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The Pressuring Press
Media’s dehumanization can lead to political violence
Media influence has the ability to shape public opinion and discourse. It also has the power to foster violence and dehumanization — especially when it comes to the portrayal of individuals and groups in the political arena.
Since he ran for president in 2015, America’s corporate media has promoted rhetoric that transformed Donald Trump from the country’s best-known billionaire and pop culture figure into a nefarious demon. Press labeling Trump “an existential threat to democracy” and deeming him “literally Hitler” enabled actors such as Don Cheadle to rally celebrities against “a racist abusive coward who could permanently damage the fabric of our society.” In 2016, BuzzFeed News gave their reporters the green light to label Trump “a mendacious racist” in their coverage.
And it’s not just Trump — characterization of Trump’s supporters in the press paints a picture of crazed, uneducated rednecks. Including the Hills op-ed titled, “The difference between Republicans and MAGA Republicans is violence.” The New York Times produced a video exclusively highlighting inflammatory remarks from Trump rally attendees. Not depicted: people like retired schoolteacher Sharon Anderson, a regular at Trump rallies who says she goes because, “We’ve got to have hope.” Or nine-year-old Ava Lovley of New Hampshire who said she likes Trump because she “loved his hair and that he speaks his mind.”
For proof of the dangers of dehumanization, one need look no further than the reaction on social media to the attempted assassination of Trump on July 13. On social media, people longed for the days of John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, angrily wondered how the would-be assassin could “shoot and miss,” and lamented that it was “close to being the best day ever.”
Police have also found themselves targets of violence following intense cultural dehumanization. A Washington Post article from September 2020 raised concerns that escalating rhetoric from the left could potentially incite “network-enabled mobs.” In metropolitan centers, the acronym ACAB (“All Cops Are Bastards”) can be seen in graffiti on buildings, on signs at protests, and during riots.
It’s all part of a greater trend of dehumanizing individuals who don’t hold a leftist worldview. In the media, the term “far-right” has been applied equally to white nationalists like Nick Fuentes and African-Americans like Dr. Ben Carson. Intense adjectives such as “extremists,” “Nazis,” and “evil” are casually lobbed by the left to describe (and dehumanize) their political opponents.
This rhetoric has serious consequences. Take, for example, Moms for Liberty — the group, founded to assert parental rights in their children’s education, also found itself on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s so-called “Hate Map,” lumped together with the Ku Klux Klan and domestic terrorists for being an “extremist” “anti-government group”. As a result, Moms for Liberty members faced death threats.
As consumers of media, we must hold our information sources accountable. Firstly, we must demand elevated ethical standards from journalists and media organizations to ensure that their reporting remains rooted in facts. Social media has given Americans the power to be their own fact-checkers; we should take it upon ourselves to seek proof and ask questions rather than blindly agreeing with the media’s framing of narratives. On a personal level, we can reject the mob mentality and refuse to engage in personal attacks.
The climate of political violence exacerbated by media dehumanization underscores the need for vigilance and responsibility in how we consume and interpret information. The stakes have never been higher.