Dictators And The Press
U.S. Senator John McCain, defending the media against the latest attack by President Donald Trump, warned that suppressing the free press was "how dictators get started". BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against the media unlike any in modern U.S.
history, making moves similar to those of authoritarian leaders that he has often praised. Twentieth-century dictatorsnotably, Stalin, Hitler, and Maohad all denounced their critics, especially the press, as enemies of the people. Their goal was to delegitimize the work of the press as fake news and create confusion in the public mind about whats real and what isnt; what can be trusted and what cant be.
The emerging political economy literature on dictatorial media politics rationalizes the cross-country variation in media freedom by dictators demand for truthful information. "They get started by suppressing free press," McCain said of dictators. "In other words, a consolidation of power when you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the...
Hungarian journalist Andrs Peth, in tracing the destruction of democracy in Hungary under dictator Viktor Orbn, highlights the essential role of press suppression has played in that country. Six months into US President Donald Trumps second term, his administration has become increasingly hostile towards the press, both mimicking and inspiring authoritarian and quasi-authoritarian regimes around the world. While conventional wisdom posits that dictators have a strong incentive to control the media, they also need information to sustain their authoritarian rule.
In this article, we argue that dictators need to allow for a higher level of media freedom when sharing more power with other elites. Using panel data, we show that controlling for country fixed effects, media are less free in oil-rich economies, with the effect especially pronounced in nondemocratic regimes. Sen.
John McCain (R-Ariz.) gave a staunch defense of the free press Saturday, noting that attacks on the media are how dictators get started.
