Paul Ryan, Fox Corp. Board Member, Slams Media Silos and the Entertainment Wing of the Republican Party
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) joined CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday and lamented the polarization in America that he blamed the media for creating.
In a discussion regarding why Congress can’t pass “common-sense solutions” to stem the tide of gun violence in the country, Ryan argued that’s, “That’s not new.”
“What is new is, in this sort of 21st century digital age, polarization is obviously rampant in America, but it comes to Congress,” he began.
“We have an entertainment wing of the House of the Republican and Democratic Party,” Ryan continued, using a term popular among the Republican establishment to describe members of Congress like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
“The old meritocracy that takes 10, 20 years to climb of being a good policymaker? You can just leapfrog that whole process, be a really good entertainer, have an incredible presence digital, and forget about policymaking and curate a brand for yourself. And so you have entertainers in Congress now,” Ryan continued.
Ryan has regularly been called out by critics for his role as a member of the board of directors of the Fox Corporation, which is the parent company of Fox News. Ana Navarro of The View, for example, called out Ryan by name in the wake of the Buffalo shooting, which critics connected to rhetoric on Fox News.
“And listen, if you are an advertiser, advertising on that station, you are part of the problem. If you sit on the board and are trying to be a civilized person, Paul Ryan, my friend, I’m talking to you. You are part of the problem. If you are a Republican donor tweeting about how bad you feel about this, but you’re donating to people like Elise Stefanik, you are part of the problem,” Navarro said on May 16th.
Ryan joined the board in 2019.
“When I decided to become speaker, which actually wasn’t my goal, I knew I was capping myself politically but that was fine. I was okay with that. Because I knew the job requires consensus dealmaking,” Ryan continued, explaining how he sees Congress has changed.
“But that is bad for a brand, that is bad if you are going to entertain, if you’re going to try and show that you’re better than everybody else within your own ecosystem,” he argued.
“People get their device, they get their cable, their website that algorithmically tells them what they want to hear, that self reinforces and that divides us,” he concluded, calling out the media silos that he believes are hurting the country.
Watch the full clip above via CNBC
