MEDIA FRENZY OR MEDIA MENACE
Question, should we be worried about the national mainstream media; the TV networks, major newspapers and news magazines? I believe so. I have been a news junky for decades. Back in the day a “story” consisted of persons, places or things, facts, good, bad, and left us with enough information to draw our own conclusions.
Bernstein and Woodward, of Watergate days, began a journalistic shift with their “investigative reporting”. We began raising a generation of reporters who, rather than write the story, wanted to become the story and famous.
If I was to chart journalism since Watergate, I would have the line trending generally up in favor of more editorializing and politicizing. But, in just the past 2 years, that line on the chart has gone almost vertical with daily doses of hysteria and hate.
Mainstream media reporting has moved dramatically left on the political spectrum. Millions of Americans are subjected to opinionated, far left or even incorrect reporting, day after day, month after month, until they are inclined to think, “since that’s all I hear or read maybe it is the truth”. But, is it?
I do not want to paint all journalists with this same brush. We know there are tens of thousands of radio, newspaper and TV journalists in small towns and cities who are absolutely true to their profession. But the local journalists are not reaching the tens of millions every day like mainstream media does.
Is there a double standard today in media reporting? Take a look at just a few of the nation’s biggest issues over the past few years.
Some of President Obama’s notables: He criticized NATO for not paying their fair share but did nothing about it. He made no effort to work unfair and uneven trade. Sold 20% of US uranium stocks to Russia. ISIS evolved from nothing into a califate and was growing in 40 countries. Millions of illegal migrant gang members, felons, drug dealers and terrorist entered the US. When he left office, only one of three combat brigades in the US Army was fully combat ready; only 50% of the Air Force planes could fly. The middle class, size and income, declined. Americans on food stamps reached the highest level ever in raw numbers and as a percentage of US population. Manufacturing continued to move overseas. North Korea nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs went into final stages, unabated. Obama could not get proper stairs to deplane in China. He bowed to the Saudi king and got nothing in return. In 32 quarters, never moved the GDP to 3% growth. Smothered America in new regulations. Tried for 8 years to work out of a recession with “tax and spend” economics; impossible to do. Yes, all of these made the news but for the most part the mainstream media gave Obama a pass.
Trump notables in 18 months: He looked NATO leaders in the eye and demanded they pay their fair share; they are responding. First-ever meeting with a North Korea leader and has a signed commitment to “completely denuclearize”. He deleted massive regulation, cut taxes and jump-started the economy. He is working all the big issues with China. Renegotiating all the bad trade deals and tariffs. Met with the Saudi King and got them involved in Middle East security. Got out of an Iran deal that was leading directly to nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. ISIS is nearly defeated. He has reduced illegal border crossings by over 70%. Minority unemployment is the lowest in history. We have more people working today than ever before. Sanctions are back on Iran and Tehran protesters are calling for a new Iranian government. The mainstream media gives Trump little or no credit for these positive initiatives and for the most part has played them for days with intense negative emotionalism.
The evidence points toward an undeniable mainstream media double standard. The questions are, can it get better, and if so should it get better? Yes, it should; the mainstream media professional journalists should stand above the vitriolic banter that is too often on display today.
Can this media bias be fixed? I don’t know if it will be, but I do know where to start. There are probably about a hundred senior leaders of the nation’s largest mainstream media corporations. With a simple decision memo, those leaders have the power to dictate that, one, reporting in their organization will be from a centrist political position and, two, re-introduce their reporters and broadcasters to the world of proper journalism.
An observation; without credibility, the fourth estate is powerless. A question; is the mainstream media self-destructing in its daily attempt to slay a perceived dragon? We may be there now.
Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.