Agnotology…Look it Up

The introduction of the term “Fourth Estate” is attributed to Edmund Burke, an 18th century politician and philosopher. It originally described the practice of journalism which at that time meant writing for newspapers and periodicals. This post will discuss the growth and ultimate decline of both print journalism and reportage on radio and television.

The next post will address the “Fifth Estate” which is the electronic mass communication of information.

Mark Levin’s most recent best seller is entitled Unfreedom of the Press. It is a must read and is a definitive work. This post is merely intended to supplement the ideas put forth by Mr. Levin.

In the US we have gone full circle in the quality of media coverage. In 1802 James Callender, a mudslinging journalist hit man, confected the story that Thomas Jefferson had sired an illegitimate child with a slave named Sally Hemings. It was in today’s parlance “fake news”. The real progenitor of the Hemings line was not Thomas Jefferson but rather his brother Randolph.

Much of the “journalism” of that era was tied to political parties and Callender was reputed to be one of the best at the craft. He had originally been part of the Thomas Jefferson team until they had a falling out and Callender turned on his former sponsor.

Journalism steadily evolved over the next 150 years with minor excursions from mere reportage. William Randolph Hearst and his “Remember the Maine” was one of those excursions. Levin’s book identifies a number of examples of politically slanted news over this period but they were the exception rather than the rule. The press protected the personal peccadilloes of political leaders such as FDR and JFK. The press was well aware of Lucy Mercer Rutherford and Marilyn Monroe. Private lives remained private.

But the advent of television news and the assassination of JFK marked a sea change in the tint and tone of national journalism. The visual medium brought news coverage into the family living room every night. An example of the early cracks in the integrity of the main stream media was the infamous New York Times ad citing 1189 psychiatrists who opined that conservative Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was psychologically unfit to be President. The Times had endorsed Johnson. As the election of Johnson was a foregone conclusion few focused on the import of that slander.

Much of what became known as the “main stream media” (MSM) centered on the news broadcasts by the three major networks. ABC, CBS and NBC depended on the integrity of Howard K. Smith (ABC), Walter Cronkite (CBS) and Huntley and Brinkley (NBC). The “slant” of the news was subtle and occurred more because of what was not reported than outright bias. The vast majority of Americans relied without reservation on what the MSM reported each and every night.

Pop Quiz: Who authored this quote: “We do not want word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population”? Answer at the end of this post.

This all changed during the administration of Richard Nixon. For the first time the MSM set out to destroy a President’s administration. Admittedly Nixon was his own worst enemy and he had surrounded himself with an ethically challenged team. But it is fair to say that the MSM did not rely on “fake news” and did not have to as Nixon delivered the means of his own demise. Alexander Butterfield revealed the taping system that proved Nixon was involved in obstructing the investigation and Mark Felt of the FBI worked with Woodward and Bernstein to keep coverage of the scandal moving forward.

Fast forward to the present “news” cycle. Dan Rather succeeded Walter Cronkite at CBS and he was a respected journalist until he ran a story based on a forged document suggesting that George W. Bush had “cheated” during his days in the National Guard. Rather’s response made clear his integrity had been damaged when he admitted that while the document was a forgery the story was nonetheless true. It was the beginning of fake news.

Welcome to the era of cable “news”. All standards are gone. Integrity is a thing of the past. Truth is a battlefield casualty. For eight years the left wing cable news networks MSNBC and CNN protected Obama from any meaningful criticism. They provided deflector shields to ensure that Obama, and then Hilliary Clinton, were not bothered by embarrassing questions. The email scandal was minimized and then dismissed and the Benghazi terrorist attack was blamed on a video which no one ever saw. This despite the fact that Hilliary sent messages to several people calling it a terrorist attack.

And then Donald Trump came down that escalator. The cable news crowd treated the event like an SNL skit. The now unemployed Meghan Kelly tried to ambush Trump at the first debate with questions about his salacious past. Somehow an Access Hollywood video from 2005 full of prurient quotes from Trump was made public. The video was owned by NBC. When Ann Coulter responded to a question asking which Republican would win the election the audience dissolved hysterical laughter when she named Trump. It was a joke at the start but in the early morning of November 9, 2016 no one at MSNBC or CNN was laughing.

The MSM provided full-throated cheer leading for candidate Clinton until the election was called for Trump. Rachel Maddow all but wept and said bitterly: “This is your life now, this is our election now, this is us, this is our country – it’s real”. There was no attempt to objectively report the news before, during or after the election.

This is what the news has now become.

A young man from Covington Catholic High School is the victim of an attack based on edited news footage from Washington on the day of a pro-life rally. His crime was wearing a MAGA hat and standing quietly and smirking in front of an American Indian protestor. He was doxed and his family was targeted. The story was false and no one has bothered to apologize.

Brett Kavanaugh was the subject of a series of accusations about his alleged “sexual” behavior in high school and college. The original accuser was exposed as having no credibility. She didn’t know where the alleged events took place or when. All of the individuals she identified to corroborate her tale claimed to have no knowledge. It was a political hit job and this is well documented in the book Justice on Trial by Carrie Severino and Molly Hemingway. And recently the New York Times decided to destroy the last vestige of its’ credibility by identifying yet another accuser. Alas their story failed to mention that the woman had no memory of the event. And there is no need to mention the totally fictional account that Michael Avenatti presented citing yet another story about Kavanaugh.

Brandy X. Lee an American forensic psychiatrist was given air time, despite her never having even talked to Trump. Her diagnosis: “In Donald Trump, we have a frightening Venn diagram consisting of three circles: the first is extreme present hedonism; the second, narcissism; and the third, bullying behavior. These three circles overlap in the middle to create an impulsive, immature, incompetent person who, when in the position of ultimate power, easily slides into the role of tyrant, complete with family members sitting at his proverbial “ruling table.” Like a fledgling dictator, he plants psychological seeds of treachery in sections of our population that reinforce already negative attitudes.” We are encouraged to believe that this unprofessional and baseless analysis has some medical foundation.

CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” gave air time to psychiatrist Dr. Allen Frances who said President Donald Trump “may be responsible for many more million deaths than Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong”. This from the former chairman of the Duke University Psychiatric Department. This is presented as “news” but it is in fact propaganda.

So how does this level of dishonesty fly in America. In a word…agnotology. AI is not artificial intelligence it is Appalling Ignorance. This is driven by a MSM culture of ignorance which celebrates the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who is the poster child for arrogance and ignorance. She recently called her generation as the most informed in history. When you stop laughing you will see that she meant the “most formed generation.” Formed by leftist teachers from kindergarten through college, by news media that do nothing to advance knowledge and a fawning group of Democrat panjandrums who rely on the ignorance of the voters. Sobering!

Election notes: Elizabeth Warren has announced her pick for Secretary of the Treasury if elected…Rumpelstiltskin. In addition NASA will be renamed National Alchemist and Skullduggery Administration.

Pop quiz answer: Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. It was surprisingly not a Democrat, not George Wallace, Richard Russell nor Theodore Bilbo.