Dakota Beacon

Dominant print and electronic journalism tanked in recent years. That comes as no surprise. Fewer people consume the media “product,” and for good reason.

Some journalists distort the news using manipulated content. “This will guide our reporting in MN. ‘While the situation on the ground in Minneapolis is fluid, and there has been violence, it is most accurate at this time to describe what is happening there as “protests” – not riots.’” That’s the approved view of Craig Melvin, NBC and MSNBC reporter as posted on FOX News, 5/28/20.

Other instances occur where journalists just make up the news. “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests After Police Shooting.” Reads a CNN chyron from burning car lot during Kenosha, WI riots, 8/27/20.

Some publish only those stories that would hurt their ideological opponents. “We should not – for the rest of their careers – refer to any of these Republican [Electoral College] objectors as ‘conservatives.’ They are radicals. They are extremists. There is nothing conservative about subverting democracy.” This from Tim Alberta, Politico’s chief political correspondent, reported on FOX News, 1/5/21.

When journalists lose their reputation as objective reporters of news, they lose the respect of the public. And that is exactly what is happening. Government agencies no longer view journalists as unbiased actors serving as deterrents and honest brokers “speaking truth to power.” Government officials sense they themselves are no longer held accountable by journalists and that journalists can be enlisted as allies, or at least played by the officials.

Two examples come to mind illustrating how the media may be used to sway public opinion to support national political objectives. Critical to selling the Affordable Care Act to a skeptical American public was the effort of health economist and MIT professor Jonathan Gruber. After passage of the bill he bragged that he used a compliant media to dupe the public. (“GRUBER: ‘Lack of Transparency Is a Huge Political Advantage’” posted to YouTube 11/7/2014)

A second example is that of Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor under Barack Obama. He bragged that he made good use of the inexperience, bias, and general stupidity of the news media to feed them narratives about the proposed Iran Deal to win over the American public. (“DC Reporters Can’t Get Enough of Ben Rhodes,” Washington Times, 12/22/2017)

From the bag of partisan tricks comes yet another subtle play. Reporters, and especially editorial boards, are known to withhold stories that effectively protect their ideological (liberal and progressive) allies. A prime example occurred last week. After months of touting the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act the bills failed in the US Senate. These bills were designed to supersede several states’ Constitutional authority to update their voting processes. Passage of the bills would have insured the nationalization of the election process. The bills were defeated in the Senate on Wednesday night, January 19. Concurrently, a related Democrat effort to eliminate the Senate rule governing the filibuster, and therefore make the two bills easier to pass, also failed. Barely a word was broadcast that evening. Thursday. Mum. Not until Friday did news of the Biden administration’s catastrophic loss in the Senate begin to slowly seep out. How were Democrats and their media allies going to put lipstick on this pig? Even with this 48-hour delay in reporting, the media could not put together a positive spin on the story. And the story had to come out sooner or later.

Not until Friday, January 21 did major media outlets gingerly acknowledge the defeat of the two voting bills and rejection of the Senate filibuster rules change. Who knows what goes on between the ears of editorial boards and the journalists they employ? What did they expect to gain by withholding the news? Did they think the public would forget the pro-legislation hype after having been pumped for weeks?

To be sure, many more people catch on each day. They see through the journalistic partisan farce of distortion and the burying of news to protect the political power of their allies. Rather than patronize the dominant media, the public finds news elsewhere. Three cheers for them!

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).