The MSM Abdicating Its Responsiblity

I coined the phrase The Fourth Estate has become a Fifth Column.  Anyone who says otherwise is lying.  I rarely come up with truly novel thoughts or expressions, but I'll lay claim to this one.  And I'm right about it.

The MSM, which long has patted itself -- sometimes correctly -- as being the country's watchdog for abuses of power by our governments, both state and federal.  Modern examples of its excellent work include the Pentagon Papers and Watergate.  These incidents, painful though they were at the time, were necessary to our republic.  The ethos that spurred these journalistic triumphs is no more.

Recently, the MSM has been an accomplice to perpetuating hoaxes attacking Donald Trump, whom the MSM and the Left abhor.  At one time, there may have been reason to pursue the Russian interference/collusion story, but once it became obvious that it was a ginned up story, the focus should have shifted to the perpetrators.  Instead, the MSM mocked those who sought to debunk it and pilloried them, going so far as to call for censorship for, ironically, misinformation.  Rather than uphold the tenets of the First Amendment, the MSM pushed the need to have people and outlets deplatformed.  This is inimical to the underlying philosophy of the First Amendment.  In these days of partisan politics, however, the Left has abandoned all impartiality and embraced the Left's agenda wholeheartedly.

Now, with the Republicans having retaken the House, whistleblowers from the IRS and former associates of Hunter Biden, Man of Dementia's dissolute son, have testified before Congress as to the Biden Criminal Family Enterprise's illegal activities.  The MSM has twisted itself in knots trying to defend the Bidens while at the same time tacitly admitting that the charges are true.  The irony is unbelievable, yet there is no shame on behalf of the MSM.  Even Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame has sought to defend the Russian collusion hoax.  The world is indeed upside down.

Not to be outdone, the Right has lost its collective mind.  Although I would readily agree that what's been done to Donald Trump is unfair beyond measure, to elect him president out of spite for the three and possibly four indictments he's facing is ridiculous.  The Right's bench is infinitely deeper than the Left's -- there is no viable alternative to either Man of Dementia or the Harridan of Blair House -- so there are other options.  But people on the Right are so angry -- and rightly so -- that they've lost all reason and are willing to elect Donald Trump even if he's convicted.

The MSM could have prevented all of this by doing its job.  But instead, with its craven politics being put ahead of the well-being of the country, we're facing a crisis that we don't even acknowledge.  What with Russian, China and its client states on the warpath, we need to be united, no matter who goes down.

(c) 2023 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles