George Rebane
For years my conservative friends and I have shared a common experience when talking to a leftwinger about current events. They all have massive blind spots in what they know of what’s going on. The explanation is simple. They only get their news from leftwing lamestream media which simply omits, minimizes, or hides happenings that do not conform to the Left’s worldview.
I was reminded of this again when waking up to National Propaganda Radio this morning (yes, like most conservatives, I’m interested in what my liberal neighbors see and hear). In their weekend news coverage NPR extensively described, among other items, one 600-person anti-Trump demonstration in a remote little town in upper New York state. This was illustrated as an example of broad grass roots participation in hundreds of such well-organized demonstrations across the country.
However, another very significant and historical large-scale event was totally ignored, and that was the once-in-a-lifetime, massive military parade down Constitution Avenue in Washington DC celebrating our Army’s 250th birthday – not a word or even a whisper. To our leftwing friends and neighbors it never happened. This serves as an example of lamestream’s normal ‘unbiased coverage’ of the news and explains away the ignorance of RR’s leftwing readers as expressed in their contributed comments. They get a wholly different picture of the country and world from the NYT, WaPo, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, … .
And as such, as I have often reminded readers, leftwingers not only have their own opinions, but also their own facts, history, science, logic, … which are markedly (sometimes totally) different from what those of us on the Right have learned and experience. The country’s schism is complete simply for the lack of a productive common ground, and to that is added their totally different method of reasoning, even if some vestiges of common beliefs were to be found.
Then we come to the overall intellectual deficit from which today’s journalism suffers; and here I include the right-leaning outlets like Fox News and Fox Business. While they do a very good job covering the waterfront of the world’s happenings, their correspondents (and/or news scribes) more often than not omit the critical follow-on questions (to interviewees) or inclusion of crucial points that are fundamental to their reports. And with these omissions they surrender the field to the country’s socialist cadres and their interpretations which these outlets air lavishly.
Here's a timely example from reporting on today’s grossly misnamed ‘immigration’ issue involving the ongoing deportation of illegal aliens. The Left points out how our agriculture industry would be massively crippled if its current workforce of 40% illegals were to be deported. In covering this no correspondent of the Right is smart enough to include in their report that, were it to be undertaken, it would take a considerable period of time to deport the thousands of illegals who make up the 40%. Over this period there would be a natural process (of replacement workers and technology) accompanied by policy changes (e.g. reinitiation of the bracero program) that would minimally affect the industry, if at all. But by not including this important reality leaves the Left’s misleading point of an instantaneous removal of thousands by ICE agents in the minds of our already lightly read audiences. Other similar examples abound daily.
And when it comes to the aired interviews which produce either outlandish assertions or questions totally unanswered, the journalist has two revealing remedies. First, ask the interviewee on what evidence they base their assertion which will quickly expose their (biased?) basis or shows that they don’t have any for their public stance. Second, never ignore a by-passed question; the reporter must always tell his audience that the question went unanswered and/or provide an opportunity to fill the exposed void.
Finally, we should all know that outlets like the NPR should not be provided public funding to support spewing their grossly politically-biased views. They should appeal to their like-minded audiences and sponsors for the means to exercise their First Amendment rights.
Scattershots – 6jul25
George Rebane
Yellow journalism is the practice and bailiwick of conservative media. I am literally nauseated listening to so-called “fearless” journalists on outlets like Fox News. According to my lights a professional and ethical journalist will not let an interviewee’s obviously erroneous statements, diversions/evasions, and lies stand, and simply proceed to the next question or topic. The uninformed and mostly lightly read audience deserves to hear the journalist respond to such interviewee answers with, “From your response I see that you neglected to answer my question (repeated)”, or “your answer contradicts the information widely supplied by (citation)”, or “perhaps you can cite some evidence for our audience to support your allegation”. You get the idea – as a journalist with balls, don’t just skedaddle on to the next question when your last one went unanswered.
Leftwing journalists and outlets cannot be so accused. It is not and never has been their intention to accurately inform their audiences. In their reports and interviews they will purposefully incorporate erroneous statements, diversions/evasions, and lies – they have a collectivist ideology to promote.
Apropos to Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy for NYC mayor. It is nothing but the next ratchet in the Left’s program to control the populations of the country’s big urban centers. The means to do this is to restructure the financial and cognitive make-up of its inhabitants. Their method is simple, transparent, and direct – “Forget the chatter about ‘abundance.’ The left hopes to solidify control of cities by driving the middle class out.” WSJ columnist Allysia Finley outlines this process in her 5jul25 ‘The Progressive Paucity Agenda—From Mamdani in New York to California’.
A miss to Vladimir Lenin, leader of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, who promised, “Give me four years to teach the children and the communist seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” Well now, in America we have given him three generations of children to teach socialism in our public schools and academia, but today barely half of our population has been converted into reliable supporters of what he has sown. A sorry record indeed. [This was submitted to The Union for their Hits & Misses column.]
Posted at 12:17 PM in Culture Comments, Current Affairs, Our Country | Permalink | Comments (9)
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