How the Hyatt hotel chain managed to totally blow it over CPAC
The Hyatt hotel chain has now caved and taken a belated public stand against the extremism and offensive imagery that took place at CPAC, which was hosted at one of its properties. Of course it’s too late, and Hyatt’s brand has already suffered. Why did Hyatt think it could get away with hosting CPAC to begin with?
The media has long tried to normalize CPAC, as if it were something along the lines of the Republican National Convention. But in reality CPAC has always been a deranged freak show that only invites the most corrupt, extremist, and openly bigoted of Republican politicians to speak. Of course these days that includes most Republican politicians, but the media still treats the whole thing as if it were something normal or sane.
So it’s no surprise that Hyatt didn’t realize it was going to face blowback for hosting the CPAC freak show this year. Hyatt deserved the blowback it got. But if the media had done its job to begin with, Hyatt would have understood in advance that it couldn’t get away with hosting something so deranged. It’s more important than ever that we push the media to call out far right extremism for what it is, instead of letting them normalize it.
