Opinion | The ‘Liberal Leaning’ Media Has Passed Its Tipping Point "About 35 years ago I was sitting at lunch next to Jeane Kirkpatrick, a onetime Democrat who became a foreign-policy adviser to President Reagan and later U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She was lamenting what she called the “liberal leaning” media. As the president of CBS News, I assured her it was only a “liberal tilt” and could be corrected. “You don’t understand,“ she scolded. “It’s too late.” Kirkpatrick was prophetic. The highly influential daily newspapers in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Boston are now decidedly liberal. On the home screen, the three broadcast network divisions still have their liberal tilt. Two of the three leading cable news sources are unrelentingly liberal in their fear and loathing of President Trump. News organizations that claim to be neutral have long been creeping leftward, and their loathing of Mr. Trump has accelerated the pace. The news media is catching up with the liberalism of the professoriate, the entertainment industry, upscale magazines and the literary world. Recent arrivals are the late-night TV hosts who have broken the boundaries of what was considered acceptable political humor for networks. To many journalists, objectivity, balance and fairness—once the gold standard of reporting—are not mandatory in a divided political era and in a country they believe to be severely flawed. That assumption folds neatly into their assessment of the president. To the journalists, including more than a few Republicans, he is a blatant vulgarian, an incessant prevaricator, and a dangerous leader who should be ousted next January, if not sooner. Much of journalism has become the clarion voice of the “resistance,” dedicated to ousting the president, even though he was legally elected and, according to the polls, enjoys the support of about 44% of likely 2020 voters. This poses significant problems not only for Mr. Trump but for the media’s own standing. If Mr. Trump prevails in November, what’s the next act, if any, for journalists and the resistance? They will likely find Mr. Trump more dangerous and offensive in a second term than in the first. More important, how will a large segment of the public ever put stock in journalism it considers hostile to the country’s best interests? Unfortunately, dominant media organizations have bonded with another large segment of the public—one that embraces its new approach. Pulling back from anti-Trump activism could prove commercially harmful." Talk about missing the 900lb gorilla in the room. The media is dying, quickly, they are bleeding out because of their sprint to the cult of progressivism. This fall will be a shock to the media, among many others. Middle America is no longer willing to sit by while the progressives destroy the nation whether it be via toxic progressive policies California is well known for or whether it be by shutting down the economy for an infectious virus that is less deadly than many other infectious viruses we survived without economic calamity during the latter half of the 20th century. "On the other hand, how would the media respond to a Joe Biden victory (beyond exhilaration)? Will Mr. Biden be subjected to the rigor and skepticism imposed on Mr. Trump? Will he get a pass because he is a liberal and “not Trump”? The media’s protective coverage of the sexual-assault allegation against Mr. Biden is perhaps a clear and concerning preview to how his presidency would be covered. The media seems uninterested in these issues of bias. But wouldn’t a softening of its editorial orientation bring new readers or viewers? Probably not. The growth of new customers would be more than offset by the defection of outraged members of the current audience. The news media seems very comfortable with its product and ability to sell it. There’s probably no way to seal the gap between the media and a large segment of the public. The media likes what it is doing. Admires it. Celebrates it. There is no personal, professional or financial reason to change. If anything, the gap will expand. Ultimately, the media finds the “deplorables” deplorable." Of course, Biden will get a pass, and like Obama will be the worse off for it. If Biden wins, he will be another Obama-like placeholder. He will do little, but what he does will be badly thought through and fated for failure because the media is unwilling to do their job. Presidents do best when they have a real opposition party with real ideas attempting to find real solutions and a press corps that is willing to test every idea and policy coming out of the administration. Bad ideas in this environment die, good ones prevail. We have neither of those safeguards today. While the Republican Party is likely to come to the table to attempt to offer real ideas and solutions, the Democrats have been unwilling to do so since the election of Obama. The result was the utter failure of the Obama administration to find any real solutions to problems. Obamacare was a failure from day one and only got worse over time. Obama mostly dismantled this abomination before he left office, Trump mostly finished the job although there is more work to do. Obama received a mostly calm world from Bush and left a total disaster for Trump because Obama was a fickle man unable to make tough decisions. His basic decision-making technique was to leave the decision until it made itself. The result was a world afire from the South China Sea, to Russia, to Venezuela, to the Middle East, to Saharan Africa and Central Africa, to Ukraine, and the economic collapse of Europe still underway. If voters think we need more of Obama's destructive damaging policies and incompetence, so be it, but they will rue the day. "Dan Abrams, ABC’s chief legal-affairs anchor and founder of the website Mediaite, has a novel but valuable idea for the media—candor. Speaking to the matter at February’s Rancho Mirage Writers Festival, Mr. Abrams said “I think the first thing that would help . . . is to admit . . . that the people in the media are left of center.” It would be delightful if a publisher, an editor, a reporter, would just say: Yes, I am left of center! I’m proud of it. I think our reporting is accurate. It best serves the public. And the credibility of the media. So there! Publications open about their bias might feel freer to focus on the specifics: story selection, presentation, facts, fairness, balance. Not devoid of subtlety for sure, but manageable. Journalism affects social cohesion. Convinced of its role and its legitimacy, however, the media doesn’t seem to much care. And the other side can certainly enjoy throwing rotten tomatoes at distant targets. But America won’t reunite until far more people can look at a news story in print or on the screen and, of all things, believe it." Please do so, it will only hasten the collapse which would end this charade more quickly. The problem is the people disagree so strongly they are abandoning the media ships in droves. The media is in full collapse, so they want to double down on collapse. Go right ahead, make my day. We live during an odd time What Charles Mackay titled, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds The book is old but brilliant and shows how these popular delusions are common and recure often. Where the book excels is in its ability to describe the collapse and the aftermath. It is worth a read alongside The_True_Believer, and When_Prophecy_Fails. These three books will help you understand how and why normally intelligent people fall for absurd ideas and double down right up to the final collapse. The media, academia, and many more are in the throws of the progressive cult, here during the latter days of the progressive movement. Progressivism is no longer a political movement and has not been since Earth Day 1970, which signified the replacement of the political movement with a secular cult. All that remains is for Americans to understand this and move on. But the secular cult of progressivism is a tough customer. The Boomers hewed to the cult and were successful in destroying the education of young Americans to the point that they have little or no ability to push back against the ideology and the cant of the progressive cult. If Biden wins, we will see a shocking reduction in human and constitutional rights which will make the shutdown pale in comparison. We will also likely see Americans close to open rebellion or, perhaps, in open rebellion. The progressives are fascists who want control for the same reasons all fascist, socialist, and their ilk want to control, to crush the will of the people and make them into serfs. Progressivism, like all socialist models, is nothing more than feudalism applied to the modern socio-economic world. The question is, are you, freeman or serf? If you are the latter vote Democratic Party in the fall. If not, don't. Kurt Schlicter's Kelly Turnbull novels were supposed to be cautionary tales, the progressive left seems to be taking them as road maps. Kelly Turnbull novels
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