Last week, President Trump gave a speech, with his homework done for good measure, about foreign meddling in U.S. national elections.
He claims that there were problems, so naturally I decided to look into it for the basis of a column, what with me being the curious type. I wanted simply the claims he made and the facts behind them, if possible.
Pretty much every news site I visited told me that Trump said some things and then proceeded to refute any claims as well as play a rousing version of whataboutism, contrasting his reaction to his elections versus anyone else’s. No one really just told me what he said and what evidence he had to back up those claims.
In essence, they just told me how to feel about it, because — also in essence — Trump is bad. (Except for NBC, ABC and CNN, who didn’t even bother to broadcast the speech.)
Years ago, while attending a conference, we were admonished by a presenter to not just take someone’s claim at face value, but to ask them for statistics or facts to back up those claims. Some of those writers did that in this case and then proceeded to put their opinion on that information.
What didn’t happen, and what should have happened, was to make the source (i.e., Trump) back up those facts with other sources. All of that would be woven into the story and presented to the reading, listening or watching public, the idea being that the end user would make their own decision about the story.
That’s not now the case with the media. We’re now fed whatever scraps, spun into a web of deceit that is supposed to create the illusion of information but is actually disguised as coercion. I don’t know what the end result is, but it sure seems like it’s designed only to destroy conservatism in general and Trump in particular.
A story that broke earlier in the week seems to bear this out: The New York Times has been issued subpoenas over their coverage of the new Air Force One, which they claim is not secure as the plane was a gift from Qatar.
According to accounts from the BBC, the administration is looking for the source of information leaks, since it involves classified information (the initial article city unnamed sources, go figure). Of course, the media and its fans have concluded that it’s just Trump attacking the First Amendment, and just about every piece written or broadcast in this country claims the president is such a schmuck and this is illegal and unprecedented and Trump is still bad.
A good friend of mine, in response to this nonsense, said something I think is very profound: By choosing not to broadcast the remarks, or by crafting a narrative instead of reporting, the choice to make up your own mind has been taken away from you, something only communists do.
If there is a problem with the government (there’s many), then there should be easily verifiable and accessible information available so we can make our own decision about what to do. If that becomes tainted beyond the ability to repair, then something like what is going on in Britain and Canada will happen here. Imagine going to prison for your snarky social media post, or comedians being pulled offstage, or the motion picture and television industries will have governmental oversight.
Just as we the people are the government, we the people can have a major impact on news and entertainment, we just have to choose to call them out on it.
Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times and the Trinity County News-Standard. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
