‘Authoritarian’ Trump will turn media into ‘American version of RT’ – US TV host

Democrat-leaning Rachel Maddow believes the incoming president will try to stifle press freedom in the US

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has warned that President-elect Donald Trump will try to stifle free press in the US upon returning to the White House. On ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ on Thursday, the Democrat-leaning TV host and outspoken Trump critic slammed the incoming president as an “authoritarian” who could end democracy in the US.

Maddow claimed that Trump and his administration will try to turn the media, which she called “the fourth estate” and “pillar of our democracy,” into “state TV.” She warned that US media could then become an “American-accented version of RT.”

“These guys… will inevitably start picking off individual journalists, publishers and news organizations to try ultimately to turn us all into some American-accented version of RT,” she stated, adding that the news outlet is “a reason actions of the Russian Duma never make news.” Maddow went on to call on the US public to “actively resist” the new administration if it starts attacks on the media.

Maddow’s warnings have sparked debates among other journalists about the role of the press in the US, with some supporting her calls to resist Trump, while others argue that journalists should simply report the news.

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Trump has repeatedly accused mainstream US news outlets of slandering him and spreading fake news, calling reporters “bloodsuckers” and the US media in general the “enemy of the people.” Just last week, he made headlines for saying that he wouldn’t mind if someone “shot through the fake news.” He also recently filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News over an interview with his Democratic election rival, Kamala Harris, which his team claims was unlawfully doctored to unfairly disadvantage Trump.

Maddow’s words about RT appeared in line with the stance of the outgoing US administration on the Russian broadcaster. While the administration of President Joe Biden has placed numerous restrictions on Russian media, it has been particularly harsh in its rhetoric with regard to RT, sanctioning the outlet earlier this year for allegedly “functioning as a de facto arm of [Russian] intelligence.”

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Commenting on the treatment of Russian journalists and media in general in the US, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Washington of violating its own constitution by blocking “information that is inconvenient for them.”