Jim Terry
The irrelevant news media--Part I
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By Jim Terry
August 29, 2016

In early August, Americans were reminded what Chris Cuomo of CNN said in 2014. Several internet sites ran the video clip of Cuomo telling viewers how the media is working for Hillary Clinton.
    It's a problem because she's doing what they call in politics "freezing pockets," because the donors are giving her money thinking she's going to run, that means they're not going to have available money for other candidates if she doesn't. And I don't think she's going to give it to them. We couldn't help her any more than we have, she's got just a free ride so far from the media, we're the biggest ones promoting her campaign, so it had better happen.
Such is the state of journalism today.

The traditional news industry in the United States continues to illustrate how irrelevant it has become because of biased and false reporting. It is an institution filled with hypocrites. While this is nothing new, it seems to be accelerating at the AlvinTofler "Future Shock" pace and almost every day an example pops up.

A good example of bias in the news community is an incident in September 2015 when PBS' Gwen Ifill tweeted, "Take that BiBi," in response to reports that Barack Hussein Obama had solicited enough dummycrat votes to insure his suicidal pact with Iran cannot be overturned by Congress.

Ifill, the moderator of the 2008 vice-presidential debate, was criticized for her bias against Sarah Palin during the debate. She was also the author of the pro Obama book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, which would be released on inauguration day in 2009. Obama's win, it was speculated, would insure the success of her book. Of course, there was no conflict of interest there.

Two incidents in the past year bring home the point of the media's irrelevance. In July 2015 The New York Times edited a story about Hillary Clinton because her campaign complained about the tone of the story. In August 2015, a reporter for Univision disrupted a Donald Trump press conference by rudely advocating his own position on an issue, although he had not been called upon by Trump. Trump chastised the reporter, had him removed, to the applause of those attending, and later allowed him to return.

That the news media is made up of mostly politically liberal people is not arguable; neither is the effect of liberal journalists on the news. Christopher Matthews writes in an article at Fortune.com titled, "Conservatives Are Right: The Media Is Very Liberal," published November 2, 2015 (http://fortune.com/2015/11/02/liberal-media/):
    Study after study has shown that the mainstream media leans left...it is safe to say that the median journalist in America is to the left of the median American voter, and that this affects how the news is presented to the public.
Then, we have Brian Williams, the NBC chief fiction writer. In January 2015, Williams reminisced over his flight by helicopter which was forced down by gunfire on its way into the war zone in Iraq.

That tale was shot down when the pilot of the helicopter publicly revealed that Williams was not on that copter, nor in the vicinity. At this point, Williams has been credited with at least thirty fictional stories, published and condoned by NBC.

In February 2015 a New York Times columnist wrote that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had cut state funding to education causing teacher layoffs in 2010. The problem with the story: Walker didn't take office until 2011.

In 2004, Dan Rather made his infamous report on George Bush shortly before the 2004 election and how Bush had failed to report for duty in the National Guard , which was supported by forged documents. Yet, Rather insisted that in spite of the only evidence, which was false, the story was a good story.

The American news business doesn't just make up stuff, it promotes lies in order to sell its product.

In 2012, Senator Harry Reid lied on the floor of the U.S. Senate when he said that Mitt Romney had not paid his taxes. America's press carried Reid's water all the way to the election. The American news business continued to perpetuate the lie that Ferguson, Missouri resident Michael Brown was shot by a policeman when he had his hands raised and was retreating, giving radical anarchists their battle cry, "hands up, don't shoot." Both a grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri and the United States Department of Justice affirmed Michael Brown did not have his hands up nor was he retreating when shot by a local police officer.

Playing fast and loose with the truth has not been restricted to news reporting. USA Today reported in August 2004 that The Dallas Morning News had been caught inflating its circulation numbers, a driving factor in setting advertising rates. That report also stated, "The Morning News is the latest of several newspapers that recently have admitted overstating circulation figures." These are but a few examples of the state of today's journalism and news reporting. However, they illustrate the disregard the media has for its consumers. The result of the news industry's bias and false reporting has manifested in several ways.

© Jim Terry

 

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Jim Terry

Jim Terry has worked in Republican grassroots politics for 40 years. Terry was an administrative assistant to a Republican elected official in Dallas for twenty years. In 1996, he ran for and was elected to Justice Court 2 in Dallas County where he served eight years. Contact Jim at tr4guy62@yahoo.com

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