We’re still two years away from real heat of the 2020 presidential campaign, but it might be time for the mainstream media to start filing in-kind contributions to the Trump 2020 reelection campaign.
Over the last 18 months, many in the media have abandoned any appearance of objectivity and balance in favor of an all-out attempt to further the political agenda of the left — namely the impeachment of Donald Trump.
{mosads}With every aggravating month that Trump stays firmly ensconced in the White House, it’s clear that Trump is the mainstream media’s Moby Dick and that they’re Captain Ahab in their deranged pursuit of the great white whale. However, they should be reminded that it didn’t end so well for Captain Ahab.
There have been excuses along the way that mistakes were made in some of the reporting, but at a certain point, systematic “honest mistakes” cease to be honest. They’ve become intentional.
Last week’s “reporting” that Donald Trump had somehow referred to all illegal immigrants as “animals” instead of simply referring to MS-13 gang members was so blatant it was laughable. It was a hit job that one would expect to see from a partisan campaign or campaign committee. Which furthers the argument that the mainstream media, is in fact, the opposition party.
A lot of us get the joke except apparently the media: We know that many of them masquerade as journalists when in fact they’re nothing more than partisan operatives with their own specific worldview and narrative that may or may not have anything to do with the truth.
Since Trump’s election, they’ve proven to be more capable lapdogs than watch dogs, breathlessly reporting all the rumors as fact and innuendos spoon feed to them by the Deep State actors like James Clapper and John Brennan. Then they hilariously give themselves awards for such behavior.
Perhaps the Washington Post — instead of intoning “Democracy Dies in Darkness” with its header — should replace it with “Mouthpieces of the deep state and propaganda arm of the left.” That would be far more honest and factual about who they are.
And quite frankly, that’s all we really want. We hardly expect them to change. We just simply need them to be honest. We want a free press, but we also want an honest press, as in honest about who they are. To expect them to be honest with the facts is simply a bridge too far at the moment, but to be honest about who they are would be deeply refreshing.
The complete misrepresentation of the president’s language surrounding MS-13 and the hysterical coverage of the U.S. Embassy moving to the capital of Israel — Jerusalem (all in one week, mind you) — might be the most recent examples, but they are endemic of the systemic bias and recklessness that plagues our media landscape.
For more than 25 years, presidents and presidential candidates have promised to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Then-candidate Bill Clinton criticized H.W. Bush for failing to move the embassy. Candidate George W. Bush followed in Clinton’s legacy, promising the move on the campaign trail, but failing to follow through once in office. Even President Barack Obama said “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided,” but refused to place the U.S. Embassy in the capital of the Israel.
Then in a move that clearly shocked the delicate sensibilities of the left, President Trump actually followed through on his campaign promises. After decades of empty bipartisan blather, President Trump moved the embassy, eliciting venomous reactions from all the usual suspects, notably the media and the terrorist organization that runs the Gaza Strip, Hamas.
The media, to their credit, did not try to invade Israel (though it feels that if left to their own devices they would) and “take down the border and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies” as the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, promised last week.
Instead, the media were content to provide “air cover” to Hamas by slandering the Israel Defense Force on the cable news airways and in print, only for us to discover a few days after the “protests” with Molotov cocktails and IEDs that the overwhelming majority of those killed were in fact members of the Hamas terrorist organization.
Then with a lovely little cherry to close out their miserably dishonest sundae of a week, the mainstream media — specifically the New York Times and the Washington Post — tried to spin on behalf of their deep state masters that no, in fact an FBI and DOJ informant on the Trump campaign wasn’t spying. It was you know, all just an attempt to “protect” the Trump campaign. While I realize in an alternate universe, also known as the left’s safe space, that might be true, in the real world, an informant, by its very definition, is a spy.
But by all means, here’s hoping the left and the mainstream media, and excuse the redundancy, continue to defend violent gangs and terrorists, attempt image makeovers of brutal regimes like Iran and North Korea, and pretend that the overwhelming majority of Americans don’t understand that an informant is a spy. Many of us will enjoy watching that soul-sucking moment the night of Nov. 3rd, 2020 when they realize that instead of taking their Moby Dick down, they actually helped him win. Again.
Ned Ryun is a former presidential writer for President George W. Bush and the founder and CEO of American Majority, which trains conservative political candidates and activists.