50 Times

Any semblance of media neutrality or objectivity disappeared with the 2008 nomination of Barack Obama. In that year's election and in every year since, the media is unashamed to act as the praetorian guard for the Left and the Democrats. No scandal has been too big to bury on the back pages; no administration failure has been too significant to ignore; no domestic or foreign-policy debacle has been too catastrophic to whitewash. At the same time, the GOP has been denounced as "obstructionist" "racist," "bigoted," and or "misogynist." In the words of Marco Rubio, the mainstream media has become a "Democrat SuperPac," always there to protect the Democrats and whenever possible, demonize the GOP. With this as background, we come to the Khan case.

The parents of a slain military hero speak at the Democratic National Convention and lambast Donald Trump for his stance on Muslim immigration. No matter that Trump has been publicly against the war in which Captain Khan died (while Hillary Clinton supported it), no matter that the Captain Khan's death had nothing to do with the current immigration threat from the middle east, no matter that Europe is currently experiencing that thread in real terms. The media lionized the Khans and gave them a national platform from which they demonized Trump. For example, the Khan's story appeared on the front page of The New York Times, above the fold.

Cut to the GOP convention. A gold star mother, Pat Smith, of one of two families who lost sons who heroically defended other State Department personnel in the Benghazi terror attack asserted the Hillary Clinton lied to their faces when she stated that the attack was the result of an anti-Muslim video. She did this after sending emails to others indicating that the attack was all about terror, not about a video. Clinton lied because she was reinforcing an Obama administration narrative (during an election year) that terror was on the wain. She compounded her mendacity by suggesting that the families were confused or grief stricken and didn't hear what she really said. The media did what it always does—it ignored the Benghazi families, bought into Hillary's lies, and didn't ask hard questions about the Benghazi story. No surprise.

The Khans have received 50 times the media coverage (measured in minutes) than Pat Smith. 50 times! Both represent gold star families, both lost sons, but only one is pro-Democrat. Hmmm.

There's no left-wing media bias, is there?

There was a time when an independent media acted as an important check on government wrong-doing, mendacity, and incompetence. Today, the media is no longer independent, no longer asks hard questions when those question need to be asked of Democrats, no longer rejects a political narrative in favor of the truth when the truth might hurt a Democrat, no longer investigates scandals when those scandals happen under Democrat governance, no longer does its job. As much as progressives celebrate the coming dominance of the left and the Dems, enabled by a media that acts as their shill, they really ought to be careful what they wish for. Unchecked political power (left or right) never has a good outcome.