Journalist Glen Greenwald predicts that media will target people who support President Donald Trump even if Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the upcoming election.
Greenwald spoke to podcast host Joe Rogan Wednesday and the two touched on the world of media in a post-Trump era. Greenwald challenged the idea that if Biden wins the 2020 election, as many polls indicate, much of the current “insanity” going on will “disappear.”
“So many institutions are profiting – I don’t just mean financially – in terms of power and control from elevating fear levels over right-wing fascism, over white supremacists, domestic terrorism, whatever you want to call it,” Greenwald said before diving into historic examples of people using fear to profit.
“The same exact thing is happening now, which is: People in media have had their careers saved – I know cable hosts who were on the verge of being fired because nobody was fucking listening to their dumb shows in 2007 and 2008, when all they were doing was talking about how great Obama was, because who wants to listen to that?” he continued on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
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Greenwald explained his reasoning behind the theory, calling Trump “a godsend” to those previously struggling in the media. He said Trump’s presidency has “enabled them to elevate everybody’s fear level” and crown the president as “a grave threat to everything that’s good” in modern society.
According to Greenwald, this fear hyping is not just reserved to the president, but for “the entire movement behind him” as well. (RELATED: Exclusive: Glenn Greenwald Sounds Off On Brazil, Impeachment, Donald Trump, And 2020)
The co-founder of The Intercept said that the media tends to label those within the Trump movement as “racists” and “hardcore white supremacy domestic terrorists.”
Trump’s presidency, according to Greenwald, launched a plethora of ultra-successful media companies based on this fear narrative.
“Even if Trump loses the election, they’re not going to go back to now talking about Joe Biden, because they know people are going to cancel their subscriptions and turn the TV channel again,” Greenwald warned. “They’re going to continue to say, not maybe Trump, at least his movement, still pose this existential threat.”
Greenwald noted that there “is a kernel of truth” to the narrative, but assured viewers that the media will “inflate it wildly so that any questioning of Joe Biden, even with Trump out of the picture” will still be viewed “as endangering American liberties, as helping fascism.”
After Greenwald’s explanation, Rogan chimed in to say he agrees. Rogan voiced similar concerns and added that he doesn’t “see a way out of this.”
“I’m worried, I’m worried that we already have the breaks off this truck and we’re headed downhill,” Rogan said.
Rogan and Greenwald spoke just before the latter announced his resignation from The Intercept on Thursday. Greenwald slammed the company he co-founded and accused it of censoring an article he wrote that was critical of Biden.
“The final, precipitating cause is that The Intercept’s editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote this week, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression,” Greenwald said in an article announcing his resignation.