Dakota Beacon

Pinocchio’s nose grew long when he lied, a telltale sign. So does the collective nose of the legacy media. Mainstream media (MSM), left wing media, corporate media, big media – whatever you wish to dub the elitist press -- regards itself as the fourth estate but acts like a fifth column. CBS, NBC, ABC, CNBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Times. Add Vox, Axios, Slate, and Huffington Post to the list as wannabes.

Last November The Passing Scene offered a partial list of news sites as alternatives to the dominant media. Reason? The MSM cannot be trusted. Most people suspect this and more acknowledge it each passing day. By and large, many people do not believe, or cannot stand, the prejudice that masquerades as journalism.

Most major “journalists” have a “disposition” problem. They think of themselves as nonpartisan watchdogs, but are just the opposite. They act as operatives posing as journalists. Consequently, the arrogance of the Fourth Estate becomes intolerable. They are not looking out for the “little guy” much less the wellbeing of the nation. Journalists on the left no longer speak truth to power. They enable it.

Compare the partiality of coverage of the year-long BLM riots in 2020 to the January 6, 2021 demonstration at the US Capitol. It is now mid-April and not a day goes by in which multiple stories and photos of the January 6 protest aren’t prominently shoved in our faces. What was the news throughout 2020 as Black Lives Matter and Antifa reduced swaths of cities to ashes? Crickets. Or, at best, excuses and vindication by leftist apologists in the MSM. Different standards were used by Twitter when reinforcing leftist media. What gets banned -- and what doesn’t? Compare news coverage for both events.

Guidance from the Associated Press Stylebook follows. “Focusing on rioting and property destruction rather than underlying grievance has been used in the past to stigmatize broad swaths of people protesting against lynching, police brutality, or for racial justice, going back to the urban uprisings of the 1960’s.”

Joy Reid, MSNBC, 8/30/20 agrees. “The ‘riots’ are not Black Lives Matter marches gone wrong. Armed white nationalists are mobbing these cities to take advantage of protestors and scare fellow white people into quietly siding with them. It’s an old, tried, and true strategy: using fear & anti-blackness for politics.”

            “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests After Police Shooting.” CNN chyron from burning car lot during Kenosha, WI riots, 8/27/20.

            “People will do what they do.” Nancy Pelosi, Real Clear Politics, 7/9/20, on a mob destroying a statue of Christopher Columbus.

            “Seattle is fine. Don’t be so afraid of democracy.” Mayor Jenny Durkan (D, Seattle), 6/12/20.

            “Nonviolence is an important tool for protests, but so is violence.” Slate, 6/4/20.

            Alternatively, here is how the media portrayed the January 6, 2021 demonstration at the US Capitol.

            “Trump Incites Rioters: The President may use the language of patriotism, but these are the actions of Benedict Arnold.” New York Times, 1/6/21.

            “Every person who forced their way into the Capitol should be arrested. Lock them all up.” German Lopez of Vox, 1/6/21. He sang a different tune in 2016 when he wrote in Vox that riots “can be part of a coherent political movement” and that “we need to take their causes seriously.”

            “The fact is that getting rid of Trump is the easy part. Cleansing the movement he commands is going to be something else.” Rick Klein, ABC News, 1/7/21.

            “You can’t heal or reform the GOP who are now an extremist party. They have to be broken, burned down, and rebuilt. When Biden is in power treat them like the active threats to democracy they are.” Wajahat Ali, New York Times, 11/9/20.

We once had a president who was not afraid of the media. He called them out when they misrepresented, when they omitted, and when they conjured. He did not cower before the press as do some “moderate” Republican toadies who are scared to death of news stories critical of themselves.

More and more people are seeing the truth. Many have known it for decades – the media and their elected Democrat sycophants are not to be trusted.

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