The freedom of the press is a valuable privilege, but the abuse of it in this country is a frightful evil. The licentiousness of the press is a deep stain upon the character of the country; and in addition to the evil of calumniating good men and giving a wrong direction to public measures, it corrupts the people by rendering them insensible to the value of truth and of reputation.
—Noah Webster1—
Key point: The mainstream media in America are lying to the American people in several ways. Their deceptions include not only ignoring newsworthy items about which people have a right to know (a disservice we discussed in part 1); they also include disseminating outright lies and propaganda. Because mainstream news organizations and news personnel have become extremely blatant in their rejection of their responsibility to tell the truth, their dereliction of duty is increasingly easy to recognize. Don’t be taken in by the lies.
Access all the articles in this series, as well as articles in a related series, here. A Bible study titled “Could Jesus Have Been a Good Teacher Without Being God?” is available here.
Thirty-two years ago, in 1988, Joe Biden was vying to become the presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket. The news media noticed some irregularities in his campaign, however. Biden was not shooting straight with the American people, and television news, to its credit, reported what it saw. Thanks to Dinesh D’Souza for making this video available.
Whatever else you do today that is worthy your time, take just five minutes to watch this video. It speaks volumes—not only about Biden, but also about the mainstream news media and what they have become. (This video also is eye-opening.)
Then Versus Now
Well, that was then, and this is now. Back then the media were liberal; today they are crusaders for leftism. Leftism is a religion (also go here), and its adherents are devoted to it with fervor and passion. Mainstream media personnel even are willing to sacrifice their integrity for leftist causes, and they are guilty of malpractice on a massive scale.
Last time we began by declaring that the mainstream media are lying to us, the American people. They are telling us that the protests occurring in the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death are peaceful, or “mostly peaceful.” They reinforce this lie by ignoring the numerous deaths that have occurred as a result of protest-related violence.
How bad are the attempts at deception? A study released by the Media Research Center (MRC) found that “99.3 percent of Broadcast Networks’ Protest Coverage Ignores Mob’s Murder Victims.”:
MRC analysts examined all three broadcast networks’ major morning and evening newscasts between May 28 and June 3, and found that the total airtime spent on those who died during the past week of riots accounted to just four and a half minutes, or less than one percent of the total protest-related coverage.
CBS spent just a single minute (61 seconds) on individuals killed during the riots, amounting to half a percent of their 201 minutes of protest coverage. ABC gave the victims 91 seconds, or 0.76 percent of their total 200 minutes spent on the demonstrations. On NBC, the victims received just over two minutes, or 0.7% of the network’s 309 minutes of protest-related programming.
This chart from MRC summarizes the above information.
By ignoring the violence and the deaths the violence caused, the media have a much easier time peddling the myth of peaceful protests.
They Say It with Straight Faces
Despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary (and sometimes evidence we can see on camera), media personnel continue to claim that the protests have been mostly peaceful. This article carries remarkable video footage of mainstream media spokespersons doing just that. You almost have to see it to believe it. Yes, it really is happening!
“I want to be clear on how I characterize this,” MSNBC’s Ari Velshi said in May while standing in front of a burning building. “This is mostly a protest. It is not, generally speaking, unruly but fires have been started and this crowd is relishing that.”
The seminal portion of the above quote leads in this brief video. Compiled by MRC, it is a montage jammed with a great many examples of this kind of lunacy.
George Orwell Was Right
This is the “newspeak” we read about in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Kerby Anderson, president of Probe Ministries, explains this phenomenon in this article and commentary. Both are part of a series called Viewpoints.
If you have ever read George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, you are familiar with the idea of newspeak. Examples would be: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” But if you look at the news media today, you would probably conclude that Orwell accurately predicted the future but was just off by about thirty-six years.
Anderson goes on to cite this article by Gerald Baker. Anderson notes that
Baker believes “The News Media Becomes Fluent in Newspeak.” He acknowledges that we don’t have a “Ministry of Truth” here in America [like the one in Orwell’s book]. But that doesn’t mean that newspeak isn’t alive and well in the news coverage we receive.…
How about the term “violence?” According to most of the mainstream media, smashing a statue or assaulting a police officer does not constitute violence if done by a progressive protester. One example he supplies is a BBC tweet that actually said that “27 police officers injured during largely peaceful anti-racism protests.”…
Of course, Mr. Baker did not have to look overseas to find his example. He could have cited numerous examples from American media personnel — instances like those we’ve spotlighted here. It’s clear that for many in the news business, leftist agendas have obscured reality. They redefine terms, notes Kerby Anderson, and perhaps they even do so unconsciously. This happens because leftists tend to become obsessed. Leftism, you see, is a religion.
Please understand. I’m not excusing them; I’m accusing them! When media “professionals” change the definitions of words (whether officially or unofficially, unconsciously or intentionally), they should get out of the news business. They either should quit on their own or be fired. That would happen if we lived in an ideal world — but we don’t.
Newspeak is systemic in the leftist culture.
Unfortunately, “newspeak” apparently is systemic in the culture of the mainstream media and that of other leftists, a significant number of whom hold positions of authority and power. If you convince yourself that violent protests are peaceful, then you’ll fail to see that anything needs to be done about them, and the violence will continue. In an article titled “In Chicago, New York, Dems refuse to take responsibility for out-of-control gun violence,” Tammy Bruce writes, “[F]or some reason the mob feels safer in blue cities. It is the literal and figurative taking of a knee in front of the mob by Democrats signaling to the malevolent everywhere that now is the time to cause mayhem and destruction.”
For some reason the mob feels safer in blue cities. It is the literal and figurative taking of a knee in front of the mob by Democrats signaling to the malevolent everywhere that now is the time to cause mayhem and destruction.
—Tammy Bruce—
The Politicization of John Lewis’s Funeral
Listen to this clip from remarks Barak Obama made at the funeral of former Congressman John Lewis (1940-2020). Lewis was a civil rights leader and liberal Democrat who represented Georgia’s fifth congressional district from 1987 until his death on July 17, 2020. His funeral was held at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia on July 30. Barak Obama was among those who spoke at the service. Here is a brief clip from the remarks former President Obama made.
Note that former President Obama said, “George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.” It’s almost as if Obama wrote the “memo” telling mainstream media personnel what to say. Of course, there was no memo. Instead, the culture of “newspeak” has taken hold! Conservative news commentator Cal Thomas took Obama to task for his partisan remarks in an article titled “John Lewis’ Funeral Was a Political Event.”
On July 31, a day after the funeral, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, appeared on Fox and Friends to discuss what had happened the day prior. A video clip of Obama’s comments at the funeral was played; then Dr. King was asked to share her thoughts about what he said. Here is a portion of the insights she shared.
Here’s something I can guarantee. You didn’t hear anything like Dr. Alveda King’s assessment from the mainstream media! MRC has produced this montage of clips showing that NBC News came close to falling all over itself to affirm not only that Obama said what he said, but also what he said. (Before playing the video, be aware that the last 23 seconds carries an advertisement for an MRC-sponsored cruise.)
Holding Them Accountable
How can we hold the media accountable for their journalistic malpractice? Two ways.
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- First, tune them out. Turn them off.
- Read, listen to, and watch news presented by alternative news sources.
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In America we must have a free press, but we will have a tough time remaining a free people unless we have responsible press as well.
Stay alert, recognize attempts to deceive, uphold the truth, and never give up.
Copyright © 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Note:
1Go here for a graphic carrying this quote.
Learn more about this topic: “MSNBC Producer Quits Because It’s Liberal Fake News: ‘We are a Cancer and There is No Cure‘”
top image credit: photo by Amber Kipp on Unsplash / Grand Rapids, Michigan / George Floyd protests
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