Media Devolution

Pop Quiz:

What talk radio personality said: “Never in my life have I seen an unholy trinity of censorship like I’ve seen with the power of government, big tech, and the mainstream media all pulling in the same direction when it came to enforcing their own narrative of COVID.”?

What talk show host said: “The mainstream media today has the biggest disconnect with its audience that it’s ever, ever had. And as the disconnect grows and as more and more people distrust them, then the media digs in more and more and says you don’t know what you’re talking about, you don’t know how we do our jobs, you don’t know what’s important.”

What civil rights activist said: “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”?

What economist said: “Media bias in editorials and columns is one thing. Media fraud in reporting ‘facts’ in news stories is something else. …The issue is not what various journalists or news organizations’ editorial views are. The issue is the transformation of news reporting into ideological spin, along with self-serving taboos and outright fraud.”?

What media star said: “Media bias is one thing. Rejection of reality is another.”?

Answers at the end of the post.

The US Constitution provides in the First Amendment that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom…of the press.”. In 1734 Peter Zenger, a New York newspaper publisher, was arrested for offending a government official in his paper The New York Weekly Journal. He was acquitted and his case was an impetus for the First Amendment protection of the press.

The press has, for the most part, operated openly and freely in America. Yet there have been several occasions in our history when the press was muzzled by the Federal government. Nearly 200 newspapers were shut down by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War because he believed they were offering aid and comfort to the insurrectionists. During World War I Woodrow Wilson shut down a number of news outlets simply because they had the audacity to disagree with him. Despite these unconstitutional excursions, the press has been free to publish without restriction. In fact, in 1964 the US Supreme Court ruled in Sullivan v. New York Times that an action for libel in the press requires proof of actual malice. This decision was intended to protect the press from political harassment.

Prior to cable news media daily newspapers were widely read in almost every city and there were only three national television networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. The evening news programs were watched by the vast majority of Americans and the anchors knew that their credibility was what drove the Neilsen ratings. Walter Cronkite was a Democrat but he did not let it color his news coverage. He closed his daily broadcast with his signature sign-off: “And that’s the way it is”. His viewers absolutely believed it was the straight scoop. Trust was the watchword.

The press had been generally protective of the private lives of our political leaders. They rarely showed pictures of FDR in his wheelchair because they did not want to project presidential weakness. When FDR died at Warm Springs the news did not report that his mistress Lucy Mercer Rutherford was by his side rather than his wife. Everyone knew that JFK had women servicing him in the White House during his administration but it was not reported. The media respected the office if not the man who held it.

Everything changed during Richard Nixon’s second term. Watergate has become synonymous with political corruption and misdeeds. It is standard practice to add the suffix “gate” to any scandal (see e.g. Travelgate and Billygate) to let the public know that it was time to be outraged. The national coverage on TV and in the major newspapers became decidedly partisan because of Nixon Derangement Syndrome.

Watergate was a minor event…a group of men committed an amateurish break-in at the DNC offices in Washington at the Watergate office complex. It was an Inspector Clouseau special. Nothing of import was taken and it had no impact on the 1972 election…Nixon eked out a narrow electoral vote win…520 to 18.

However, it triggered a seismic transformation in the conduct of the men and women of the press. Woodward and Bernstein made the term “Deep Throat” a household term and not because of Linda Lovelace. The FBI actively worked to subvert the President and people learned, just like Martha Stewart did, that the cover-up was worse than the crime.

Ultimately the media forced a Presidential resignation and the adrenaline rush stoked their egos. They transitioned from a free press to a (selectively) adversarial press.

After Watergate the bias of the media became open and notorious. Gerald Ford’s physical gaffes became lead stories, HW Bush vomiting on the Japanese Prime Minister was a source of comedic ridicule and it was open season on Reagan’s intellect. Yet during the Clinton years the press took a sabbatical. Craig Livingston…nothing to see here, move along. Cattle futures was a Red Bone scheme and Hillary was the victim. The discovery of the Rose law firm billing record in the White House was an enigma to Hilliary. Jennifer Flowers was trailer trash. It took a stained blue dress to bring the protection of Clinton to an end. Where was the bleach bit when they needed it?

The press was completely somnambulant from 2008 through 2016 with regard to the President allowing Obama to say: “We’re probably the first administration in modern history that hasn’t had a major scandal in the White House,” Unless, of course, you mention Benghazi, planeloads of cash to Iran, Lois Lerner and the Tea Party, guns to Mexican drug lords under Operation Fast and Furious or Obamacare…promises made, promises not kept. The media never challenged Obama’s bald faced lie.

Today the media are aggressively inserting themselves into the political process. Disinformation has become epidemic and it is uniformly partisan.

Covid:

From the media you got: “A group of 27 prominent public health scientists from outside China is pushing back against a steady stream of stories and even a scientific paper suggesting a laboratory in Wuhan, China, may be the origin of the outbreak of COVID-19.” That the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the source has now been confirmed.

Russian Collusion:

Adam Schiff-for-brains beat the Russian collusion drum for years claiming there is “plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy in plain sight” regarding the Trump campaign and Russia. The media reported his “walls are closing in” daily updates without any interest in the “evidence” that Schiff, doing his Joe McCarthy imitation, continually failed to provide.

Biden’s Mental Acuity

Octogenarian Nancy Pelosi called Biden “very sharp” and said she “cannot judge the president as she is older than him.” Fauxchohontas on Biden: “The man is sharp. The man knows what he’s talking about. He does the job.” According to Alejandro Mayorkas: “The most difficult part of a meeting with President Biden is preparing for it because he is sharp, intensely probing and detail oriented and focused.” This says more about Mayorkas than Biden. All of these “observations” were dutifully reported by the media faithful without question. All was well until June 27, 2024 when Trump and “His Sharpness” had the only presidential debate. Noted political savant George Clooney immediately headed to Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy towels to throw into the ring.

Despite the obvious, members of the media claim that there is not a whiff of political bias among the left wing lickspittles that populate CNN, MSDNC, the New York Times (All the news that fits we print) and the Washington Post. Methinks they doth protest too much.

The last thing we need is a Federal “disinformation board”…all we need is a honest, balanced delivery of the news. Let the people decide based on objective facts…to help the media here is the definition of “fact”: something that is known to have happened or to exist, especially something for which proof exists, or about which there is information. The use of anonymous sources should be banned!

Answers to the pop quiz:

What talk radio personality said: “Never in my life have I seen an unholy trinity of censorship like I’ve seen with the power of government, big tech, and the mainstream media all pulling in the same direction when it came to enforcing their own narrative of COVID.”? Clay Travis of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

What talk show host said: “The mainstream media today has the biggest disconnect with its audience that it’s ever, ever had. And as the disconnect grows and as more and more people distrust them, then the media digs in more and more and says you don’t know what you’re talking about, you don’t know how we do our jobs, you don’t know what’s important.”? The man who changed the media, Rush Limbaugh

What civil rights activist said: “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Malcolm X

What economist said: “Media bias in editorials and columns is one thing. Media fraud in reporting ‘facts’ in news stories is something else. …The issue is not what various journalists or news organizations’ editorial views are. The issue is the transformation of news reporting into ideological spin, along with self-serving taboos and outright fraud.”? Nonagenarian Thomas Sowell

What media star said: “Media bias is one thing. Rejection of reality is another.”? Left wing sycophant Chuck Todd in a moment of self-reflection