You Decide

I never talk politics when I play Pickleball, if I have opinions, I write them down and put them on my blog. First, I don’t really care that much about the day in and day out goings-on within our political system, because politicians rarely talk about important things that directly affect my life.  But more importantly, other than my vote I don’t get a direct say in the decisions the various governments do make.  Today was an exception, although I did more listening than talking.

Another retired LTCOL mentioned that President Trump had made the statement that people buried in Arlington National Cemetery were all losers for being killed in a war, and since his parents were both buried there he would never vote for Trump.  There were a couple of similar statements floating around on social media I had seen but ignored before heading off to play.  After listening to the two people sitting there talking about the President my only comment was that I never believed a rumor about what Trump had said unless I hear it myself and understand the context.  Of course, this was challenged by one of the two who noted the President says a lot of stupid stuff.  I really can’t disagree with that, for I think the same thing from time to time.

So, I came home and sat down at my computer to see if I could track down what got this Army LTCOL so riled up.

Using the Duck Duck Go search engine, I typed in “Did Trump say people buried in Arlington National Cemetery were all suckers and losers?”  Here are the top five responses to that question.  Forbes,  CBC,  The Atlantic,  IBTimes,  Slate.  Four of the articles all refer back to “The Atlantic” article published on September 3, 2020, which claims that in 2017 the President refused to visit a World War I cemetery in France and allegedly said those buried there were “losers and suckers” for fighting in France.

Of course, Jeffery Goldberg uses the most favored of supporting documents when alleging wrongdoing by the President.  He learned of these statements from “four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day.”  It is remarkable how no one with first-hand knowledge of the events is willing to go on record, and the ones who go on record to point these “facts” out as lies are discredited as Trump’s stooges.

If “The Atlantic” had a track record of unbiased reporting I could maybe give them a slide on this, but they don’t.  Over the past four years, they’ve taken every opportunity to vilify the President, usually to be proven they were liars just a few weeks after publication.

What makes this article even more suspect is the timing?  Clearly, Mr. Goldberg believes he can help the DNC cause if he can suggest the President doesn’t respect the military and persuade its members to vote for Joe Biden so what does he have to lose.  Journalist integrity went to the wayside a long time ago.

What is the Role of the Press?

I read much about how bias the press is against Mr. Trump, or in favor of Ms. Clinton.  The principle critics are, of course, the conservative media, who have their own bias.  It doesn’t take too critical an eye to see that what we view as the mainstream broadcast media, ABCNNBCBS, their subordinate networks, and affiliated stations all seem to have the same agenda in their selection of what news to feed us, and how to shape public opinion in support of their group's goals. 

It has recently become obvious that on-line search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing as well as social media giants Facebook and Twitter all do the same thing.  The anonymous editors, sitting behind their screens have been shown to fashion the trending stories to ensure their agendas rise to the forefront of any story line, or derogatory articles are buried deep in the search results.

Perhaps it has always been this way, but it is just more obvious now than at any time in my past because of the way we absorb the information that inundates us.  For example, look at how the press covered Franklin Roosevelt for the entirety of his Presidency.  From what I’ve read Americans knew he had polio, but never were shown the extent of his infirmity.  The White House and the press colluded to only release information that showed the President in normal views, sitting in a car, sitting on the porch, or standing to give the state of the union address to Congress.  They were led to believe he was a bit slow to walk because of the braces, but did not appreciate he was wheelchair bound or the full extent of his paralysis.  Was this wrong?  Did the public have a right to know?  Should his opponents have made a big deal over this as they would now in this age of ad hominem political attack?

In the later part of the 19th century, writing in the Fortnightly Review, Oscar Wilde said of the press.

“In old days men had the rack.  Now they have the press.  That is an improvement certainly.  But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralising.  Somebody — was it Burke? — called journalism the fourth estate.  That was true at the time, no doubt.  But at the present moment it really is the only estate.  It has eaten up the other three.  The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it.  We are dominated by Journalism.”[i] 

 How true that appears today, where opinion far outweighs fact.  A time when journalists and other opinion holders (who fancy themselves journalists) abound, and platforms like Facebook and Twitter are based almost exclusively on shouting out opinions either for or against some social issue.

You can observe these bias agendas in action as the latest Clinton or Trump controversy plays out.  Today, more than ever before, we are left to our own intelligence to determine what is real and what isn't.

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[i] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1017/1017-h/1017-h.htm