Race and the Media

“Trump is president because of media – he created a political circus.”

“People need a basic means of presenting themselves to their government, which is behaving in an increasingly racist and repressive, authoritarian manner."

Lee Fang, award winning reporter with The Intercept, has focused much of his work on examining how public policy is influenced by organized interest groups and money. He was the first to uncover and detail the role of the billionaire Koch brothers in financing the Tea Party movement.

At a recent conference on race and the media that took place at CU Boulder, Fang reflected on his research during the last 9 years into hate groups and their efforts to promote racism & sexism. He told KGNU’s Rossana Longo Better that the election of Donald Trump shows how the media has allowed those racist and sexist elements to move from the fringes into the mainstream.

“Trump is president because of media – he created a political circus.”

Fang says that profit driven media has failed our democracy by not covering the issues that are really impacting communities around the country.  He says that institutional reform may be needed to create high quality local and national journalism.

“We need to fund citizen journalism to help us function like a  democracy.”

- Rossana Longo Better is the KGNU/League of Women Voters Boulder County public policy/media intern.