The First Rule

Time after time, the trained hamsters of the mainstream media have disregarded important news events, government reports and data, congressional hearing and other news stories if they contradict or even question the many narratives of the Left. Media bias is real. It does a disservice to the American public. It allows corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent politicians to skate past their failings, if those politicians are of a particular party—the Democratic Party. It refuses to investigate allegations of corruption, malfeasance and dishonesty whenever it can, and when forced to do so, evidences a complete lack of focus or enthusiasm.

At the same time, it attacks the comments and policies of conservative politicians with a venom that is truly remarkable, and when those conservative policies are shown to be corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent, the mainstream media attacks, investigates, and condemns with a fervor that lasts for days or even weeks. There is no lack of focus.

In this blog, I have noted many, many instances of this. If anything, it's getting worse. Hence, the reason for a general lack of trust of the MSM.

For those progressives who read this blog, play the substitution game. What if this president was a Republican and Lois Lerner was a GOP appointee, and the groups targeted by the IRS were liberal groups? Can you honestly state that the weak coverage of the IRS scandal, the media acquiescence to administration stonewalling, the response to a lack of justice department inquiry, and the level and depth of media investigation would not have been different? The same goes for Fast and Furious, a gun running scandal that is akin is some ways to Iran-Contra, Benghazi, the VA scandal, and more recently, Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. What if those scandals occurred under a GOP president or GOP presidential nominee? Would the tepid coverage have been the same?

Again, the substitution game: When an insane, racist white man kills innocent black people, the media meme is that it's a clear indication of a toxic, racist environment among some whites. The thrust is to explore that toxic, racist environment ad nauseaum. But when an insane, racist black man kills a white cop in cold blood, it's all about gun control, not about a toxic, racist environment among some black activists that just might spur on that insane, racist person of color to kill. Interesting and indicative.

Andrew Klavin has coined the first rule of MSM media coverage:

Whenever the prejudices and illusions of left-wingers are confirmed by an individual incident, the incident is treated as representative; when those prejudices and illusions are contradicted, the incident is considered an aberration — and treating it as representative is deemed hateful.

Perfect!

UPDATE:
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Jay Nordlinger comments on a recent incident of blatant media bias by a supposedly "objective" news anchor from (not surprising) PBS:

Well, I’ve said it a million times: The anchorman of CBS News should attend Democratic fundraisers (as happened). The Supreme Court reporter of the New York Times, a.k.a. the paper of record, should march in abortion-rights rallies (as happened). And PBS news figures should be open partisans.

Yesterday, when Senator Barbara Mikulski declared for the Iran deal, meaning that this deal could not be blocked by the Senate, Gwen Ifill spiked the football. “Take that, Bibi,” she tweeted. Aha! Good one, Gwen! The PBS ombudsman has written about this matter disapprovingly. I’m not sure I disapprove.

What I disapprove of is pretending — the pretending that these news organizations are neutral and dispassionate, instead of on the left. Nomsayin? Know what I’m saying? It seems so . . . elementary. Let your true colors fly, and we’ll have a good ol’ democratic debate. P.S. If those statesmanlike mullahs in Tehran land one on Israel, will our Left say, “Take that, Bibi”?

Somehow, after Obama and his Team of 2s worked tirelessly to demonize the Prime Minister of Israel (a U.S. ally, by the way) I have to believe that some Obama followers would say exactly that. Disgraceful tweet by Ifill, but it's business as usual among the trained hamsters.

As an aside, I also have to wonder whether Ifill would ever tweet "Take that, Ayatollah" under any set of circumstances. Betcha she wouldn't ... ever.