Dakota Beacon

Be careful little eyes what you see.

            Be careful little ears what you hear.

            Many of us learned this Sunday School ditty as kids. Life’s early lessons were meant to protect us as kids as well as adults.

            Both camps, Democrat and Republican, initiated political campaigns months ago, first with President Obama’s fund raisers, then with Republican wannabes.

            Addressing what everybody knows, the dominant media (mainstream media or MSM), is in the Democrat camp. Be careful what you see; be careful what you hear. Collusion is the correct word.

            Do I know this for a fact? No one knows the future. However, past evidence is clear. Witness the pattern of media bias in recent campaigns. There is no reason to believe MSM behavior will change.

  -- Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had significant ties to radical leftist attorney Saul Alinsky, author of “Rules for Radicals.” Clinton wrote her Wellesley thesis discussing favorably Alinksky’s tactics. The MSM ignored this information during the 2008 presidential campaign.

  -- Obama launched his career in politics in Bill Ayers’ living room. Ayers was a Weather Underground terrorist and was responsible for fatal bombings in the US. Obama and Ayers were more than neighbors but the MSM glanced over this information pooh-poohing the facts.

  -- Jeremiah Wright of the radical left was Obama’s pastor for twenty years. Wright’s inflammatory rhetoric was dismissed by Obama and, true to form, the MSM came to his defense by excusing the relationship if they covered it at all.

            The MSM relishes the role of “king maker” reinforcing their own liberal agenda by aligning with liberal Democrats. First, they commandeer the selection of the Republican nominee who they think Obama could beat in the general election. Then, once nominated, the MSM does everything it can to tear down the Republican nominee to Obama’s advantage. We’ve seen this before.

            Fortunately, the MSM is not as prevalent as it used to be. The public in general, and voters in particular, eventually caught on and increasingly shun the biased press in growing numbers. For proof, take a look at the decline in newspaper subscriptions and TV ratings.

            Journalistic bias is a matter of choice with decisions made by editorial boards. Quite often the choice supports the liberal-progressive agenda.

            Here is a great example of the MSM’s investigative journalism gone awry. Within a week following Tiger Woods Escalade accident the MSM found most of the women with whom he had had illicit liaisons. They also produced phone and text messages and photographs. The MSM knew that his wife broke the windows in the Escalade and how. Day after day for weeks the MSM kept us current on his rehab and divorce. The point is that the MSM is perfectly capable of effective investigative journalism -- when they choose.

            On the other hand, consider how little we know about Barack Obama two and one-half years after elected president. We don’t know any of his high school or college friends. We’ve never seen any of his college grades or what he wrote. We do not know how he funded his education at Columbia and Harvard. We know little of his visit to Pakistan in the 1980s. We’ve never seen his wife, Michelle’s, thesis on racism written at Princeton. The MSM won’t even produce Obama’s childhood friends and neighbors for comment.

            The MSM successfully shielded Obama from scrutiny. He is their man and the MSM will do everything to protect him from adverse publicity. They prefer to keep us in the dark. Then we’re supposed to believe that CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and NPR are giving us the whole truth? Fat chance.

            Try this. There isn’t a day goes by when the MSM doesn’t give favorable coverage to the President, the First Lady or the First Family. Where are the puff pieces about the spouses and families of Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and others? You’ll look long and hard to find them.

            Daily the MSM treat us to the allegations of sexual improprieties supposedly committed by Republican Herman Cain. No allegations are substantiated, accusers never filed charges and accusers are unknown except one. On the other hand, darling Democrat John Edwards’ adultery remained quiet until after the National Enquirer broke the story. The MSM had to respond lest their poor journalism become an embarrassment.

            After a busy day, who wants to slog through MSM propaganda? As the MSM loses revenue paralleling their loss of readers and viewers it falls to the hard left moneyed patrons like George Soros to fund their distortions.

            You make the call.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).