By Nancy Thorner & Bonnie O'Neil -
The mainstream media has become unapologetic in its blatantly biased reporting that favors the Leftist agenda and personalities within the Democrat Party. Such news bias is especially evident at this nation's federal level. Such a trend has been evident for many decades, but never more so than in the media's blatant preference for Hillary Clinton, in contrast to its relentless attacks against her opponent Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Sadly, the war has continued non-stop during the first year of President Trump’s presidency.
As the media is largely owned and operated by Leftist Democrats, some bias could be expected by media sources, but when it is so blatant that it misleads and/or distorts the public’s perception about exceedingly significant issues and people, it is harmful to our country and our future. The media has the power to minimize, distort, exclude, under-report, and/or justify specific government failures, as was the norm during the Obama administration, because they wanted this nice looking, intelligent, charismatic, first black president to succeed. The stunning contrast between how the mainstream media supported Obama through both elections and his eight years in the Oval Office, to its treatment and coverage of Donald Trump, will likely be documented in the future as the most significant media bias in our nation’s history.
While media bias is not necessarily new, current media sources have proven to be unapologetic in their blatant prejudiced reporting. They pick and choose which politicians they like or dislike, and then use the power of their public platform to persuade the public to their viewpoints. Many, if not most, mainstream media sources have covered-up, excused, and under-reported serious mistakes of the Obama presidency, but these same sources delight in reporting anything and everything negative about President Donald Trump. His accomplishments are largely under-reported if reported at all.
US media bias ranked worst in the world
This selective reporting trend has not only damaged the media's integrity, but its bias has the potential to harm our nation as well. Americans on both sides of the political aisle believe the media does a poor job covering political issues fairly. In a Pew report of January 2018, Pew ranks US media bias worst in the world. Particularly horrendous is that the mainstream media covered up or tried to minimize grave mistakes of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, even when their mistakes resulted in American patriots' lives being lost. The following are among the most grievous examples of media coverups, that if gathered together could fill a football stadium:
1. Fast and Furious: A federal operation which purposely allowed weapons to be sold in the U.S. to Mexican gun smugglers. The intent was to follow the guns to Mexican gangs, but the ATF lost track of hundreds of these firearms. Tragically the guns were proven to be used in a variety of horrendous crimes, the most famous of which was the murder of American border agent, Brian Terry. The I.R.S. scandal: Government officials purposely targeted and flagged names of applicants if they signaled they were likely Republican conservative organizations with names such as "tea party," "patriot,” or "9/11”. I.R.S. agents were instructed to target these types of applications and put them into a newly designated section. This allowed the IRS to transfer hundreds of these conservative sounding applications to IRS agents for additional review, intensive questioning, and ultimately long delays. The desired result was to prevent conservative applicants from engaging in the presidential election in which Barack Obama and other Democrats were candidates. It is obvious this seriously biased action helped Obama’s party and hindered Republicans in the 2012 election cycle.
2. The Benghazi Tragedy: Benghazi has been deemed one of President Obama's and Secretary Clinton’s biggest failures, when it was revealed that they and others in the Obama Administration misrepresented facts in an attempt to cover-up negatives that would tend to harm them in the upcoming election. The Obama administration, with the help of media sources, kept facts from the public that would have proved embarrassing and thus harmful to them, especially considering the upcoming national election promised to a close one. President Obama and his administration, with the help of willing media sources, were able to suppress embarrassing facts regarding this tragedy that resulted in the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and a few brave men who were killed trying to rescue him. The media became complicit in the cover-up, as they largely kept known facts from the public, including the disgraceful complicity of debate moderator Candy Crawley who helped Obama win the debate, when she allowed him to get by with a statement she knew to be false about this incident.
The Revolving Door
It has been well over a year since the Mueller's Special Council investigation was directed to look into Trump's collusion with Russia during the election. Although no proof has been forthcoming about Trump and any Russian collusion, the media and prominent Democrats continue to find ways to keep doubt alive in the mind of the public. Obviously, their plan was to discredit, if not actually destroy President Trump and his administration. All the while Fast and Furious, the I.R.S. scandal, and the Benghazi tragedy have all receded into the back-ground, as Democrats hoped they would.
Honesty and integrity by politicians, as well as by the media, are critical if this country is to remain the amazing nation our forefathers fought and died for. If the media is allowed to shape the news rather than fairly report facts, this nation will fail, as the premise upon which this county was founded will no longer exist. It is not unreasonable to believe that the mainstream media has become a shill for the Democrat Party.
Few Americans know the facts behind why bias exists in mainstream media sources, because the information has not been widely published. The media's claim that political prejudice does not exist is a fantasy and/or a blatant lie. A short visit to specific media sites will prove that a definite bias exists today, as it unquestionably existed during the Obama /Clinton years.
Media bias during Obama/Clinton years
Most of us are unaware of a likely reason for the media bias being so extreme during Obama's term. The following facts provide at least part of the problem which existed during the Obama years that suggest if there was not outright collusion, the close ties below offer definite suspicions.
- David Rhodes, the President of CBS, is the brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama’s National Security Advisor for strategic Communications.
- Claire Shipman worked as an ABC news correspondent while married to Jay Carey, Obama’s White House Press Secretary.
- Mathew Jaffe was with ABC News and Univision and married to Katie Hogan, Obama’s Deputy Press Secretary.
- Ben Sherwood was the producer of ABC's Good Morning America. Ben’s sister served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs, coordinator for Defense policy, and Deputy Secretary of Energy.
- Virginia Moseley, CNN President, was married to Tom Aides (Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary).
The stark contrasts between the media’s reporting of Obama verses Trump can be viewed here: A mere 7 percent of journalists identify as Republicans, and even they usually donate to Democrat candidates.
Americans voters are waking up
Americans voters are, for the most part, smart. That could explain why they rejected Hillary and out of a large group of Republican candidates, decided to go with the non-political one who seemed to want the same changes they knew America required. This bodes well for our future. However, most citizens do not know all the facts and haven’t the time to investigate. They depend upon media sources and think they are getting accurate, unbiased information.
However, more and more Americans are no longer being fooled by a media that minimized the negatives of Hillary Clinton, ignored the lies about Benghazi, and did not have the integrity to admit Obama’s mistakes. Many Independents realized the media was finding ways to fault Trump, while making excuses for Hillary’s misdeeds. Trump's message and promise to “drain the swamp” resonated with voters and became even more strong as media sources do their best to malign him day in and day out.
President Trump continues to drive Leftist media sources, politicians, and Soros funded groups somewhat crazy. They malign him regularly, question his leadership, and challenge his administration, seizing every opportunity that comes along to do so, even at the risk of being caught inserting fake news on occasion. Despite these attempts by a combination of anti-Trump media, the Deep State, the Democratic Party, and renegade Republicans, Trump just keeps tweeting away to counter the insults and attacks of his adversaries, while making the changes he promised the American people.
Trump is somewhat like Mark Twain. Twain was a man that sleazy politicians and reporters feared due to his witty, revealing criticisms of them. Twain claimed reporters were more interested in what was best for themselves than what was best for America. The following Twain statement seems equally relevant to today:
“No country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law, and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.”
