Musk's 'Killing Traditional Media' Public Broadcasting Financial Pressure Supports Far-Right Politics in the New Year
As Elon Musk's 'Killing Traditional Media' begins, promoting far-right politics in the face of public broadcasting financial pressure has become a New Year's task.
Tesla CEO Musk, who is leading the abolition of federal government departments and the dismissal of executives under the Trump administration, wrote on X on the 29th, "Legacy media must die."
Musk then recommended his social media service, X, to replace news media outlets that criticize him for their bias.
The German daily newspaper 'WELT' reported on the 30th, "American entrepreneur Elon Musk believes that only the Alternative for Germany (AfD) can fundamentally reform Germany," and "Jan Philipp Burgard responds, 'That's completely wrong.' The AfD is partly xenophobic and anti-Semitic. That is why it is dangerous for Germany," the AP reported.
German journalist Jan Philipp Burgard will become editor-in-chief of WELT from January 1 of the new year.
Professor Cass Mudd of the University of Georgia, a researcher of extremism and democracy, summarized 2024 as a political evaluation in Prospect Magazine as "a great year for the far right, a terrible year for incumbent politicians, and a troublesome year for democracy around the world."
In 2024, elections were held in about 70 countries, home to half of the world's population, and many incumbent presidents were punished.
"From India and the United States to Japan, France and the United Kingdom, voters, tired of economic turmoil and global instability, rejected incumbent governments and sometimes turned to destructive outsiders," the AP said. "The already difficult democratic terrain seemed to become even more difficult as a dramatic year came to an end with mass protests in Mozambique and Georgia, an election nullification in Romania, and an attempt to declare martial law in South Korea," the AP said. 30 days.
The most specific proposal in the list of massive budget cuts, including the abolition of departments and the dismissal of agency heads, under the right-wing Trump-Musk regime next year is that the government would eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding for public broadcasters PBS and NPR, home to popular culture such as Elmo, Big Bird, and Fresh Air, the New York Times reported on the 30th.
The 'Bill to Eliminate Government Funding from Public Media' sponsored by right-wing Republicans is already passing through the US Congress.
Representatives include the 'No Propaganda Act' introduced this year by Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana and Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and the 'Defund NPR Act' introduced by Representative Jim Banks of Indiana in April.
Banks, a Republican, has criticized Uri Berliner, a senior editor at NPR, the US public radio, for 'criticizing liberal bias' A few weeks after the essay was published, he introduced a bill to “cut the budget.”
After the bill was introduced, NPR editor Berliner resigned and is now working at the digital startup The Free Press.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative strategy group that advises the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, said, “It is wrong to demand funding for media outlets that ignore conservatives’ views,” and in his campaign strategy book, “Project 2025,” which is a “small government strong strategy” to shrink the federal government, he stated, “The US federal government should cut funding for the public broadcasting company.”
Regarding the public broadcasting budget cut, he stated in the “strategy book” that “this would be one of the things that would make America better,” and “we would not be forced to pay for media outlets that mock conservative views.”
Public media organizations in the US are already under serious pressure. NPR, which has been broadcasting disasters on American radio, is suffering from a decline in listeners and sponsorships (public radio advertising) in 2023, which is the last year it can use its detailed financial resources.
Many Americans access popular public service programs such as “Sesame Street” and “All Things Considered” through NPR and PBS, the only public broadcasters in the commercial broadcasting paradise of the United States.
American public broadcasting is a network of local stations across the country, and more than 98% of the American population lives within the listening range of one or more of the more than 1,000 public radio stations that broadcast NPR programs, and many stations use government funds to purchase shows and pay for newsroom expenses, the New York Times reported.
“Cutting off funding for public radio would reduce funding for local journalism, including sports and cultural reporting,” NPR spokeswoman Isabel Lara said in a statement. “Cutting public media funding means cutting funding for local communities.” “Now more than ever, PBS’s services are important to Americans,” PBS spokesman Jeremy Gaines said in a statement.
PBS has been a trusted source for the public and the media, having produced a series of high-profile moderators in the U.S. presidential debates.
On the 10th, Musk shocked many in Germany by supporting the far-right Alternative for Germany, saying in a commentary in the German newspaper Welt that “traditional political parties have failed in Germany,” and that “their policies have led to economic stagnation, social unrest, and the erosion of national identity.”
The German government and intelligence agencies have officially monitored and regulated the far-right AfD under the “extremist blocking policy,” and Musk directly intervened in Germany’s midterm elections by explaining in his essay in Welt that “he believes the far-right party is Germany’s ‘last spark of hope.’
On the 30th, Musk directly referred to the German president as an “anti-democratic tyrant” on his X, saying, “Steinmeier is an anti-democratic tyrant! Shame on you.”
On the 28th, Musk published an article in support of the far-right party AfD in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, officially declaring his “political intervention” by saying, “Tesla has the right to speak publicly about German politics because it operates an electric car production plant in Germany.”
German President Steinmeier is a Social Democratic Party member, and on the 27th, he announced an early general election, mentioning Musk’s support for the German far-right through X, saying, “Whether it is covert, like the recent Romanian elections, or blatant, like the recent focus on Platform X, outside influence is a threat to democracy.”
In 2024, concerns about covert interference and online disinformation are growing, with election interference intensifying. “Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said it has stopped 20 election-related ‘covert influence operations’ around the world this year, including in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the United States,” the AP reported. “The report said Russia was the biggest source of interference, followed by Iran and China.”
The crisis in South Korea’s deeply divided politics is far from over.
The arduous journey for democracy looks set to continue in 2025, with embattled incumbents in Germany and elsewhere facing challenges.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s defeat in a confidence vote on December 16 is likely to lead to an early general election in February, and Canada will also hold a general election in 2025, with the ruling Liberal Party largely unpopular and increasingly divided after nearly a decade in power.
“When you look at public opinion polls around the world, support for the idea of democracy remains strong, but when you ask people, ‘How satisfied are you with your democracy?’ the numbers drop off dramatically,” Seema Shah, director of democracy ratings at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Stockholm, told the AP. “People want democracy, they like the theory of democracy, but when you see the actual electoral game unfolding, it doesn’t live up to their expectations.”
See <Musk Supports German Far-Right Party, Italian and British Far-Right Support, Neo-Nazi ‘Resurgence’, December 22, 2024>