title:  Trump Brings Us DANGEROUSLY Close To State-Run Media Before His Administration Is Even Chosen
text: Trump has just made his campaign CEO, Steve Bannon, his new chief strategist, and that doesn t bode well for anybody who might hold out some hope that Trump doesn t have fascist tendencies. Bannon is the former CEO of Breitbart News, and Breitbart is positively reveling in Trump s win. They feel it gives them legitimacy, and Bannon s placement gives them unprecedented access to and influence over a presidential administration.The New York Times published a report on this, and Alexander Marlow, Breitbart s editor-in-chief, told them: So much of the media mocked us, laughed at us, called us all sorts of names. And then for us to be seen as integral to the election of a president, despite all of that hatred, is something that we certainly enjoy, and savor. They re thrilled now because they think this makes them legitimate. What they apparently don t see is that people laughed at and dismissed Breitbart because they became an alt-right conspiracy site, as opposed to a legit conservative media site. They want to shape narratives like everyone else, but Bannon s dictatorial rule turned them into just another InfoWars. His placement on the transition team (along with the blowjobs he probably gave Trump in order to get on the campaign) makes this dangerous.It opens a very wide door to a state-run media outlet. Throughout his entire campaign, Trump vilified any media outlet that dared criticize him. He openly and repeatedly claimed to want to open up libel laws so it would be easier to sue outlets for saying bad things about him. He only liked media outlets that gave him favorable coverage, and he wanted to burn any outlet that didn t.Make no mistake, this is a reason to be nervous. State-run media is nothing more than a government s propaganda arm, and Breitbart s newfound fame reaches a lot of people. They re even talking about expanding into Paris, Cairo, and Berlin, according to the Times report.State-run media uses a variety of methods to control information, and one that could become true here very quickly is known as  the big lie.  What is  the big lie?  According to North Korea s media, for instance, it s the idea that there s no poverty and everyone would have laid down their life for their late dictator, Kim Jong Il. The  media  even claimed that people ran into buildings damaged by a munitions explosion to save paintings of Kim before they tried saving their own family members.Who believes that actually happened and that North Korea is so prosperous under the Kims that there s no poverty? Really.Yet, Breitbart already does things like this, too. They ran unsubstantiated rumors about Hillary Clinton s health; they ve claimed the rash of hate crimes since Election Night is  fake,  and they turned their backs on one of their own reporters, Michelle Fields, after Corey Lewandowski grabbed and bruised her.Furthermore, Mike Pence himself tried to start a state-run media outlet in Indiana. He wanted it to compete with Indiana s independent media. They would even  break  stories ahead of everyone else, most likely to shape the narrative before the mainstream media had a crack at it. There s a good chance he d be on board with Breitbart being the administration s own personal propaganda machine.Then there s the liar of liars himself. Trump just lied about The New York Times again after a campaign filled with these lies:@realDonaldTrump @nytimes fact: surge in new subscriptions, print & digital, with trends, stops & starts, 4 X better than normal.  NYTCo Communications (@NYTimesComm) November 13, 2016Breitbart can easily start pushing these lies, too, and anything else they see fit. Kurt Bardella, a former Breitbart spokesman who quit earlier this year, voiced worry over the idea that Breitbart was suddenly so close to the White House: It will be as close as we are ever going to have   hopefully   to a state-run media enterprise. Think it really can t happen, because we re already full of independent journalism along with a Constitutional right to a free press? Think again. The Times floated this small fact in their report: [T]he site s influence on social media, where more and more Americans now consume information, has been palpable. On election night, Breitbart s Facebook page received the fourth-highest number of user interactions on the entire platform   beating Fox News, CNN and The New York Times. If they get big enough and command a large enough audience, other media outlets could fade to irrelevance. It snowballs from there. Of course, The Times says that Breitbart s editor-in-chief totally rejects the idea that they could become Trump s own propaganda mill, which is baloney: Our loyalty is not going to be to Donald Trump; our loyalty is to our readers and to our values. That s regardless of what role Steve has.If Trump runs his administration and honors the voters who voted him in, we re all good. But if he is going to turn his back on those values and principles that drove his voters to the polls, we re going to be highly critical. We re not going to think twice about it. Trump and Bannon can quietly use Breitbart to push whatever they want. They can use its propaganda to counter what the mainstream media is saying, and people will buy it up lock, stock and barrel.Featured image by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images