Q. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
A. I do.
Five decades a trial lawyer, I have heard these or similar words countless times. An equivalent for the Mass Media regarding their reporting would be anathema to them. Their "reporting" is 'anything but the truth.'
Definition time: the "Mass Media," not the oft used “MSM" [Mainstream Media.] The Mass Media are not mainstream. They are far Left. The corruption of the Mass Media to be vehicles promoting their agenda is the most distressing change in our culture in my lifetime. They have succeeded in promulgating propaganda masquerading as reporting. [See MediaResearchCenter.org for countless examples.]
THE AGENDA
For more than 110 years, the masthead of the NY Times has born the slogan: "All the news that 's fit to print." The slogan these days for the Mass Media, of which the Times is part, would read more accurately: "Only the news that fits our agenda." Some examples.
CNN
Last week, we were treated to the spectacle of CNN's Headline News [HLN] agenda-fitting. The story was of a man who rescued an infant sweltering in 90+ degrees heat in a locked car. He was interviewed later and HLN ran the interview which showed the man in a shirt bearing the legend "2016 Trump." When it realized what it had done - showing a heroic individual as a Trump supporter, HLN altered the picture so that the Trump legend was removed. Hard to believe? The pics are below.
NBC
It brought to mind NBC's blatant agenda-fitting in the coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting when it altered the tape of Zimmerman's 911 call. The actual exchange:
ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he 's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about.
DISPATCHER: OK, and this guy- is he black, white or Hispanic?
ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.
After NBC massaged the tape, what the public heard was this:
ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like is up to no good, he looks black.
The unedited version has Zimmerman offering the race of the suspect only when prompted. The altered version has Zimmerman volunteering that someone "up to no good" is "black."
MICHAEL BROWN COVERAGE
Another glaring example is one which contributed to rioting and looting in more than 100 cities: the Michael Brown/Ferguson shooting. The public was repeatedly shown a high school graduation picture of Brown along with a description "an unarmed black teenager" and/or "a gentle giant." Conveniently missing from the broadcasts was the picture taken minutes before the shooting showing the 6'4" 295 pound Brown assaulting a small shopkeeper while committing a strong armed robbery.
The Mass Media continues to promote the "Hands Up Don't Shoot" lie to this day despite overwhelming proof it never happened. [ARCHIVE ISSUE 6]
KATIE COURIC
In a “documentary” on gun control, Couric asked Second Amendment supporters, “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?” The camera showed participants “sitting silently for nine awkward seconds, unable to provide an answer.” Only that wasn’t what really happened.
The raw audio of the interview revealed the scene was deceptively edited. Instead of silence, Couric’s question is met immediately with answers from the activists. "A back and forth between a number of the league’s members and Couric over the issue of background checks proceeds for more than four minutes after the original question is asked."
When the deception was caught, filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig released a statement to the Washington Post which read, in part:"My intention was to provide a pause for the viewer to have a moment to consider this important question before presenting the facts on Americans’ opinions on background checks. I never intended to make anyone look bad and I apologize if anyone felt that way."
Derek Hunter notes: "Making people look bad was precisely her intention. She didn’t like the answers she got because they didn’t fit her narrative. She needed the 'gun nuts' to have no answer; to be 'rubes.' When she didn’t get that, she created it.... The damage will continue to be done as it repeats on cable ... a deliberate falsehood in perpetuity...This is what liberals do – they create lies that last forever. Search the documentary section of iTunes or Netflix, and you’ll find multiple documentaries on every made-up issue the left cares about. Global warming, 'income inequality,' Wall Street, ...you name it, they’ve propagandized it. And unsuspecting people looking to pass some time and learn something will be indoctrinated."
LEGION
Need more? How many times have we heard the word "extremist" applied to anyone other than a conservative. "Zero" comes to mind. How often have the Mass Media employed Orwellian terms to spin an issue to their agenda? "All the time" is the answer. Abortion clinics are “reproductive health centers”, illegal aliens are “undocumented workers”, terrorist prisoners are “detainees”, pro-life supporters are “anti-abortion rights activists”. The Mass Media simply will not publish facts harmful to their agenda; they will suppress them.
Examples of Mass Media promoting their agenda at the expense of truth are legion; some memorables:
-Dan Rather lying about George W’s National Guard service;
-Tom Brokaw reporting a Democrat lead in an election as “WE are winning…”;
-The View’s harsh cold treatment of Anne Romney; its warm and fuzzy “questioning” of Michele Obama;
-the lionization of the vandalizing Occupy Protesters as heroes; the demonization of law-abiding abortion clinic protesters as terrorists;
-the scorn heaped on Tim Tebow over his outspoken evangelical Christianity; the reverence given Michael Sam’s outspoken homosexuality
McCOY
Glen McCoy's cartoon neatly captures the Mass Media mind set:
THE "DISCREDITED" PLOY
This is an effective tactic. It is also dishonest, dishonorable, and disgusting. And there is no effective remedy for it other than to be aware of it.
I saw a CNN "news" broadcast recently. A conservative was commenting on Hillary's email scandal. The interviewer interrupted and said “Oh that’s Judicial Watch and they’re ‘discredited’”; then the interviewer went on to something else never giving the person the chance to state the truth: Not only was Judicial Watch not discredited; it has won court case after court case forcing disclosure of the facts.
That interview illustrated another Mass Media tactic: interrupt, talk over and change the subject. Perhaps you saw a recent interview of Sheriff Clark on racism where he twice started to say the “hands up, don’t shoot” was a lie. Each time the interviewer interrupted to prevent him from completing the thought.
Then there was the treatment of David Daleiden's sting videos exposing Planned Parenthood's corruption and brutality. The videos are stomach turning and reminiscent of Mengele. In one 5 minute video of a meeting of the National Abortion Federation [of which Planned Parenthood is a member] one can actually hear abortion providers laughing about an eyeball falling into an abortionist’s lap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYN3nYQ2FE0
These tapes mobilized the Mass Media. The tapes were exposing the inhumanity of the Left's most sacred issue - abortion-on-demand. Amazing is the fanaticism of those dedicated to preserving the "right" to kill infants in utero.
The videos were not shown on on the major networks or the liberal cable stations. Daleiden was pilloried for the taking videos without the consent of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. Fox gave Alan Colmes airtime to complain that “lies” were told to obtain the videos.
Can you remember any liberal complaining: when the FBI infiltrated neo-Nazi groups to get evidence to prosecute them? or when animal rights activists did the same to companies using animals for research? or when police went undercover to catch drug traffickers? No, I can’t either.
Incredibly, what followed were investigations and prosecutions not of Planned Parenthood but of those who exposed the horrific facts. In a blatant conflict of interest, California's Attorney General [now candidate for the US Senate] Kamala Harris, who received contributions from Planned Parenthood, chose to prosecute Daleiden and not her benefactors. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/04/08/pro-life-leaders-call-resignation-planned-parenthood-supporter-california-ag-harris-daleiden-raid/
I have observed, when the subject of the horrific videos comes up in interviews, the speaker is interrupted, and the subject changed by the media person with the rote claim that the videos were not shown in their entirety but edited to misrepresent what occurred. Plain and simple: That is a lie.
Coalfire Systems is a forensic company that found the tapes authentic and not manipulated. So
Planned Parenthood hired its own forensic company, FusionGPS, to examine the videos. And that examination did not discredit the substance of the videos. Fusion found “This analysis did not reveal widespread evidence of substantive video manipulation, but we did identify cuts, skips, missing tape, and changes in camera angle…,” [Emphasis added.] The Fusion report concluded that the analysts: “found no evidence that CMP inserted dialogue not spoken by Planned Parenthood staff.” [Emphasis added.]
Even more telling is this: the National Abortion Federation [again, Planned Parenthood is a member] went to court and obtained a restraining order to prevent release of the tapes and, when Congress subpoenaed the unedited tapes, the National Abortion Federation went back to the judge who had ordered the restraining order and argued the subpoena was unenforceable. Why do that if the unedited tapes would prove deception?
Instances of the "discredited ploy" abound. Earlier this month, CNN ran a sympathetic interview with Hillary, asking about the Lewinsky scandal. CNN commentator Hilary Rosen praised her “… I think American women across the board have essentially, in many ways, been inspired by how she was able to come through it, forgive him and stay together as a family.” Hillary was not asked about Juanita Broderick's charge of rape. Rather NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported it as “discredited.” It never has been discredited!
John Sexton made the point: "If the media spent half the time discussing the accusation of rape which it spent discounting the health rumors this race might look very different. But they won’t go there. They won’t cross that line. And I think I know why: Somewhere down deep, they believe it’s probably true. They never want to put Hillary in a hole unless they’re pretty sure they can pull her back out in time for the election."
WINNING THE WAR
The radicals of the 60’s were indefatigable. They kept working the Alinsky playbook and took over the media, Hollywood and all levels of schools –elementary through university. Now they are reaping what they have sowed. We naïve souls thought the point was to get jobs, manage homes, raise kids and try to do all those things well, so we could enjoy our families with a sense of accomplishment. We were not vigilant and we did not work hard enough to stop the radicals. Paraphrasing Lenin, we gave them the rope to hang us.
Most people get their "information" from headlines in newspapers and magazines, from TV "news" broadcasts, and from movies, unaware those sources only promote the Left's agenda.
Two recent examples of movies revising history to conform to the Left's agenda.
SPOTLIGHT, sub-titled "Based on a true story," perpetuates the myth that the Catholic scandal was of pedophile priests. In fact, as noted by Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins University: "...this behavior was homosexual predation on American Catholic youth, yet it is not being discussed..." The investigative report found that less than 5% of the abusive priests fit the diagnosis of pedophilia; the overwhelming number of incidents involved homosexuals abusing altar boys in their charge. http://www.catholicleague.org/shining-the-light-on-spotlight/
Why not report the truth that the Catholic scandal was primarily homosexuals preying upon adolescent boys? Prepare yourselves for a spectacular feat of "Only the news that fits our agenda."
For the Left, the Catholic Church is bad and LGBT is good. The Left decried the Boy Scouts of America for refusing to put homosexuals as scoutmasters in charge of adolescent boys. If the truth were told, the Catholic Church scandal proved the BSA to be prudent. So the Catholic problem was mislabeled "pedophilia" and the campaign continued against the "homophobic" BSA. And succeeded! http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/07/does_boy_scout_ban_on_gays_pro.html
Irony: the very day the BSA announced the reversal of its policy, a homosexual scoutmaster was arrested for sexual assault! [The link references numerous incidents.]
CONFIRMATION furthers another agenda goal: the denigration of any prominent black conservative. The film is ostensibly an account of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearing, a hearing the Left used as a vehicle to air allegations by one Anita Hill about improper sexual advances made to her by Thomas.
Star Parker called it what it was: "Liberals advancing their left-wing agenda." She noted that none of Hill's allegations against Thomas were even partially substantiated, referencing a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Stuart Taylor Jr. Taylor, who covered the original hearings, called the movie a "Hollywood Hit-Job."
Taylor "lists the glaring inconsistencies in Hill's behavior and testimony," all of which were ignored by the movie as was "the fact that in the numerous senior management positions that Thomas held in his career, no one who worked for Thomas ever stepped forth to give credibility to Hill."
But, the damage had been done and people will believe that what was portrayed was the truth. As Derek Hunter noted: "This is what liberals do – they create lies that last forever."
MISINFORMATION
There are millions of Americans who believe that the Sarah Palin said "I can see Russia from my house. "
She never said that; it was a line from a liberal mocking-spoof of her. "Remember the line, 'I can see Russia from my house,' the line that all but ended Sarah Palin's run at the Vice Presidency? She never said that. ...The Zogby Poll that was released in 2008, was designed to see how much voters knew about the political atmosphere. Almost 87 percent of those polled believed that it was Sarah Palin who made the comment... Whether you like Palin, or not, it is scary to think that 87 percent of voters polled, people who determine important elections, don't know the truth."
IGNORANCE
in their zeal to promulgate their agenda, the Mass Media has no desire to discuss seminal events in the history of our country. How far we have fallen is demonstrated by interviews of college students whose ignorance and indifference are appalling. Here, in a typical instance, they cannot identify the Civil War, when or how our country was founded or who is the current Vice President but they readily identify someone called 'Snookie'" and Brad Pitt's first and second wives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRZZpk_9k8E
THE MORAL
We cannot believe what the Mass Media "reports."
"...there is an even worse lesson here, namely the media's effectiveness in saturating society with its mendacious version of reality. Unless an American makes the effort to study the issue -- and most do not -- they take the news media's version as truth. The terrible lesson, which has been affirmed time and time again since the 1960s, is that a free society can experience brainwashing as effectively as a totalitarian state."
It does take effort to learn the truth. If this Republic is to last, we must do so. [ARCHIVE ISSUE 2]
The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.
Ronald Reagan