NYU professor compares Fox News to communist propaganda

In a recent op-ed, a visiting professor at New York University in Prague compared  Fox News, Newsmax and OANN to Czechoslovak TV, and “the official Communist paper” of the country in the 1980s.

Thomas Klvana is a former policy advisor for the President of the Czech Republic and currently a visiting professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University in Prague.

Klvana’s profile describes him as a “senior international management consultant.” He has published multiple books, including “Fenomén Trump poslední vzpoura bílých mužů” or “The Trump phenomenon - White Men’s Last Rebellion” in english.

In a recent article published by The Bulwark titled “The GOP and Conservative Media Now Resemble the Communists of My Youth,” Klvana compares Fox News, Newsmax and OANN to Czechoslovak TV and Rudé právo, “the official Communist paper” of of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during the 1980s.

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“Quoting out of context has become normalized for the GOP propaganda machine on Fox, Newsmax and elsewhere,” Klvana wrote in his op-ed for The Bulwark. “Lying about democracy, a mainstay of the old Communist press, has also become standard for American media outlets aligned with Trump’s GOP.”

In a recent interview, the former advisor previously stated that “as to media, I do commentaries for Czech TV and Czech radio. In fact, media has not been my main area of engagement for more than 10 years.” More than 18 years ago he was the deputy-editor of Economic Daily Newspaper, but his new article provides harsh criticisms for American news networks.

“Whenever the Communists were forced to acknowledge errors and imperfections in running the economy,” stated the NYU professor, “they ramped up their propaganda about racism and homelessness in the United States to create the mirage of moral equivalence. Does that sound at all familiar?”

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Klvana continues to criticize Fox News on its media coverage, writing that “Watching Fox and its competitors, one is rarely confronted with the reality of the January 6 insurrection in its full scale and moral ugliness, as that which does not conform to the party line does not exist.”

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Instead, the professor describes Bret Baier and Chris Wallace as “those few remaining real press men and women over at Fox.”

This “propaganda” can all be attributed to Ronald Reagan’s speech “A Time for Choosing,” argues Klvana. Regan has long been accredited with his views on limited government which have influenced many people.

“And as much as I admire Ronald Reagan and his role in the defeat of communism” writes Klvana, “his speech is worth singling out for its huge influence on conservative thought and rhetoric.”

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Reagan discussed the danger of totalitarianism during his speech, but the NYU professor argues that he was wrong. Klvana mentions the famous quote from the 40th President of the US, “If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.”

He then expands on this point and voices the opinion that because we are not in wartime, this statement cannot be true.

“In democratic politics, there is no last stand. There is only a struggle, a peaceful one, between competing ideas, policies, and visions of the future,” he concludes.     

NYU Prague and Dr. Klvana have not immediately responded to requests for comment.

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