Dan Rather: With Twitter, Donald Trump Has "Most Powerful Platform For Propaganda" In Human History

Legendary broadcaster Dan Rather joins CNN's Brian Stelter to talk about the power of President Trump's Twitter account: <blockquote>BRIAN STELTER, CNN: If the president and his aides don't know how the web works, if they're not savvy about this, how can they effectively respond to this rising threat of extremism on the internet? DAN RATHER: The answer is, not very well. Look, we have to deal with reality. This is a whole new age. And the president has the strongest, the most powerful platform for propaganda that humans have ever had. No president has ever had this kind of reach, the combination of television, radio, the internet, social media, tweets. STELTER: He does love twitter, that's his one tech savviness. RATHER: With all respect, I don't think his age, 72, is an excuse for not keeping up. He's basically anti-science. When you talk about what he says about climate change, that's in a wider context of actually this administration led by the president is downgrading science at the very time we need to be leaping forward, keeping up with science. They're cutting research and that sort of thing. But, you know, with Twitter, much of the time, not all the time, much of the time, I sense the public has a sense that they're facing a manure spreader in a windstorm. It just keeps coming and coming and coming at you. It's ridiculous but it's unrelenting. And he understands the value of that. But for the rest of us, and for the public at large, it's time to take a deep breath, say to yourself, stay steady. Keep in mind that this is a tremendous tool for propaganda. See it in that context and do the best we can. </blockquote>