On Sunday’s GPS, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria described President Donald Trump’s view of Western civilization as racial and tribal, drawing on the president’s recent speech in Warsaw, Poland:
“It did sound like, for [Donald Trump], and I think Steve Bannon might’ve written this speech, this was the West as religion, race, tribe, culture; not the West as democracy, liberty, the rule of law.”
View Zakaria’s comments below.
Zakaria did not provide any evidence of Trump framing Western civilization in racial or tribal terms.
Trump’s remarks in the Polish capital included 15 references to “freedom,” one reference to the “rule of law,” and an indirect reference to democracy (“democratic Europe”); contrary to Zakaria’s false assertion.
“Culture,” according Zakaria, is somehow akin to “religion, race, and tribe.” He also drew a false delineation between aggregate culture and specific cultural values such as democracy, liberty, and the rule of law.
None of the segment’s panelists corrected Zakaria’s false statements.
Zakaria regularly frames “racism” as a widespread social force in contemporary America. Two days before last year’s presidential election, he described Trump’s “core beliefs” as “racist.” CNN similarly frames “racism” as a common American characteristic across much of its programming, essentially associating it with conservative, libertarian, and right-wing dissidents.
Left-wing and Democrat-aligned news media figures widely derided Trump’s call for the defense of Western values as offensively bigoted; The Atlantic‘s Peter Beinart framed “The West” as a “racial and religious term.”
Zakaria presents himself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media figure. CNN similarly markets itself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media outlet, billing itself as “The Most Trusted Name In News.”
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