Dangerous

With furrowed brows, serious expressions and a somber tone, establishment elites from both the Democrat and Republican parties and a fair number of private sector corporate leaders (think: Google, Amazon, etc.) continually tell us that Donald Trump's attacks on the media are "dangerous" or a "threat to our democracy." Why exactly?

Should we, as citizens of the United States, be asked to accept media reports without examination or criticism? Should we be blind to the obvious and increasingly vicious bias exhibited by the vast majority of main stream media outlets against this president and his party? Should we accept faux investigative journalism that picks and chooses the stories to write and the scandals to uncover based on the damage they will do to a preferred political party? Should we accept reporting in which major mitigating facts are omitted altogether or buried in the 27th paragraph? Should we accept editorializing in the guise of reporting?

The answer to all of these question is "no," and a media that expects a "yes" answer is both corrupt and dangerous. It deserves harsh criticism, even from the President of the United States.

Over the past year, there has been irrefutable evidence of a major conspiracy involving the past Democrat administration, the DNC, the FBI, the DoJ, and elements of our intelligence agencies against one candidate for president in 2016. The evidence includes written documents, emails, a money trail, text messages, IG reports, and Congressional testimony that all point to serious wrong-doing. And the media—you know, the same one that claims to be "ethical and professional"—has ignored or downplayed the story and refuses to investigate it vigorously, while at the same time telling us it's "threatened" by the harsh words of the president.

The media isn't threatened by anything but its own bias, dishonesty, sensationalism, and incompetence. It isn't endangered by anything except the public's sinking trust precipitated by it's own lack of accuracy and evenhandedness.

As they say, "The truth hurts." And in the case of Trump's often harsh critique of the "fake news" media, the pain may be more than the media can bear.

UPDATE-1:
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As a classic and somewhat comical example of blatant media bias, the New York Times (headline complete with a picture of Haley subsequently edited to remove Haley's name and likeness) yesterday reported that $52,701 was spent "customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Haley’s New York City residence"—all paid for by U.S. taxpayers. The clear impression was that the cost-cutting Trump administration spent money on decorating while reducing employment at the state department. Only one problem—the expenditure was proposed and approved by the Obama administration. The NYT issued a correction, implying it was all a mistake.

No ... it was sloppy journalism driven by a biased narrative designed to make both Haley and her boss, Donald Trump, look bad. Narrative driven reporting leads to "mistakes" like this one. It's unprofessional and deserves the criticism it gets.

UPDATE-2:
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Writing about two "fake news" media plays over last week—the innuendo-laced and evidence-free story about "sexual abuse" levied against SCOTUS nominee, Bret Kavanaugh and the ridiculous and erroneous claim that the Trump administration approved a large expenditure for Nikki Haley's curtains—Steven Kruiser comments:

Much has been made in the Trump era about conservatives' enmity towards the MSM. In the media's telling of the story they are simply objective innocent bystanders who are dutifully chronicling history while the big, mean, Most Powerful Man on Earth gins up a mob that hates them.

It's pure rubbish.

President Trump didn't manufacture conservative distrust and dislike of the media out of whole cloth as they would have us believe. Paraphrasing the words of the previous president: they built that. Their relentless and often unhinged partisan advocacy isn't remotely akin to journalism. They can call themselves whatever they want but if it acts like a partisan hack, talks like a partisan hack, and writes like a partisan hack...well, you know.

They actively engage in partisan-driven attempts to ruin careers, reputations, and even families when they're on a roll. As I recently wrote, the same media who were lauding John McCain at his funeral once reported on a nonexistent extramarital affair in an effort to derail his presidential bid. They did this while sitting on verifiable evidence that Democrat John Edwards was not only cheating on his sick wife, but had fathered a child as a result of the affair.

President Trump just happens to be the first Republican president with the guts to admit publicly that this group masquerading as truth-to-power torch bearers for freedom are thoroughly corrupt.

And the media doesn't like that accusation one little bit.