Can Mass Media Promote Democracy Instead of Divisiveness? Here’s a Guy Who Did

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Here’s a man who actually used his celebrity, position and fame to promote democracy.

Every once in a great while, a major media celebrity comes along who puts his or her talent and — well, celebrity — to work for the common good and promote democracy.

Many generous artistic souls support good causes — and bless them for that! But there are a few who put the public interest at the center of their professional calling, and it’s been my joy to know a couple of them. We just lost a special one: Phil Donahue.

For 30 years, he brought a high-energy mix of unscripted fun, freewheeling grassroots democracy, serious issue exchanges and public purpose to the unlikeliest of venues: daytime TV talk shows. “Donahue” — the person and the show — defied studio bosses and conventional wisdom about what would appeal to “the great unwashed.”

His crazy idea was to confront biases directly, with the audience as the stars. He put big issues in front of mainstream audiences before most TV bosses knew they were issues — abortion, medical price gouging, gender identity, atheism, NAFTA, Native Americans, AIDS, nuclear power, prison reform, family farmers, and so much more. And he did it daily, not talking to a pre-selected audience of like-minded people but engaging disparate viewpoints directly in (often fiery) broadcasts.

Moreover, he brought genuine activists (not just sparklies) onto the show as guests. Even I made a couple of appearances. We were not invited to peacock and pontificate but to provide a bit of insight and, most importantly, offer ways for viewers to fight back for fairness, justice and a little more sanity in our world.

Phil Donahue is the model of what democratic media ought to be — an open exchange with regular people to promote democracy and the common good. See some “Donahue” for yourself at jimhightower.com/donahue.

Will Elon Betray Donald First, or Vice Versa?

Seeing two bloated egos like Elon Musk and Donald Trump hug-up recently in their marriage of political convenience made me think, “Boy, there’s two who really do deserve each other!”

The only question is which one will betray the other first.

My money is on Musk. Yes, Trump has built his entire career on the art of high-profile betrayals, from real estate scams to marriages. But Musk’s crass duplicity is even more naked (please excuse that image). He routinely shifts his core beliefs from one “rock-solid principle” to the opposite, coldly turning on trusting partners and allies, all for personal gain.

Take his 2022 denunciation of President Joe Biden’s climate change proposal, which promised massive support for the electric vehicles sold by Musk. Just two years earlier, the Tesla CEO had proclaimed himself to be “super fired up” about Biden’s plan. But his ego got ruffled by some perceived slight by Biden, so he called for killing the entire climate initiative, smugly declaring Tesla didn’t need public money.

Ha! Far from being some bootstrap, up-from-nothing corporate genius, Musk is the fortunate son of a South African emerald dealer. He didn’t create Tesla, he bought it, then enriched himself by extracting giant subsidies from American taxpayers and ruthlessly cheating workers and suppliers. Tesla’s first factory was built with half a billion federal dollars, he has been milking a public regulatory fund for $9 billion so far, each car he sells gets up to $7,500 in federal subsidies, and he continues to draw about a billion a year in tax breaks from that Biden law he condemned.

Musk says it’s all ethical because the money is there for the taking. Yeah — and so is his integrity.

Jim Hightower
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