Oh wait. According to
CNN and others the Russians are already here. Online.
And guess what – the Russians are still working day and
night – posting fake news – to fuel distrust of the mainstream media by many
Americans.
Wow. As if the
mainstream media here need any help in losing credibility. Our own mainstream
media have done an excellent job of that without outside assistance.
But to listen to staff members of Clinton’s failed campaign
and outraged reporters from several major media outlets, those crafty, evil
Russians are really responsible. They believe the Russians routinely planted fake
news that brought Hillary down and caused Americans to doubt the integrity of many
major U.S. media outlets.
One of the examples used by CNN was a news report,
attributed to the Russians, claiming there was a pedophile ring run by Hillary Clinton
and John Podesta operating out of a DC pizza shop.
That alone probably cost Hillary the election. Right.
I suppose it could have, if there are that many Americans
who are complete morons. Like those who believe
there’s a simple miracle diet that trims belly fat, reverses male pattern
baldness, and cures cancer at the same time. Or rely solely on the Weekly World News or National
Enquirer for their news. Or respond
to letters from a Nigerian prince.
Seriously, what’s next? Blaming the loss of media
credibility – and Hillary’s loss – on bogus Facebook posts supposedly by Russians
that Hillary was part of a Satanic cult? That big-money contributors to her
campaign partied at a Clinton-Foundation-run Orgy Island? That Hillary had a campaign staff member
killed because he was going to reveal she was secretly a reptilian alien? And
that Chelsea Clinton married the son of a convicted swindler sent to Federal
prison?
Oops. That last item
is actually true.
Now, does anyone with even half a brain think outlandish
stories posted on the Internet by whomever had any effect on the recent
election?
Of course not. It’s a
joke. Like a great Facebook posting I
loved: A photo of Abraham Lincoln and a
supposed quote from him – “You can’t trust everything you read on the Internet.”
So let’s contrast those with actual reporting of “real news”
by our mainstream media.
What about the stories that Trump tacitly accepted
endorsements from David Duke and white supremacists? That he mocked people with
disabilities? Or that Trump sexually
assaulted an underage girl and dozens of other women? Or that Trump might be a cocaine user? Or
that the violence at Trump rallies resulted entirely from his hateful rhetoric? Or that his supporters held racist signs at
his rallies?
Or now, that the Russians
were working behind the scenes to get Trump elected?
I don’t know about you, but are any of those stories any
less preposterous?
The media are still trying figure out why so many ordinary
Americans have lost faith in them.
I’ll help them: it’s because the media either made up stuff or
didn’t bother to check the facts – or both – and reported their own fake news. And they got caught.
It’s not like this hasn’t happened before.
Remember Brian Williams’ fake war stories. Remember Dan Rather’s “exposé” on the
military record of G.W. Bush. Remember
how they promoted the story that the Benghazi attacks were caused by an online
video. Remember the fake news about the alleged rape of a black woman by white members
of the Duke Lacrosse team. Or the Rolling Stone feature about a rape at
UVa that never happened either. Or that Trayvon Martin was just walking home from a store when he was shot and killed for no reason except
he was black by a trigger-happy white wannabe-cop. Or that Michael Brown said “hands
up … don’t shoot” before he was shot and killed by a white cop.
These weren't mistakes. These were published with a clear intent.
Then there were the sins of omission too numerous to recount
– times when “objectivity” and “journalistic integrity” went out the window by members
of the media consciously withholding information that would have contradicted
the point they were trying to make.
These are the same people who still refuse to accept that
Trump won the election despite their best efforts to defeat him with innuendo,
half-truths and at times bald-faced lies. The same people who quoted one of
their own as calling the election results a “whitelash” against people of
color. The same people now reporting a spike in “hate crimes” and racist vandalism,
without verifying if any of this is real, or the work of
disgruntled Hillary or Bernie supporters to pin on Trump.
After decades of shamelessly putting out a steady stream of
misinformation, most often to advance a political narrative, our media wonder why Americans don’t trust them anymore.
It’s the Russians’ fault. Sure.
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