COULD PRESIDENT TRUMP HAVE SAVED THE NATION FROM THE PRESS AND THE PRESS FROM ITSELF?
Let me make a general statement which is not universally true, in order to highlight a serious problem for our Nation...
We live in a Nation in which the media cares less about the facts than they do about getting the perfect sound byte to get clicks. That's because the press is not "free" -- it is paid for by advertising. The media is in competition for eyeballs. Which raises the stakes on the value of a "sound byte" and lowers the importance of the facts. And since the dominance of the Left biased news (CNN, NYT, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NPR,) is 10x the Right biased news (Fox), the pressure within Left biased news rooms is most fierce, which in turn results in organizations that sacrifice journalistic standards, Ala CNN.
The larger problem is that the media doesn't just "report the news." They make the news. They decide what will be the news. As well as how to tell the story. In the process, they are shaping the narrative.
It becomes particularly worrisome and dangerous for our country when you start to think about who this power matters most too. The obvious example is marketers - businesses. They have long been open in their attempt to co-opt the visibility and audience that the media has. We accept that and it is called advertising. But there are darker, hidden forces that seek to exploit the power and influence that the media has to shape opinion. The establishment - the deep state - including the military industrial complex. The people in power in Washington. It is naive not to think that there are efforts by these forces to use sophisticated propaganda methods. It is naive not to believe that the Clinton political machine and the last eight years under Obama political operatives, cronies, and those whose living depends on his policies, have not infiltrated the media at all levels.
Trump deserves credit for starting the expression "Fake news." He has exposed the issue like no other President has ever managed to do. The characteristics that make Trump the most unlikable individual, his thin-skin, narcissism, reflex to punch back in nasty ways, his incessant use of Tweeter to speak directly in an unfiltered and unedited manner to his audience, are the very same ones that made him the first one to stand up to the media the way he has. We can hate him for it. Most do! But there is a flip side. He may just be saving the Nation by exposing just how UN-FREE the press truly is. In the process, maybe we all will start to THINK more. And as a result, maybe the professional journalists and editors who truly care about the important role that the press has will stand-up for greater integrity and standards and objective and balanced reporting.
