Stuffing the Media Turkeys

I laugh SO HARD at the notion there's anything but a far right political bias in our news media today.  I've documented multiple times how the news outlets of this country were bought up over the past 20 years, and a far right, pro-Republican mantra was installed, at the expense of fairness and journalistic integrity.  There are very few quality, neutral media outlets left.

The Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press maintain a 'help Republicans/hurt Democrats' policy which shines through in their reporting and editorials (the PP is worse, but not by much).  The television stations in this town are a bit of a mixed bag, but it's not that they 'lean right' or 'lean left.'  They're either unapologetically far right, or just fluffy stories about puppy dogs and rainbows.  At the radio stations in town, many of them aren't political, but when they do lean political, it's almost always far to the right.

Nationally, the story is the same.  The vast majority of the nation's news, radio, television, newspaper and online networks are far right, with few exceptions.  Even the news at the top of the hour on most stations (including ours) is, at best, incompetent.  They either pander to the Kardashian crowd by over accentuating the entertainment news, or they adopt a 'negative coverage for the Dems, and positive coverage for the GOP' warble.

You see, even though a respectable journalist should easily be challenging both sides equally, the current standard is that the Democrats are constantly down played, always having a never ending litany of media determined questions that STILL need to be answered, while the most obvious of hypocrisy and conflicting statements from the Republicans are intentionally ignored.

Just from this last weekend:

David Vitter, the diaper wearing, prostitute visiting, Republican politician from Louisiana, finally lost.  In the race to replace Bobby Jindal as Louisiana's Governor, the Democrat, John Bel Edwards, soundly defeated Vitter.  As a matter of fact, the polls predicted it would be a Democratic win, as Edwards, rightly so, made Vitter's prostitute aided diaper use the main focus of his attack on Vitter's credibility.  What was the national narrative of this race?  "Massive Upset in Louisiana Governor's race!"  Wha...?

Donald Trump, the leader in the race to be the Republican nominee for President of the United States, meaning he likely will be one of the final two people applying for the job, tweeted out an anti-African American graphic this weekend.  The graphic, which a) is credited to a non-existent source, and b) is wildly inaccurate, falsely attributing almost all of the shootings in the United States to African Americans, is so racist it's hard to imagine a sane person actually pushing it forward as truth.  It's now been discovered the graphic comes from a Neo-Nazi group.  What's the national narrative of this revelation?  Nothing, but can you imagine what the national media would be doing right now if the front runner on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, posted the same graphic?  Oh my God...as a Facebook fan said, Fox News would start their own second channel dedicated to the scandal alone.

The terrible attack in Paris has lead to disgusting anti-Syrian refugee rhetoric and legislation in the USA.  In how the media failed the public in this case, I could point to their ignoring how many of the Republican plans to deal with Syrian refugees mimic the standards put on people in the worst of times (segregation from the populace, 'no-Syrians allowed' statements by governors and Federal politicians, and religious litmus tests to determine who is, and who is not, Christian), but instead I'll focus on the media's failure to actually educate the population on the long and arduous process of becoming a refugee.  John Oliver, the comedian who hosts Last Week Tonight, was the first national talent (not a journalist!!!) to discuss the incredibly long, and complicated journey of applying to become a refugee, one that features numerous interviews, numerous background and health checks, and many months to complete.  No terrorist is coming through the US's refugee screening process.  Instead, as Oliver points out correctly, the terrorists entering the US would likely use the visa program, a program most Republicans haven't even mentioned in their fear mongering.  What's the media narrative?  Don't educate, just help fan the flames of ignorance.

Then there's the insanely anti-Christian talking points coming from the Republican party today.  I'm not the one bringing religion into this discussion.  That was the Republicans, who for thirty years, have wrapped everything they've said in their Bible.  They love putting forward how Christian they are.  This weekend we've had calls by the Republicans for a return to torture and war, both big no-nos in Christianity.  We've had calls for violence against protesters at GOP rallies, and repeated calls to deny food, medicine, shelter, clothes and aid to the neediest people in this country and the world, all of which goes directly against the teachings of Jesus Christ.  What's the national media narrative?  Silence.  Even though they proudly help Republicans portray their image as Christian to the core, not one journalist is questioning the same politicians on their Christian values when it comes to completely ignoring the teachings of Jesus.  Once again, I didn't bring religion into this; they did.

The media in this country has gotten laughable.  I think the only way it can be saved from the grasps of the far right spin machine is for them all to fail, which they inevitably will, and for journalism to start over from scratch, with a media more focused on local and regional news.  Until then, I'll be watching the comedians of this country, as they're the only ones 'reporting' the news fairly.