Why People Don't Trust Them

Here are two examples - out of the many which could be cited - of the sort of media bias that has caused a lot of folks today to distrust, and even in some cases to loathe, the news media:

1. Imagine for a moment that journalists had in their possession a photo of Donald Trump, before he was president, schmoozing with a man who was perhaps the most notorious racist, anti-semitic bigot in the U.S. Suppose this man had said things like:

• Jews are Satan
• Jews caused the Holocaust
• Black people deserve to die
• Black people are devils and are subhuman
• The Jews were behind 9/11
• Interracial marriage is evil
• Hitler was a very great man

Do you think there's any journalist in the country that would conceal that photo from the public? Not only would they publish it for all to see, they should publish it for all to see, don't you agree? And what would you think of Donald Trump were he seen in that pic smiling warmly in the bigot's company and having his picture taken with him?

Well, it happened. Except it wasn't Trump who was in the photo, it was Barack Obama, and the statements above weren't said about blacks they were said about whites by one of the most odious racists and anti-semites alive today, Louis Farrakhan. The photo has been around since 2005, but the people in whose possession it was sat on it until recently for fear that it would harm Mr. Obama's career.

Can you imagine a journalist withholding such a photo of Mr. Trump out of concern for his career?

Journalist Askia Muhammed said he took the photo but decided to suppress its publication in order to protect Obama’s presidential ambitions. Now that Obama’s political career is over, Muhammad is going public with the picture and publishing it in a new book called “The Autobiography of Charles 67X.”

The photo was first published last week by the Trice Edney News Wire....The veteran journalist told the news service that he “gave the picture up at the time and basically swore secrecy” to protect Obama.

2. As readers are probably aware, our economy has been booming as a consequence of President Trump's dismantling of the stifling regulations placed on businesses by the Obama administration and also as a result of the tax reform bill passed last December.

Millions of people have received bonuses of $1000 to $2500 and millions more, indeed 95% of all workers, will see more money in their paychecks in 2018 as a result. Moreover, many businesses, like Apple and Disney, plan to reinvest billions in the economy which will create an explosion of new jobs.

But the Democrats are horrified that the Republicans will be seen as the benefactors of workers across the country and are desperately trying to minimize the perception that Trump's policies have been responsible for the burgeoning economy. Attempting to downplay the economic benefits average folks have been enjoying and will continue to enjoy they're making themselves sound foolish.

Nevertheless, rather than exposing the truth both about the policies and the absurd response to them, the media are essentially covering up the Democrats' risible remarks because they know they'll only discredit Democrats with the voters.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats predicted the tax bill would be a disaster for the working class — “Armageddon” is how Pelosi described it — only to see more than three million American workers receive bonuses and pay raises as a result of the GOP tax cuts. Additionally, 90 percent of workers are expected to see an increase in take-home pay in 2018. Pelosi, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, has consistently dismissed the bonuses that workers are receiving as “pathetic” and “crumbs.”

Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), similarly struggled to explain the bonuses when confronted about them at a town hall. Wasserman first claimed that she hadn’t “heard of any bonuses over $1,000,” even though tens of thousands of workers have received bigger bonuses than that. (Apple, for example, gave employees $2,500 bonuses.) After establishing that misleading premise, Wasserman Schultz then claimed that $1,000 doesn’t go “very far for anyone.”

But the establishment media have ignored the entire Democratic debacle. As of this article, the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN have combined for zero articles about Pelosi’s “crumbs” comments, even as she has doubled– and tripled-down on them.

As has been noted by numerous observers, had the Democrats produced such a boon to average Americans and the Republicans derided it as mere "crumbs", the media would be excoriating them and mocking them for their elitism, insensitivity and for being so out of touch with average Americans.

As it is, though, since it's Democrats who are out of touch and insensitive, the mainstream media has uttered hardly a peep. This disregard for professional ethics on the part of the media, and the resentments it engenders among consumers of news, is one of the main reasons why so many voters pulled the lever for Donald Trump in 2016.