REALity Volume XXXVI Issue No. 3 March 2017
The mainstream western media (MSM) are solidly in support of leftist, so called, “progressive” policies which they uncritically promote. They deliberately decline to report pro-life/family successes, because they want the public to believe that the left has won the culture wars. They pretend that the debate is over so that there will be reduced resistance to leftist policies which are causing so much harm and disorder in society.
In doing so, the MSM are deliberately misleading the public. We can only look to the recent US presidential election which elected Donald Trump. He now threatens to send a torrent of water as large as Niagara Falls to wash away the dirt, corruption, fraud and deceit that the progressives have promoted under the guise of political correctness. The US voters didn’t buy into the MSM agenda. In fact, the second biggest loser in the US 2016 election, after Hillary Clinton, was the mainstream media.
The mission of the mainstream media in the U.S. during the election was to stop Trump from winning. Hillary Clinton was the choice of nearly every US newspaper editorial board. At least 65 media personnel had met with Clinton’s organizers at the beginning of the campaign to set their strategy. Representatives from CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Huffington Post, to list a few, were present. Donna Brazile, a commentator on CNN (known as the Clinton News Network), and interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, fed Clinton some of the questions she would be asked during one of the debates.
The New York Times’ coverage of the campaign especially, was a monument to arrogance and stupidity. It never put the name “Trump” in a sentence without adding the words “hateful”, “racist”, “misogynist”, “ignorant”, etc.
Instead of being an objective observer, the media were active players in the political game, causing the division between political camps to widen.
George Soros’ Protests
Another example of the MSM’s refusal to provide accurate information to the public is their coverage of the protests arising since the US elected President Trump. The media reports indicate that these protests are spontaneous. They are not. The MSM have failed to reveal that some of these protests have been funded by the Hungarian born multi-billionaire, now US citizen, George Soros. He has established a money network which distorts and manipulates politics in the USA and worldwide. For example Soros has given $33 million to the left wing protest group Black Lives Matter (BLM) to support its so-called grassroots, on-ground activists including those in Toronto.
Soros underwrote the Women’s March in Washington, which took place on the day following the inauguration of President Trump. Soros funded at least 56 of the march’s “partners” including key partners: Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Amnesty International, NARAL Pro-Choice America, League of Women Voters and Human Rights Watch. The names of the other organizations participating in the march funded by Soros cover several pages. Many of the participants at this march were paid staff members of left-wing organizations. In summary, many of the protests currently taking place in the US have been organized by left wing groups funded by George Soros. Not a word of this has been published in the MSM.
These protests have also been the effort of progressive elites, not the poor or dispossessed. The elites consisting of only 1% of the population is comprised of wealthy, posturing actors, media moguls and business corporations, lashing out against the loss of their rule and influence. In short, the protests are the reaction of the establishment which sees its power slipping away. It is the most well-heeled movement in history. Ironically, the protests only cement Trump’s political future as the more protests, the more it alienates the grassroots.
Why the Media are Failing
The MSM have spectacularly failed in their role of providing objective journalism. The internet has destroyed the MSM’s role as gatekeeper to the news. Because of social media, the MSM can no longer decide what is news and keep out of sight any news they didn’t want the public to know. For example, the MSM mostly declined to cover the sale of aborted baby body parts by Planned Parenthood. This critical information was made available only by way of social media.
According to the PEW Research Centre, 44% of the public now receive their news from Facebook, which is filling the void left by the declining ranks of newspapers. In fact, only two adults in 10 get news from print newspapers. Potential readers can now go anywhere on the internet for news, insight and entertainment. As a result, the MSM have been rapidly losing consumers, advertisers and staff. The reality too, is that people can now choose the media that agree with their politics. This includes friends on Facebook, Twitter feed, websites and even cable TV channels.
The Canadian Media Scene
The Canadian MSM are no better than those in the U.S. On November 2, 2016, just before the U.S. voting day, the Globe and Mail published a long editorial explaining why Trump was causing the free world to push the panic button. The Globe and Mail claimed that foreign governments don’t want to interfere in democracy, so they don’t say what they really think of Trump. Then the Globe boldly went on to say, “But we can. We’re terrified”. It then proceeded to outline the disaster that will occur should Trump become president.
The Globe and Mail viscerally hates Trump. This is because the newspaper is owned by the Thomson family, the wealthiest family in Canada, worth $30 billion. It is this family that has become unhinged by Trump’s election. It is frantic to protect its own turf, to operate its businesses and influence policies to its own advantage. The blue collar workers and their concerns are irrelevant to the Globe and Mail and to other such elites – their radar just hits the politically correct.
On November 12, 2016, National Post Columnist, Jonathan Kay, published a pompous article describing himself as a “thinker”, and related his dismay that intelligent voters did not see Trump for what he was. He claimed that the vote for Trump made him lose faith in the application of the fruits of one’s intellect in the public sphere! Obviously, Mr. Kay learned nothing from the U.S. election, and knows nothing about the common sense of others. His arrogance is incredible. The majority of the 197 comments posted following the article were justifiably critical of Kay and his contempt for others.
The Toronto Star’s Washington bureau chief, Daniel Dale, travelled the U.S. during the election, writing that he knew the American people and the U.S. scene, and that Clinton was going to win, for sure. He spent months during the campaign cataloguing Trump’s supposed “mistruths”, pointing out to the uninformed that Trump was “hyper-dishonest”. After the election, Dale wrote in an article, published on November 9th, that immense power has been given to “an erratic, never-elected, and habitually untruthful candidate whose behaviour and policy positions have alarmed much of the world”. He predicted a period of international political, military and economic upheaval.
MSM Remain Unchanged
It is a certainty that the MSM will do everything in their power to destroy Mr. Trump’s presidency and continue to promote the left-wing agenda, self-righteously believing that only they know what is best for the public. The good thing is that fewer and fewer people care what the MSM think, or believe what they say.