Orban media takeover coming to the US
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trumps-moves-against-media-outlets-mirror-authoritarian-approaches-to-silencing-dissent
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against the media unlike any in modern U.S. history, making moves similar to those of authoritarian leaders that he has often praised.
On Wednesday, Trump cheered ABCs suspension of Jimmy Kimmels late-night show after the comedian made remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that criticized the presidents MAGA movement: Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
It was the latest in a string of attacks against news outlets and media figures he believes are overly critical of him. Trump has filed lawsuits against outlets whose coverage he dislikes, threatened to revoke TV broadcast licenses and sought to bend news organizations and social media companies to his will.
The tactics are similar to those used by leaders in other countries who have chipped away at speech freedoms and independent media while consolidating political power, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn, a close Trump ally whose leadership style is revered by many conservatives in the U.S.
What were seeing is an unprecedented attempt to silence disfavored speech by the government, said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. Donald Trump is trying to dictate what Americans can say.
Is Trump taking cues from Orbn?
Trumps approach to governing has drawn comparisons to Orbn, who has been in power since 2010. The Hungarian leader has made hostility toward the press central to his political brand, borrowing Trumps phrase fake news to describe critical outlets. He has not given an interview to an independent journalist in years.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says Orbn has built a true media empire subject to his partys orders through allies acquisitions of newspapers and broadcasters. The group says that strategy has given Orbns Fidesz party control of about 80% of Hungarys media market. In 2018, Orbns allies donated nearly 500 news outlets they had acquired to a government-controlled conglomerate, a group that included all of Hungarys local daily newspapers.
Opposition parties complain that they get just five minutes of airtime on public TV during elections, the legal minimum, while state broadcasters reliably amplify government talking points and smear Orbns political opponents. Hungarys media authority, staffed entirely by Orbns party nominees, has threatened nonrenewal of broadcast frequencies to keep outlets in line and forced the liberal-leaning station Klubrdi off the air.
Here, they bought outlets and replaced editorial staff wholesale, said Hungarian media analyst Gbor Polyk.
The moves against independent media, along with Orbns systematic capture of Hungarys democratic institutions, prompted the European Parliament in 2022 to declare that the country could no longer be considered a democracy.
Polyk said that while the American media landscape is far larger and more diverse than Hungarys, hes been struck by the willingness of major U.S. companies to accommodate Trumps threats.
There is a very strange kind of self-censorship in America, he said. Even with European eyes, it is very frightening to see to what degree individual bravery does not exist. From Zuckerberg to ABC, everyone immediately surrenders.