Bias, Facts and Lies

I've been a news junkie since I was ten or eleven years old. Like anything, the more experience one has the better one can evaluate what is good and what is bad about the subject of their passion. For most of my adult life, though I realized the mainstream press had a liberal bias in the stories they chose to cover and how they covered them, I also knew that they were careful in being factual. Still, I found comfort in conservative media (print, radio and TV) because they discussed those same facts through a conservative lens. Following in the tradition of William F. Buckley, their conservatism was based upon intellect and ideas, which permeated the discussion of the day's issues.

About ten years ago, however, something began to change. Instead of viewing issues through an intellectually conservative lens, conservative media began viewing and reporting everything through angry, often irrational eyes. In the process, finding something to be angry about took precedence over reason and fact. It wasn't long before it became an endless feedback loop, where a lie or distortion would be stated, callers and listeners would obsess on it, and the lie or distortion would take on a life of its own. A perfect example was the report that an Obama trip was costing $200 million per day. That originally appeared on an obscure website, but once Rush Limbaugh picked it up, it gained credibility even though it was flat out false. But the audience ate it up. Soon, such falsehoods became routine fodder for agitating and engaging conservative audiences.

That was the point when my lifelong attachment to the news made it apparent that conservative media was no longer trustworthy. Worse, as those lies and distortions gained a greater foothold, conservatism itself was no longer what it once was. Instead of being based upon ideas of personal liberty, responsibility and optimism, it became based upon emotions of anger and fear. I could no longer associate with conservatism or the Republican party. As Reagan had famously said of the Democratic Party, I now said of the GOP, "I didn't leave the party, the party left me."

Unfortunately, too many people never noticed the change, never realized they were being fed lies. Conservative media was no longer about discussing what was best for the country, but what was best for ratings - which they did cynically by pretending what they were doing was for the good of the country. Like passengers on a cruise ship with a derelict captain, a not insignificant segment of society are reveling in a journey they are blissfully unaware is charting a course for disaster.

All one need do is peruse social media to find how one can fall for that cynical, sad deception and argue that lies are fact. And now we find that Russia is helping sow some of those lies, making those who help propagate them complicit in aiding a sworn enemy. Fortunately, fifty years of following the news helps identify those lies as lies. I'll take the mainstream media's biased fact over conservative media's biased lies every day of the week, especially when those lies aid and abet our adversaries.

The Real Question About Mueller

One of my wife's friends posted this question. Answers appreciated.

"Help me out here.  Robert Mueller signed up for Vietnam after graduating from Princeton.

As a Second Lt. in the Marine Corps he led the rescue of a trapped rifle platoon in the jungles of Vietnam and received the Bronze Star. He rarely talks about that or the wound in other action for which he received the Purple Heart. He then completed his tour of duty.

Mueller has been appointed to or held top jobs in the administrations of *all 5 of the last Presidents.* 

He was appointed to the Justice Department, as the head of the criminal division, under George H.W. Bush's administration. He was appointed a U.S. attorney by Bill Clinton. Then he was appointed the acting deputy attorney general by George W. Bush. One week before the Sept. 11 attacks President Bush appointed him director of the FBI.

After Mueller completed his 10-year term as FBI director, President Obama reappointed him for a 2-year term, which required a special act of Congress. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 100-0.

What in this man's record of bi-partisan appointments, military service, and being the unanimous choice of the U.S. Senate for one of the most vital positions in the land -  what would lead anyone to believe that he suddenly can't be trusted to do the right thing?"

It's About Country, Not Politics

I've been a Republican since I was old enough to choose sides. My opposition to all that's going on is not driven by partisan preferences, but by the exact opposite - the commitment to put party aside to view events with an eye to what I see as truth.

Note that I have not quoted "Fire and Fury." I have not commented on Stormy Daniels. I prefer to share hard journalism pieces, rather than opinion pieces, though when I do share such pieces, they tend to be from voices that have a demonstrated history of conservative or non-partisan pedigree.

People like to denigrate me as a "liberal," and there is no doubt I hold some liberal beliefs (protecting our environment, taking a humane view of immigration, gay marriage, stricter limits on gun ownership), but that in no way makes me a Democrat. I have attended anti-Trump rallies and protested his appearances with my hand-made Republicans Against Trump sign, but there is much that Democrats espouse that I do not agree with (identity politics, the shutting down of opposing viewpoints on college campuses, what I view as the shortsighted insistence on higher minimum wages that make hiring the least employable more unaffordable, thus dooming many to a life of inconsistent employability).

No, my opposition to what is going on in Washington is due almost exclusively to what I see as the systematic undermining of our institutions of democracy. I've said it many times, when faith in banks is destroyed, banks fail. When faith in currencies is destroyed, currencies fail. And when faith in the institutions of democracy are destroyed - faith in a free press, faith in a robust and independent system of justice, faith in fair elections and faith in the rule of law - democracies fail. This president, now with the acquiescence and outright assistance of an obsequious Congress, is systematically working to destroy faith in all these and more.

So, no, my opposition does not rise from partisan prejudice but out of what I sincerely believe to be principled patriotism. I have been a student of politics and U.S. history since Nixon, Humphrey and Wallace battled each other when I was eight years old. I have never been so concerned about what is being done to our country and I place blame for that squarely on the president and those he has enlisted in his effort to protect himself at the expense of our country.

That being the case, I cannot and will not remain silent.