During this Christmas season, Thomas Paine's famous words – "These are the times that try men's souls" – seem especially relevant and poignant.
For while everything good, decent and generous about America tends to assert itself at Christmastime, we continue to witness outrage after outrage in Washington, D.C., as a disgraced and repudiated administration continues in its attempts to transform America into something that would horrify Thomas Paine and the other Founding Fathers.
Many people have analyzed, pontificated and written books about how we got to such a low point, but please allow me to remind you of what is undoubtedly the No. 1 reason America is today writhing under the "leadership" of the most destructive and dangerous president in history.
Do you remember why 69 million Americans voted for Barack Obama?
It's because he had an advantage no other presidential candidate has ever had – the total, unabashed support of the "mainstream media," which was so enchanted by the prospect of a young, eloquent, cool, liberal – and for the first time in history, black – president, that they ignored his anti-American, Marxist, Islamic and criminal associations and his unbelievably subversive track record. Instead of vetting him as was their solemn duty, the media lifted him high overhead and giddily raced across the finish line, all the while reassuring Americans Obama would be a great, "historic" and "transformative" president.
Many people have analyzed, pontificated and written books about how we got to such a low point, but please allow me to remind you of what is undoubtedly the No. 1 reason America is today writhing under the "leadership" of the most destructive and dangerous president in history.
Do you remember why 69 million Americans voted for Barack Obama?
It's because he had an advantage no other presidential candidate has ever had – the total, unabashed support of the "mainstream media," which was so enchanted by the prospect of a young, eloquent, cool, liberal – and for the first time in history, black – president, that they ignored his anti-American, Marxist, Islamic and criminal associations and his unbelievably subversive track record. Instead of vetting him as was their solemn duty, the media lifted him high overhead and giddily raced across the finish line, all the while reassuring Americans Obama would be a great, "historic" and "transformative" president.
As if to assuage their guilt, immediately after Election Day, when it no longer mattered, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell publicly admitted the paper's reporters and editors had utterly neglected to vet either Obama, who "deserved tougher scrutiny," or Biden – an omission she referred to as "one gaping hole in [the Post's] coverage."
But the problem with journalism today is not just "gaping holes in coverage" and temporary abdication of professional journalism standards. Our "big media" have come increasingly to resemble the state-run press we see in China, with its gigantic Xinhua "News" Agency, in reality a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party. Or Russia, where although criticism of the government can be found in some newspapers and on the Internet, the country's national television channels are essentially extensions of the state: "They are all either controlled by the Kremlin or run by editors who know what not to say," says Allison Gill, director of the Human Rights Watch office in Russia.
Here's the problem: You cannot have a free country without a free press. Yet America's "big media" today – especially the national broadcast and cable TV news (except perhaps Fox), as well as the major trendsetting newspapers like the New York Times – have devolved into a de facto government propaganda ministry.
But the problem with journalism today is not just "gaping holes in coverage" and temporary abdication of professional journalism standards. Our "big media" have come increasingly to resemble the state-run press we see in China, with its gigantic Xinhua "News" Agency, in reality a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party. Or Russia, where although criticism of the government can be found in some newspapers and on the Internet, the country's national television channels are essentially extensions of the state: "They are all either controlled by the Kremlin or run by editors who know what not to say," says Allison Gill, director of the Human Rights Watch office in Russia.
Here's the problem: You cannot have a free country without a free press. Yet America's "big media" today – especially the national broadcast and cable TV news (except perhaps Fox), as well as the major trendsetting newspapers like the New York Times – have devolved into a de facto government propaganda ministry.
The big media mock patriotic Americans trying to set their country right. They rewrite White House press releases and call it news. They bow and scrape before President Obama or anyone else. They pretend abortion is OK, or that same-sex marriage is good, or that global warming is "proven science," or that more government is the solution to all problems, or that Palestinian leaders want peace, or that the Constitution is old-fashioned, or that the "Federal Reserve" is good for America. In short, they are “politically correct” and have many sacred cows. Instead, they should tell the truth that Americans desperately need and deserve to hear.
With everything going on in America today, we need a vibrant, free press more than ever.
Merry Christmas and God Bless,
JohnnyD
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