MSM bias

(With this post, I do believe I qualify for syndication.  Let the royalties flow...).

It should be obvious to anyone who follows this blog that I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat.  Karen hates when I say it, but I'm a Marxist:  I'd never join a club that would have me as a member.  I say that again not to annoy my love but to emphasize that I do not belong to any political party.  That said, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm probably more conservative on some issues and more liberal on others.  In effect, I'm human.

There is one issue, however, where I speak only as an American and not as a proponent of any political philosophy.  The mainstream media ("MSM") has been coopted to the extent that it no longer is an impartial element of our society.  The Fourth Estate has become a highly biased organ that sees as its role that of editor and advocate of the Democratic Party.

The problem with this is that in the United States, the press is supposed to be nothing more than an entity that informs the public.  It can, of course, investigate the government and other private organizations and then tell the public the results of its investigations.  But the basic function of the MSM is to gather news and relay it to the public without editorializing.

The MSM has changed over the last twenty years.  Gone are the days of Murrow, Cronkite, Brinkley and Woodward and Bernstein who merely informed the public of stories.  Nowadays, the MSM sifts through stories and determines what the public should and shouldn't hear.  It participates in the news, becoming players that sculpt what's happening and helping put its own biased spin on it.

Lest anyone think this is a partisan argument in favor of the Republicans, consider that I'm not a devotee of Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck.  I have, admittedly, turned to Fox News, but that's because NBC, ABC, CBS and others like the Clinton News Network are so appallingly liberal that I can't rely on them to learn anything.

A case in point is the attack on our consulate in Benghazi.  The MSM parrotted the administration's story about the attack being a spontaneous demonstration for nearly two weeks after September 11.  It never questioned facts that were in abundance that this was a pure terrorist attack.  Not until after the election was there any concerted effort to pinpoint what actually happened.  Then, when the outgoing Secretary of State testified before the Senate committee, her unresponsive responses were touted by the cheerleading press when in fact she didn't provide any answers.  Meanwhile, four Americans' deaths are largely going unanswered.  Were a Republican in the White House when this happened, the story would lead each nightly news broadcast.

The liberal New York Times then reported that four staffers at the State Department lost their jobs for their grossly negligent conduct relative to Benghazi.  It later came out that the four in fact were merely transferred and are still being paid.  This didn't come out on the MSM outlets, but they still won't report that.

The economy is in a sinkhole, yet Scott (the Traitor) Pelley reported that although the numbers suggested a worsening of the economy, we shouldn't worry because it may very well turn around (I'm paraphrasing).  Since when was Mr. Pelley mentioned in the same breath as John Maynard Keynes?  When did it become his job to not just report the news but to comment on it and tell us what to think?

The New Jersey senator Bob Menéndez is being investigated for allegedly dallying with underaged Dominican prostitutes that were provided for him by a fundraiser.  Not only that, these allegations come on the heels of the revelation this his staff includes an illegal alien who has a sex crime on his record.  How much do you think this made the network news telecasts?

Incompetence is incompetence.  Impropriety is impropriety.  Yet the MSM seems to believe that it's much ado about nothing.  They schedule outrageously fawning interviews with the President that don't ask him any tough questions.  They attack gun ownership when the facts belie the need to ban semi-automatic weapons because the President has decided it's his latest initiative.  They laud him and show him giving speeches every night and pay him homage when in fact their job is to ask him penetrating questions to give the public the information it needs to know whether its elected officials are doing the job they were elected to do.

Even when it doesn't have to do directly with the current administration, the MSM sorts through the news it finds and decided which is worthy of being shown.  For example, for as horrendous as the Sandy Hook shootings were, the MSM concentrates on demonstrations against gun ownership and dedicates all its airtime and print to the need to curtail the sale of guns.  Meanwhile, it avoids all the statistics that show that semi-automatics are responsible for less death than handguns, all the stories showing how armed guards prevent worse massacres and all the speeches in favor of retention of Second Amendment rights, even those by parents whose children were killed at Sandy Hook, in favor of celebrities who come out against guns. 

Ask yourself why this is.  Ask yourself if the MSM would act accordingly were a Republican in the White House.  Ask yourself what good this does for our society.

It might shock many to learn that I actually have quite a few friends with a liberal bent.  One of them, a highly intelligent attorney, said after hearing about the lack of reporting on Benghazi that the MSM was letting the country down.  He's absolutely right.  The lack of questioning about decisions made, actions taken or not taken and misbehavior that would draw criticism were it of another color leads people to believe that things are as the MSM describes them.

This happened decades ago, albeit with much uglier rhetoric.  It happened during a similar economic downturn with a country lacking national pride.  The main character of this manipulation of news was Adolph Hitler, who was assisted quite ably by his minister of propaganda, Josef Goebbels.  I risk treading into Godwin's Law territory, but President Obama is a master communicator who is being ably assisted by the MSM. 

Just because we're common citizens doesn't mean we should stop thinking for ourselves.  At the same time, the MSM should stop deciding what is worthy of being reported and what we don't need to know.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles