Conservative media hand-wringing (over the President’s tweets about licensing of the left-leaning media) continues, bringing up dark specters of government suppression.
As everyone is aware, ‘Freedom of the Press’ is a first amendment right…but if a ‘press’ becomes the propaganda tool for one political Party over another, is it still a ‘press’?
Shouldn’t conservatives so steeped in constitutional foreboding differentiate between an ‘independent, objective’ press, and one that’s become nothing more than such a tool?
We suggest a Nation that has a 50-50 divide in political outlook is a Nation that should have a press that reflects such a split in its reporting on Trump, but based on negative-v-positive news reporting of 95%-vs-5% (bad-to-good), it doesn’t appear very objective.
And, since public airwaves are – well – public…it would follow that a certain amount of objectivity should be required from a media taking advantage of those public airwaves.
Is a propagandized press any less a threat to public freedoms?
After all, we’re not asking for or expecting bias, just objectivity.
Perfect case in point…
…the Left-wing media reporting on the President’s elimination of insurer subsidies for Obamacare. EVERYONE knows Obama’s subsidy payments were illegal, under the Constitution…but Trump gets slammed, and bad Democrat lawmaking gets a pass.
Reporting that the law was written poorly would be accurate. And the Left-leaning media (after reporting that objectivity) could always try to make their point that it needs fixing, but instead, their bias makes them take up Democrat-Left talking points and run with it.
At that point, they’ve summarily relinquished any claim to being a ‘press’…
…and firmly established they’re merely a propaganda tool for the Left.
The eminent Jay Cost makes the point that “the mainstream media are biased, but I do not want the authority of the state used against media outlets. You shouldn’t, either. If we allow the government to pick and choose what is “fair” reporting and what is “biased,” it will not be long until the state comes after conservative media, too.”
Problem is, the Left has no reservations in that regard. Obama ‘went after’ (what little there is of) the conservative media with a vengeance. And, as Kevin Williamson pointed out during a recent anti-Trump diatribe on this same matter, Senate Democrats not long ago voted – unanimously – in favor of repealing the First Amendment.
Neither Mr. Cost nor Mr. Williamson make a distinction between an objective press, and a Left-wing media machine operating in a heavily-biased fashion against the Right.
But, when it comes to making public airwaves accessible to such bias, messaging such as theirs must certainly disqualify them from any claims to being a ‘free press’?
Maybe President Trump’s just making the point that freedom of speech doesn’t give a company free rein to making lies about one’s product on store shelves, so…
…if the ‘media’ is so blatantly pushing a Left-wing narrative…
…they should be held to ‘TRUTH-in-advertising’ laws.
