“Freedom of the press is essential to the preservation of a democracy; but there is a difference between freedom and license. Editorialists who tell downright lies in order to advance their own agendas do more to discredit the press than all the censors in the world.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
There is nothing in the First Amendment that requires the media to tell the truth. There is nothing in that founding document that requires the media to tell both or all sides of an issue. However, any falsehood spread, every idea obfuscated and every news item that reports only one side of an issue, has a negative consequence. Whatever media outlet, be it print or broadcast, that practices these unethical policies, loses credibility with most of the public. If it does this consistently, it loses all believability, except for their most partisan followers.
Polls show that public trust in the mass media is hovering at around a very low of 30%. Americans find fault with the corporate press’s accuracy, bias, completeness and fairness. As a result, people are getting their news from other sources like the internet, podcasts and other sources they do believe in. As citizens, it is our duty to be informed of the issues that effect our communities, states and nation. The internet, podcasts and all media give us the opportunity to do just that and to check out all sides of any topic.
Still, the mainstream, corporate, legacy media has more opportunities to present the public with the rare chance to directly hear answers given by our political, business, entertainment and bureaucratic movers and shakers. Those “news” outlets have failed in their duty to the public and their profession. Their bias toward the Democrats, the left and the far left is blatant. They ask softball questions of those they favor and try to trap and harangue those they disagree with. They only report their prejudiced side of any story. They fail to report stories that would expose the lies of the left or any facts that show their failures.
The bias press’s most egregious shortfall is that they fail to confront their left interviewees when they make outrageous statements or accusations. They fail to ask very pertinent and/or clarifying follow up questions.
When a Democrat politician or operative makes the statement that “Trump is a tyrant”, the legacy reporters take that as a fact and never ask the obvious followup questions. “What actions has Trump committed that are indicative of a tyrant? Can you give us some examples?”
When one of the self identified “democratic socialists” tells a reporter that President Trump and MAGA Republicans are an “existential threat” to democracy, the question, “What have they done that would make you think that it would cause the end of our democracy?” never gets asked.
Several Democrats and left leaning “influencers” have made statements that the Trump Administration, Republicans and their followers are trying to destroy or work around our Constitution. (That accusation is especially rich, coming from a group that has openly stated that they want to add justices to the Supreme Court in order to get decisions in their favor, or to make Washington, DC and Puerto Rico states so that they would have a permanent majority in Congress.) Despite the unmistakable hypocrisy, the question is never asked, “What Article or Amendment to the Constitution have the Republicans violated?”
The point is that the mainstream media is not coming close to doing their job. As low as polls show the opinion of Americans have of our press, it should be a lot lower.
2 thoughts on “Questions Not Asked – Buz Blog”
Follow the money. Many newspapers are going broke. Leftist TV stations are funded by large pharma and other mega companies kept safe by massive donations to congress. Follow the money. Fiscal and physical violence threatens those stepping outside of leftist dogma. Online podcasters and social media draw the informed as well as those misinformed. The problem now is the politically biased federal judges is supporting misinformation and ruling negative on truthful or otherwise fair reporting of critical news. That has to be impeached by congress.
So true, Tom. The Supreme Court needs to rein in Federal Judges who are promoting the Democrat/leftist policy to slow down the Trump MAGA agenda for the next three years. Congress needs to impeach any Federal judge who allows who allows these Trump policy stoppages and restraining orders for obviously frivolous political reasons.
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