MSNBC and CNN’s Nonstop Coverage of Marjorie Taylor Greene is Not Exposing a Crackpot. It Risks Turning Her Into the Next Trump.

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I can’t recall if it was the 100th mention of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in last week’s news, or perhaps the 2,000th that eventually made me question if I was accidentally watching cable news reruns or reading week-old headlines.

I wasn’t watching reruns, everything on air was live — networks have just given her that much airtime and that much importance.

Greene gained sweeping attention following a series of reports on her bonkers and frightening past comments, including CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski’s detailed exposé. That reporting is valuable. If any politician has a history of threatening comments, especially ones targeting their colleagues, that history should be reported out and condemned.

But when do networks cross the line from reporting to amplifying?

Coverage of Greene has already become sensationalist, just like it did with Donald Trump, with network executives pushing her down the throats of viewers, aware of their insatiable appetite for the absurd.

Greene has been unavoidable these past weeks. It’s reached the point that when one switches on CNN or MSNBC at any given time, her name will come up within the hour.

And it’s not just cable news — the obsession with Georgia’s QAnon supporting representative has leaked into the entertainment world — transforming her into the latest target for late night shows also in need of their next Trump.

The repercussions of magnifying someone who paired sensationalist rhetoric with dangerous ideology were made clear when Trump scored the presidency in 2016, shocking a media preparing for a Hillary Clinton victory.

Reporters looking to unmask Trump’s lunacy by obsessively exposing past scandals ultimately failed, instead broadcasting his message to similarly minded voters who ultimately elected him as the leader of the free world.

Jeff Zucker, president of CNN, dismissed Trump as a “sideshow” in 2015, but ultimately embraced coverage of the candidate as he proved a ratings driver — quickly transforming the network into one of Trump’s largest platforms.

Rather than being appalled by Trump, a large group of voters liked what they were seeing, and embraced the candidate. Through the primaries and into the general election, cable news was one of Trump’s biggest PR benefactors. And… they’re doing it again.

Like Trump, Greene’s beliefs don’t isolate her as much cable news anchors have implied.

Roughly 56 percent of Republicans believe that QAnon, is mostly or partly true, according to a Daily Kos/Civiqs poll from September. In December, an  NPR/Ipsos poll revealed that more than 1 in 3 Americans believe a “deep state” has been working to undermine Trump.

Greene was dubbed the “QAnon Candidate” throughout her campaign and was still elected to Congress — racking up 57 percent of the vote. She has received little to no pushback from fellow House Republicans, who have largely ignored her past comments and instead have focused on condemning Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) for her support of Trump’s impeachment.

Knowing that fired up anchors and heated debates make good TV, executives recognize Greene’s potential to boost ratings. Now just a civilian without access to Twitter, Trump can no longer be mined for sensationalist news. The press, once worried they could no longer monetize on shock value, has filled that void.

The Georgia Republican was mentioned incessantly the past two weeks: A search of transcripts on SnapSteam, a media monitoring service used by Mediaite, found 4,208 search results for “Taylor Greene” on cable news.

The large majority of these mentions come from CNN and MSNBC, whose reporters, despite possibly earnest intentions to expose the congresswoman as the absolute loon that she is, have been tirelessly elevating her message — mimicking their coverage of Trump.

The fixation on Greene is predictable, and was initially justifiable: her past posts had just been unearthed, and a freshly discovered video showed her accosting David Hogg weeks after he survived the Parkland school shooting. Greene also rightfully dominated headlines when House Democrats voted to strip her of all committee assignments last Thursday.

Now that saga has come to an end, she should no longer be dominating the news. Greene lost a significant amount of power thanks to that move, and is now just one vote of 435. She currently thrives on media attention alone, so the press should not succumb to obsessing over her every antic, and instead responsibly cover her in a way that does not artificially inflate her reach.

The White House has treated Greene like the press should — mostly ignoring her and the temptation to contest, and ultimately amplify, her every thought.

The networks are, once again, faced with a dilemma where what’s best for them is not what’s best for their audience. Let’s hope they make different choices than they did when faced with this quandary last time.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.