David Enrich
Appearances
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk
I mean, I think that's going to really depend on how persuasive the media is and advocates for a free press are at pushing back against this concerted right-wing campaign to delegitimize and weaken the media. Because for a great many years, that campaign has been gaining momentum and gaining force. And I think it is really, it's accelerated with the arrival of Trump and his allies.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk
It predated them to a certain extent, certainly predated this current White House, but we're seeing those efforts very much intensifying just in the past eight weeks alone. And so I think it's going to take a real concerted effort
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk
by the media to really improve its trustworthiness and be more transparent and accountable, but also really to just gain some support across the political spectrum, because the First Amendment protects everyone. It does not just protect mainstream media or liberal media. It protects conservative voices, too.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk
And I think that's an argument that needs to be articulated a lot more to people in positions of power right now, that when you mess with the First Amendment, you're messing with everyone's rights, not just a select few.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk
Yeah, I mean, I think there's no doubt that the public benefits greatly. And look, this is a story in the book about Trump and his allies, including his allies on the Supreme Court, weaponizing the law to try and silence critics. But it's also a story about how that campaign is already taking place and in many ways succeeding at a much more kind of granular local level.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk
I mean, I talk to journalists, many of whose stories I tell in the book, all over the country, including many local and independent journalists who have been either sued or threatened into submission by local powerful people, whether it's a local real estate developer or their mayor or someone like that.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk
And so we're seeing up and down the food chain, whether it's at an international or national level or at a very kind of community-based level, that the tactics of threatening the media, suing the media, and trying to weaken the legal protections that prevent these frivolous lawsuits against the media
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump puts U.S. at risk with increasing reliance on Musk
This is part of a big campaign that I think has not really been written about and talked about as much as it needs to be, because it's right there, but people have not connected the dots as much as I think is necessary. And so I'm hoping this book will kind of help shed some light on this and help people understand the legal background and the tactics that are being used.