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The term “unhinged” is often used to label members of mainstream media. Ever since President Trump’s election win, many prominent media figures and news outlets have waged all-out war on the President in an attempt to fight the “good fight” they think falls within their purview. I’ve always considered it overkill to claim they’re unhinged, but recently I’m starting to believe the term actually fits.
Two recent stories are making their rounds on social media because they were both quickly shown to be false. The first was a report by The Guardian that claimed former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met on multiple occasions with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Initially, mainstream media jumped all over the story, but it turned out to be easily debunked.
Manafort-Assange story was false. Mainstream media blames – you guessed it – Trump.
Just about every major news outlet jumped on the story. MSNBC called it a “collusion bombshell.” The Week called it “a disaster for Trump.” Rolling Stone said Manafort’s story is “unraveling before our eyes.”
It was a classic knee-jerk reaction by mainstream media to anything negative about President Trump. There were enough inconsistencies and concerns in the original story to make the lucid in media instantly question it, but the unhinged elements jumped on it like a pack of lions stumbling across an injured gazelle.
The second failure by mainstream media was NPR’s claim that Donald Trump Jr. lied in 2017 Senate testimony. This is one of those stories that was either blatant or displayed such an extreme measure of incompetence that anyone with eyeballs on the story before it was published should be fired on the spot.
This wasn’t journalism. It was leftist mainstream media being unhinged. I’m getting more comfortable with using the term.
NPR Blatantly Lies About Donald Trump Jr.’s 2017 Senate Testimony
As is obvious from the context, the quotes Ewing used weren’t about the Cohen efforts, but the Agalarov efforts.
What makes Ewing’s error so surprising is that the very next two lines make abundantly clear that the discussion is not about the Cohen efforts but the Agalarov efforts. Here’s a brief exchange with Trump’s attorney:
Despite this being an obvious error by NPR, the media outlet has failed to correct it even hours after it was first published. And Russia conspiracy theorists such as John Schindler, who earlier this week fell for the false Guardian story about Paul Manafort and Julian Assange, once again fell for the latest false Russia story:
It’s time for mainstream media to slow down, take a deep breath, and reexamine their place in all this.
Truth first
I am not the President’s biggest fan. I am also not his biggest detractor. I focus on the truth. When the President does well, I am right there ready to praise him. When he does poorly, I call him out on it. I treated President Obama the same way, though admittedly I found very few occasions to say he did well. President Trump has more positives, but I’ve spoken out against tariffs, criminal justice reform, the bump stock ban, extremely high government spending, his failure to move Obamacare repeal forward, continued funding of Planned Parenthood, and most importantly his poor leadership style that fans call “straight talk” but that often turns out to be unintelligent rhetoric.
Mainstream media generally doesn’t take the same approach. They see one truth, that President Trump is bad and therefore everything he does is bad. Part of this perception of their manufactured truth is that he must be on the verge of being brought down by the Robert Mueller investigation at all times. There is no room for innocence. They’ve already convicted him and sent him to prison in their own minds.
This is why their narratives are so hard to believe. Contrary to popular belief, “fake news” didn’t materialize when the President first announced his candidacy. It’s been rampant for decades, but has been hidden behind a facade of truth. Now that the facade has been torn down (a positive I can definitely attribute to the President), mainstream media is having a hard time reconciling their claims to the truth with the narratives that drive them.
If they were to report the truth outside of their manufactured narratives, they would go a long way to earning back the trust of the American people. If they would report good things about the President when he deserves it, their reports of negatives will hold more weight. By keeping the anti-Trump button pushed at all times, they have no credibility in their reporting.
I believe in the free press and would object to any attempts by the President or anyone else to subvert it. But the free press needs to remember their first responsibility to the truth and drop their perceived responsibility to the leftist narrative. If they don’t, they’re going to continue to drive Americans away, indefinitely cementing their legacy as agents of propaganda instead of defenders of truth.
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