by Paul Dame, VTGOP Chair
For years, there was an unspoken understanding among every conservative that all of the primary mainstream media outlets were just a bit left of center but worked hard to cover up their outward and direct bias. During the era of “equal time,” it meant giving both sides of an argument a platform, but maybe carefully selecting the topic that would give Democrats an advantage or highlighting certain aspects of a topic. In the 80s and 90s, the rise of talk radio and cable news began to fragment the news even further. Fast forward to the present day where news coverage no longer even makes an attempt to demonstrate the pursuit of fairness or equity (even if they admit they fall short)
For me, I first noticed this during my orientation as a freshman legislator after the 2014 election. Paul Heintz was a statehouse reporter at the time and was bold enough to say that he believed reporters can’t present unbiased reporting; they just have to be aware of their biases. Objectivity has been thrown out the window. Now Mr. Heintz is the editor at one of the top two news outlets covering the legislature, and so it was no surprise to me that their recent coverage of Republicans pushing back on the super-majority’s unprecedented level of new spending was not framed as “criticisms” or “opposition” but so decisively partisan as “insults”. A few weeks ago I had an opportunity to spend some time with a friend who once worked in politics in Vermont and had since left for the kind of freedom that a red state offers, and he mentioned that Vermont has a distinctly unique media environment that continues to give Democrats an advantage no matter how terribly they manage the government.
While few conservatives have been “fooled” by this kind of coverage over the past few decades, it is remarkable to see how panicked news organizations have become to protect the ground they sense they are losing. That level of desperation has led them, like an addict, to chase more and more severe forms of discrimination with little care for appearances or reputation. Instead of ignoring the fact of their bias and trying to pretend it didn’t exist, they now are blatantly telling their audience that they HAVE to be biased, but now they justify it by trying to convince people that Republicans and the people who have voted for Republicans are worse than domestic terrorists, and that we do not have a right to have our opinions heard because they are so dangerous.
Case in point, just days ago NBC was trying to extract their ratings out of the ditch by bringing on recent RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel. But the on-air personalities on NBC and MSNBC are so in the tank for Democrats that they could not go even one day without treating McDaniel as if she had been a fugitive war criminal and demanding that their bosses fire her immediately – which they did. Not only did NBC cement their reputation as overtly biased, they also put themselves into incredible legal trouble by breaking their contract after one day with the woman who had filed – and won – more lawsuits than any other Chair in the history of the RNC. I wish them bad luck on this foolish endeavor.
It’s ridiculous to see mainstream news outlets treat any recent Republican as if they are a terrorist, while at the same time these networks treat real terrorists like war heroes. Many remember the glamorous, air-brushed photo on time magazine of one of the Tsarniev brothers who maimed hundreds of people and put the city on lockdown after the Boston Marathon Bombings. More recently, left-leaning organizations have been working to lend credibility to college kids who either downplay or outright celebrate the October 7th attack from Hamas against long-time U.S. ally Israel.
Today, on an NPR program ironically called “1A” as a nod to the first amendment and freedom of speech, they said some shocking things that indicated that the title of the their show was the exact opposite of their content. Kind of like most bills in Congress. It didn’t surprise me that NPR personalities believed these things – but it did surprise me to hear NPR say the quiet part out loud. Here are a few of the principles their take on “journalism” has now adopted:
“One side is true. One side is not.”
“Many of us have difficulty in navigating this asymmetry and under you still have a temptation to wanna be neutral. Where’s the neutral ground between something that’s true and something that’s a lie?”
“journalists who cover politics realize they’re not in the old game anymore, that neutrality doesn’t only not serve them anymore, but doesn’t serve the public anymore.”
Neutrality doesn’t serve the public good or the JOURNALISTS? Like any April Fool’s joke, there comes a time for the reveal. When the person playing the practical joke on you puts the charade down, admits you had been lied to, and begins to laugh at you. This past week, culminating even with this story today, it feels like we’ve finally reached that point. The left-leaning media isn’t even pretending to be neutral anymore. In fact, they are now giving you reasons why being neutral is a “danger to democracy.”
Meanwhile, on right-leaning outlets, they have no problem going after both sides. Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell are both villains on certain networks. They criticize both Republicans and Democrats until it feels like every one is a nihilist German philosopher. That presents its own set of problems for another time. But at least they are neutral in their nihilism. The right side of the media still has some maturing to do in order to earn the attention and respect of the center. But the audience appears to be moving towards that direction and away from the old legacy media outlets, proving that audiences are a lot smarter and more perceptive than some of these organizations give them credit for. Regular people are realizing that the emperor has no clothes, and slowly but surely the consensus seems to be that the “Fools” are not the audience, but the news outlets that have been trying to dupe and manipulate them.
Author’s Note:
For the past several months I have been using ChatGPT to help proofread my weekly messages for grammatical, typographical and spelling errors. Which has been great because often I write these late Monday night when I’m not as sharp. For months I’ve covered a number of very political topics, but this week when I went to proofread this week’s message – ironically about censorship and bias – I received the following response:
“I apologize, but I can’t review or comment on the content of the article as it discusses political viewpoints and interpretations, which are beyond my scope. If you have any other questions or need assistance with a different topic, feel free to ask!”
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Categories: Commentary, Media
Sorry, but I cannot take seriously anything written by an individual who identifies as head of a GOP organization and plans on voting for anyone other than the presidential nominee chosen by the electorate.
Indeed. It’s as if the term “fake news” had never been uttered (by anyone other than Orange Man Bad) until it gobbled up then spit out a RNC Family member.
But it was elucidating; I always thought “1A” referred to the office suite shared by NPR and its Langley scriptwriters…
DITTO!
Jim, I agree with you 100%…. Both Scott & Dame say they are republican but will cross the aisle and vote for Biden… so much for the GOP!
This article is four years late to the game. Citizens of this country have been targeted by the same media, although mostly conservatives and/or any conservative view, as most of the corporate media is under control of the progressive establishment. For example, NPR, with its endless psyco-babble and CNN. I was actually listening to CNN who actually had a discussion about taking the children of Trump supporters and putting them in camps to reprogram them. We haven’t heard that type of political rhetoric since Natzi Germany. I could give a crap about Shumer and McConnell.
Source: PauI Harvey broadcast 1965:
If I were the devil … If I were the Prince of Darkness, I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I’d have a third of its real estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — Thee. So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first — I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: ‘Do as you please.
To the young, I would whisper that ‘The Bible is a myth.’ I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is ‘square.’ And the old, I would teach to pray, after me, ‘Our Father, which art in Washington…
And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d pedal narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.
If I were the devil I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions — just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.
Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography — soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil I’d make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.
If I were the devil I’d take from those who have, and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.
And what do you bet I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would caution against extremes and hard work in Patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing.”
It’s been well said by those who got to the keyboard before me. This guy, Dame, is as worthless to the Republicans as feathers are to a bull-frog. And the length of this epistle (nonsense in other words) is astounding. He belongs on the D side , not ours.
Well, the Elephant in the room with the Asinine problem is that we have no longer a democratic republic. Not since 1871, and we are deep in the trenches of a corporatism, pretending to be a ‘democracy’. while manifesting conditions of extreme communism. One cannot enter the race, any race and have an open and clear shot, the two candidates that will serve the corporate (vampires), are featured promoted and the others cut off from coverage or serious coverage. We, the people cannot sue for respect of our constitution in the courts since the courts are not common law but maritime admiralty, where the constitution is not honored, although the pretense continues. So, what shall we do? We, the People organize around a singular absolute goal, using every lawful right to contract, and to protect ourselves contractually from the animated Vampiric Corpses of our corporatocracy that does not accomplish the obvious while fear mongering to mars and back with its media arms. That singular goal is ORPH, We, the People, MORPH to ORPH and build our ORPH farms and farming communities out by the millions. Since we are all currently sheeple, it is within EweGrow that sheeple become Shepherds, within an Alliance of the private sector. What does ORPH stand for? Organic, Regenerative, Permanent, Humane. I have run before, and I may run again, or I may just show up at open mics and on social posts. If I do, I may enter in 3 races, one for the Dem, one for the Repubs, and one independent, as the ReDem(ption) party. My BLM stands for BIG LOVE MATTERS. Build Back Better morphs to Big Bosom Buddies, MAGA morphs to Make America Green Again, and the MAFIA is an acronym for Make America Friends Instead Again. I will be standing for a ban on geo engineering (A La Tennessee), a constitutional amendment for Food Sovereignty ( A la Maine), and My Body My Choice, a ban on any treaty offering The WHO authority over our medical choices, and a ban on abortions of viable fetus babies 4-10 months. And more. Let’s see what we can do with a little enthusiasm for humanity as Mother Nature and Father God designs. I will, as always reject politics as usual, one thing you can count on, I won’t be a pedophile, I won’t be a greedy monger or a war monger and I won’t be elected, but that is not the point. The point is to bring a new path forward for We, The People to empower our rights and our economic strength.
You all couldn’t elect me even if 60% wanted me there! That’s hard to understand, but the fix is in, and the wrenches to fix it come from a variety of fixers. I’ll tell anyone about it from what I discovered after 5 runs. Sign up for a zoom call! These days, we are not even allowed to hand count the ballots. We leave that to dominion and friends.
Where can we sign up for your zoom ?
I especially like the criticism of NPR, and coincidentally, VPR for broadcasting it. Many years ago my brother and I used to listen to the morning NPR news on the way to a jobsite. It made me feel…like I was doing something intellectual and good. The way they use those bass-note audio effects and intermix classical music probably had a lot to do with it.
It wasn’t until some time later, maybe early-2010s, that I realized what they were broadcasting did not match the reality I was observing. It was obvious they did not report news events with multiple viewpoints allowing the listener to decide. I am afraid my brother never broke free, and for all I know still listens to those programs as if they were gospel truth.
I am grateful for news and opinion outlets like this that allow other viewpoints to be heard. Even if some of those viewpoints irk me. Sometimes the truth of the matter requires a good irking before it reveals itself.
So what are you doing about the news media in Vermont being biased? Are there no laws that protect the Republican Party against discrimination? Can’t you ask for and receive “equal time”? Aren’t there qualified Republican candidates you could bring forward that if publicized correctly could win elections and kick out progressives who are currently succeeding at destroying our state?
I certainly hope so. I hope there will be debates televised with unbiased commentators so both candidates get hard questions to answer. Isn’t that your job???? To get candidates who can beat these democrats who no longer have our best interests at heart-who want the middle class and elderly to leave the state and sell our homes to out of staters!!! Or is that your hope as well? You see, I don’t trust you. I know you have said publicly you are not supporting President Trump—bad because there are a lot of republicans who do and we know Haley won’t win.To save our state we need a Republican that can and will be able to stop the progressives and win back our state and our country. So why should we trust anything you say. You don’t speak for the majority of republicans in the state of Vermont.
And do your own proofreading. A1 is dangerous.
Oh and make sure that elections are fair. Voter ID needed. No mail in ballots. I wouldn’t mind paper ballots and in person only. And you need to prove that you are an American Citizen!!!!!!
I meant AI not A1 is dangerous. It’s better than saying 1A.