by John Leonard
If you aren't concerned, you should be.
In a truly "fair and balanced" world, the re-election of Donald Trump would be a foregone conclusion. By just about every measurable standard, his administration has been a roaring success despite relentless resistance from his political opponents.
So why should Trump supporters be worried? Because the media and entertainment industries are dominated and controlled by rabid liberals who hate Trump, conservatives, and everything associated with them: God, guns, and individual freedom.
We all know that CNN is horribly biased and completely in the tank as far as promoting the liberal agenda is concerned. If you want indisputable proof, simply watch this ten-minute interview of Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) by Erin Burnett. During the segment, the chyron caption at the bottom of the screen for the entire interview reads: PELOSI ANNOUNCES FORMAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY OF TRUMP.
Burnett repeated Senator Mitt Romney's (who cares?) criticisms of President Trump for his now infamous call with the Ukrainian president and tried to get Rep. Zeldin to choose sides between President Trump and Mitt Romney, who would seem to prefer former president Barack Obama to an actual conservative with a few rough edges to his personality. During the interview, Burnett goes so far as to accuse both President Trump and Rep. Zeldin of lying while simultaneously defending the Democrat narrative on Hunter Biden as indisputable truth. She didn't need to have Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, or Adam Schiff there to aggressively defend the Democrat talking points. Burnett did it for them. The liberal Democrats' claims are automatically assumed to be true, and the conservative Republicans are prejudged to be false.
American Thinker editor Thomas Lifson astutely noticed that the producers on Chris "Fredo" Cuomo's show on CNN also used the chyron to undermine the conservative message of the guest on air, this time claiming: TRUMP ALLIES PEDDLE FALSE CLAIMS ON WHISTLEBLOWER.
And to what allegedly false claims does the headline refer? In the interview, guest Fred Fleitz explains that evidence indicated that the whistleblower had developed and coordinated his complaint with the help of Democrat members or staff of the House Intelligence Committee.
Cuomo clearly didn't like that implication, shrugging his shoulders before he aggressively challenged his guest by saying, "All right, but just to be clear at this point, you don't know any of that. You're raising them as questions, but as a guy who has worked in the intelligence business, you know that that is meaningless until you can put some meat on the bones. Of course the Republicans are agreeing with you. That's the whole state of play right now. Anything you say negative about this guy, or this woman, they're going to pick up on."
The irony of the exchange was truly remarkable, given the network's flagrant double standard when it comes to evidence. Fleitz explained that his role as an analyst was to evaluate the known data in an example such as this (legalese in the complaint, tweets by Adam Schiff implying intimate knowledge of the complaint prior to its public release, etc.) to infer a reasonable conclusion based on that evidence, and Cuomo kept insisting that Fleitz didn't know that his analysis was correct — and the whole time, CNN was unsubtly accusing Fleitz of peddling false information with the words TRUMP ALLIES PEDDLE FALSE CLAIMS ON WHISTLEBLOWER plastered across his chest.
Should we be surprised? Cuomo's father and brother have served as Democrat governors. George Stephanopoulos began his career working for Bill Clinton. Wolf Blitzer was seen drinking champagne and dancing when Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Party nomination in 2016. Other examples of clear media bias, especially against President Trump are ubiquitous, whether we're talking MSNBC, NBC, ABC, or CBS News. Even Fox News has Shepard Smith and Andrew Napolitano as its resident Trump-haters. No president in my lifetime has been forced to endure the same degree of skewed and relentless negative coverage, and I remember Richard Nixon.
Sadly, it isn't only the lamestream media we must worry about. Facebook, Google, and YouTube can also influence public opinion through ridiculously biased "fact-checking" and manipulated search results. If you aren't concerned, you should be. Subtle censorship occurs when actual videos by conservative pundit Steven Crowder are buried several pages deep in the search results, while pages critiquing Crowder with only a fraction of the viewership are ranked much higher. Liberal elitists in the media and entertainment industries are putting a heavy thumb on the scales of fairness and balance to shift public opinion toward liberal ideas and political policies.
The day you see Adam "Pencil Neck" Schiff on Cuomo's show or challenged in an interview by Burnett with a chyron that reads SCHIFF COLLUDES WITH RUSSIAN COMEDIAN FOR DIRT ON TRUMP will be the day hell freezes over.
John Leonard writes novels, books, and the occasional article for American Thinker. John also blogs at his website southernprose.com, where he may be contacted.
So why should Trump supporters be worried? Because the media and entertainment industries are dominated and controlled by rabid liberals who hate Trump, conservatives, and everything associated with them: God, guns, and individual freedom.
We all know that CNN is horribly biased and completely in the tank as far as promoting the liberal agenda is concerned. If you want indisputable proof, simply watch this ten-minute interview of Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) by Erin Burnett. During the segment, the chyron caption at the bottom of the screen for the entire interview reads: PELOSI ANNOUNCES FORMAL IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY OF TRUMP.
Burnett repeated Senator Mitt Romney's (who cares?) criticisms of President Trump for his now infamous call with the Ukrainian president and tried to get Rep. Zeldin to choose sides between President Trump and Mitt Romney, who would seem to prefer former president Barack Obama to an actual conservative with a few rough edges to his personality. During the interview, Burnett goes so far as to accuse both President Trump and Rep. Zeldin of lying while simultaneously defending the Democrat narrative on Hunter Biden as indisputable truth. She didn't need to have Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, or Adam Schiff there to aggressively defend the Democrat talking points. Burnett did it for them. The liberal Democrats' claims are automatically assumed to be true, and the conservative Republicans are prejudged to be false.
American Thinker editor Thomas Lifson astutely noticed that the producers on Chris "Fredo" Cuomo's show on CNN also used the chyron to undermine the conservative message of the guest on air, this time claiming: TRUMP ALLIES PEDDLE FALSE CLAIMS ON WHISTLEBLOWER.
And to what allegedly false claims does the headline refer? In the interview, guest Fred Fleitz explains that evidence indicated that the whistleblower had developed and coordinated his complaint with the help of Democrat members or staff of the House Intelligence Committee.
Cuomo clearly didn't like that implication, shrugging his shoulders before he aggressively challenged his guest by saying, "All right, but just to be clear at this point, you don't know any of that. You're raising them as questions, but as a guy who has worked in the intelligence business, you know that that is meaningless until you can put some meat on the bones. Of course the Republicans are agreeing with you. That's the whole state of play right now. Anything you say negative about this guy, or this woman, they're going to pick up on."
The irony of the exchange was truly remarkable, given the network's flagrant double standard when it comes to evidence. Fleitz explained that his role as an analyst was to evaluate the known data in an example such as this (legalese in the complaint, tweets by Adam Schiff implying intimate knowledge of the complaint prior to its public release, etc.) to infer a reasonable conclusion based on that evidence, and Cuomo kept insisting that Fleitz didn't know that his analysis was correct — and the whole time, CNN was unsubtly accusing Fleitz of peddling false information with the words TRUMP ALLIES PEDDLE FALSE CLAIMS ON WHISTLEBLOWER plastered across his chest.
Should we be surprised? Cuomo's father and brother have served as Democrat governors. George Stephanopoulos began his career working for Bill Clinton. Wolf Blitzer was seen drinking champagne and dancing when Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Party nomination in 2016. Other examples of clear media bias, especially against President Trump are ubiquitous, whether we're talking MSNBC, NBC, ABC, or CBS News. Even Fox News has Shepard Smith and Andrew Napolitano as its resident Trump-haters. No president in my lifetime has been forced to endure the same degree of skewed and relentless negative coverage, and I remember Richard Nixon.
Sadly, it isn't only the lamestream media we must worry about. Facebook, Google, and YouTube can also influence public opinion through ridiculously biased "fact-checking" and manipulated search results. If you aren't concerned, you should be. Subtle censorship occurs when actual videos by conservative pundit Steven Crowder are buried several pages deep in the search results, while pages critiquing Crowder with only a fraction of the viewership are ranked much higher. Liberal elitists in the media and entertainment industries are putting a heavy thumb on the scales of fairness and balance to shift public opinion toward liberal ideas and political policies.
The day you see Adam "Pencil Neck" Schiff on Cuomo's show or challenged in an interview by Burnett with a chyron that reads SCHIFF COLLUDES WITH RUSSIAN COMEDIAN FOR DIRT ON TRUMP will be the day hell freezes over.
John Leonard writes novels, books, and the occasional article for American Thinker. John also blogs at his website southernprose.com, where he may be contacted.
Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/10/media_put_a_big_thumb_on_the_scale_of_fair_and_balanced_against_trump.html
Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment