate platform of working-class identity politics threatening to unseat an undistinguished big money-backed Republican incumbent, we speak with Austin Ahlman, a reporter and researcher with the Open Markets Institute’s Center for Journalism & Liberty, where he writes about the intersection of corporate power, public policy, and politics. A native Nebraskan, he is a contributor to The American Prospect where his latest article we discuss is “In Search of the Trump-Osborn Voters: Dan Osborn is Forging a New Path Through Red States with Anti-Corporate Populism and Working-Class Identity Politics.”