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'60 Minutes' Is an Embarrassment

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 3, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 3, 2023 |


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60 Minutes interviewed Marjorie Taylor Greene for the same reasons that Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Fallon had on Donald Trump: Polarizing, controversial figures like that generate ratings. But in exchange for those ratings, they get legitimacy. That’s true even if the interview goes poorly, which is why you don’t invite people like MTG onto your program because it gives legitimacy to a woman who believes that the Parkland shooting was a false flag operation, who believes in Jewish space lasers, and who is a believer in QAnon. But if you cover her workout regime, you’re basically saying, “This white nationalist is just like us!”

However, if a major media outlet must give Marjorie Taylor Greene a platform, at least push back on her conspiracy theories. If she calls Democrats and Joe Biden pedophiles, have a follow-up question at the ready, because this is what MTG does. Don’t get steamrolled and don’t allow yourself to be reduced to a disbelieving “wow” because the crazy lady said a crazy thing. That’s what the crazy lady does.

I cannot imagine how many white nationalist QAnon supporters were whooping in their living rooms because MTG had managed to pierce the mainstream media and come out largely unscathed. Even when Leslie Stahl had receipts, she still allowed MTG to dictate the narrative.

This was an embarrassing interview: Embarrassing for Stahl, for 60 Minutes, and for the media, which has found its next Trump: Someone who will say enough insane things to benefit a corporation’s bottom line in the short-term while causing permanent long-term damage as 60 Minutes, CBS, and the rest of the news outlets continue to chase clicks at the expense of facts, democracy, and sanity.