2017: A Tough Year for the Mainstream Media

If the American people learned nothing else in 2017, they got a firsthand look at the corruption and bias that plagues the mainstream media. If the media had to suffer through malpractice lawsuits like medical professionals do, they definitely would have spent a lot of time in court this past year.     

 

A pipe bomb exploded in a New York City subway passageway last Monday; injuring four people, including the 27 year-old Bangladeshi national who intended to serve as a martyr for Allah.  Fortunately for the American people, his evil plan of killing as many Americans as possible backfired.  Instead of getting 72 virgins, he got 72 stitches.  He will probably spend the next 72 years rotting in a jail cell.  The explosion took place less than six weeks after a truck driven by a radical Islamic terrorist rammed into pedestrians on a bike path by the Hudson River, killing eight people.  While no one died from the explosion, you would think that the mainstream media would find an attempted terrorist attack in the nation’s largest city worth covering, especially since ISIS had previously promised to go after The Big Apple during the Christmas season.  However, CNN disagreed; apparently finding it more important to talk about President Trump’s diet just about an hour after the news of the explosion first broke.  CNN had previously aired a story earlier this year detailing that the President got to eat two scoops of ice cream with his dinner while everyone else at the table only got to eat one.  Surely, the American people could not go to sleep at night without knowing that information.

 

The mainstream media’s overwhelmingly negative coverage of President Trump, largely a result of Trump Derangement Syndrome, has provided quite a contrast to the “Slobbering Love Affair” between the so-called fourth estate and Former President Obama.  CNN actually devoted time on air comparing the interior of a dog’s ear to President Trump’s face.  The dog in question had an ear infection.  The mainstream media apparently suffers from a brain infection that causes them to devote air time to this crap.  You would think the same people who see criticizing a person’s physical appearance as a mortal sin would want to lead by example.  Then again, if not for double standards, the left would have no standards at all. 

 

While the media sometimes chooses to cover stories that warrant hardly any attention at all, they have also completely humiliated themselves several times this year by publishing false stories, taking things completely out of context or making outrageous statements.  Their losing streak began before President Trump even took office. During Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearings in early January, MTV culture writer Ira Madison posted an outrageous statement on Twitter, saying “Sessions, sir, kindly return this Asian baby to the Toys-R-Us you stole her from.”  The “Asian Baby” in question happened to be Sessions’ granddaughter, who sat on his lap as the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee did their best to engage in a character assassination against Sessions.   The left had previously tried to smear Sessions as a racist when President Reagan nominated him for a Federal judgeship in 1986.  Their scare tactics ultimately worked, as Sessions withdrew his nomination after failing to win over the support of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  While I recognize that MTV may not seem like a mainstream media outlet at first glance, keep in mind that the lines between entertainment, news and opinion have basically disappeared in the age of social media.  Just look at how the late night TV hosts have decided to abandon their roles as comedians in favor of serving as mainstream media journalists.    

 

 

Only in rare cases do the mainstream media own up to their mistakes.  Zeke Miller, a Time Magazine reporter, inaccurately claimed on Twitter that President Trump had removed the Martin Luther King Jr. bust from the oval office.  In fact, the MLK bust remained in the oval office; a cameraman had merely obstructed it from Miller’s view, causing him to jump to his inaccurate conclusion.  To his credit, Miller apologized upon realizing his mistake.  White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer highlighted Miller’s mistake as “a reminder of the media danger of tweet first check facts later.”  Had Hillary won the election, she may have decided to put a bust of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger in the oval office.  In my opinion, she could have taken the one from the Smithsonian’s “Struggle for Justice”, as the eugenicist Sanger definitely does not deserve to share the stage with Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

 

 

The media made it look like the First Lady of Poland refused to shake hands with President Trump, who visited the Eastern European country earlier this year.  The video in question that the media cited as evidence of the Polish First Lady snubbing President Trump shows her walking by the President and choosing to shake hands with America’s First Lady Melania Trump.  The portion of the video where the Polish first lady actually shook hands with President Trump after shaking hands with Melania was cut off.  Polish President Andrzej Duda weighed in on Twitter, saying “Contrary to some surprising reports my wife did shake hands with Mr. and Mrs. Trump @POTUS after a great visit.  Let’s FIGHT FAKE NEWS.” 

 

Liberals seem to have an obsession with handshakes.  The Washington Journal published a fake news story accusing President Trump of refusing to shake hands with a disabled child visiting the White House.  The boy’s mother actually went after Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who accused President Trump, whom she apparently views as worse than Voldemort, of “looking deliberately over a disabled child’s head, ignoring his outstretched hands.”  Even the fact-checking website Politifact, which many argue has a liberal bias, awarded Rowling’s Statement “Pants on Fire.”

 

As Hurricane Harvey struck Texas, the media decided to obsess over First Lady Melania Trump’s choice of shoes; slamming her for wearing high heels as she departed the White House.  Has anyone else noticed the superficial nature of liberals?  I feel quite confident that the people of Texas who had lost everything they own to a natural disaster could have cared less what shoes the First Lady decided to wear.   

 

Most recently, the media has published stories spreading rumors about personnel changes on Capitol Hill.  Late last month, reports surfaced alleging that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson planned to leave his post in January.  Tillerson dismissed the idea of his resignation as “laughable.”  NBC News had previously reported that Tillerson referred to the President as “a moron”, which President Trump slammed as “fake news.”   Politico reported that House Speaker Paul Ryan planned to retire after the passage of tax reform, a cause that he has devoted his entire two-decade career in public service to.  Ryan responded to the report by saying “I am not going anywhere anytime soon, and lets just leave that thing at that.”

 

An actual personnel change took place last week when the White House announced former “Apprentice” contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman’s departure from the Trump Administration. The Wall Street Journal portrayed her exit as tumultuous, with one “unnamed White House official” telling the Journal that the Secret Service “physically dragged and escorted (Omarosa) off the campus.”  The Secret Service pushed back, saying “Reporting regarding Secret Service personnel physically removing Omarosa Manigault Newman from @TheWhiteHouse complex is incorrect.”  The media would greatly increase their credibility by not relying so much on anonymous officials.  

 

Maybe I should cut the mainstream media a little more slack.  After all, 2017 did not turn out the way they planned.  The candidate they worked so hard to elect did not win.  Instead of electing Barack Obama 2.0, the American people chose to elect a man who actually fights back against media bias.  The mainstream media resents the fact that their propaganda campaign to prevent the election of President Trump did not pay off.

 

With Christmas just around the corner, the mainstream media definitely earned its spot on Ainsley Earhardt’s naughty list. The media has a chance to redeem itself in 2018 but don’t hold your breath.  They will likely continue destroying their credibility by acting as an opposition party to President Trump for the next four or eight years.