By Printus LeBlanc
Last week the mainstream media participated in the character assassination of an honorable man with no proof of any of the allegations. At the same time, CNN is printing unsubstantiated falsehoods about a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, Jim Acosta is whining on national TV because the majority of Americans don’t believe the BS they are peddling. If you want to know why President Donald Trump calls the mainstream media fake news and it has a lower approval rating than the President look no further than the actions taken by the mainstream media and a vile Senator last week.
President Trump nominated Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson to take over the Department of Veterans Affairs. The nomination drew instant ire from many, not because the Rear Admiral wasn’t qualified, but simply because Trump nominated him, and Democrats are fearful of privatization of the VA. Jackson’s credentials are impeccable, more impeccable than anyone criticizing him for sure. Jackson has been deployed multiple times around the world caring for service members including a combat tour in Iraq during the height of the fighting. Jackson has also served in the White House Medical Unit under the last three Presidents.
Shortly after the nomination, Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.) unleashed a torrent of accusations against the highly decorated Navy Admiral. The media picked up the stories immediately, plastering them on newspapers and news networks.
The media wrote the stories in a way that made many accusations impossible to prove or refute. They know that as a doctor Jackson cannot discuss any prescriptions he wrote if he wrote any at all. But by making the accusation, the media painted an honorable man in a negative light, with no way to prove his innocence. A truly horrific practice in “journalism.”
Will the mainstream media hold itself responsible for what it did to Jackson? Will the media admit it ran unverified allegations against an honorable man for the purpose of destroying him? Will the media hold the politician leading the charge of making potentially false allegations responsible? Don’t count on it.
This is not the first time a member of Congress openly lied to achieve a goal, and the media carried the water for them. In the 2012 Presidential election, then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) went to the Senate floor and made false statements about Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Reid stated, “So the word is out that he has not paid any taxes for ten years. Let him prove he has paid taxes because he has not.” The media ran with the Reid accusations and hounded Romney about the issue, never asking Reid to prove his point. As it turned out, Romney had paid his taxes.
The entire Russia investigation was started on baseless, unverified accusations. After more than 18 months of investigations, not a scintilla of evidence has been provided by the media or their Democrat propaganda masters to prove any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. It has become clear the evidence may not exist because many of the accusations came from Clinton operatives Sid Blumenthal and Cody Shearer, a circular loop where information from the Clinton world was fed to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele, packaged up and reported back to the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Has that stopped the media from reporting on the non-existent Russia collusion story? Has the media called for their Clinton allies to be held accountable?
There is some good news, though. Tester is up for reelection this year. The media will not hold themselves or a Democrat responsible for the lies they tell, but the people of Montana have that ability in November. Tester is running for reelection in a state Trump won by more than 20 points. Tester voted against the popular tax cuts while working with other liberal Democrats to fight the President on securing the border.
Last week did nothing but show the true partisan nature of the mainstream media. Last week, Senator Tester showed he will stop at nothing to score political points with his liberal progressive masters. The mainstream media is going to continue whining because more than half of Republicans view them as the enemy. After what they did last week, the media is going to look at negative rating fondly, and Sen. Tester is going to have to look for a job.
Printus LeBlanc is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.
