Republicans Are Murdering Democracy, While the Mainstream Media Searches for Both Sides …
Why is the Press Failing us at this Crucial Juncture for our Country?
by D. Earl Stephens
Lately, the mainstream media (MSM) has once again showed a penchant for losing the thread on the biggest news event of our times. This, in large part, was how Donald Trump was improbably elected in 2016, lighting the match that now threatens to incinerate our democracy.
In their zeal to look for both sides of a story in which one of those sides was openly asking Russia for help, making fun of the disabled, and touting pussy-grabbing as an elitist sport, the MSM lost its way completely and now finds itself one election cycle away from losing the very freedoms a press enjoys in a functioning democracy.
By not thinking critically, and contextualizing what is actually happening around us, the MSM has advocated its enormous power and responsibility to the American people.
We are on the brink of losing a democracy that has survived 246 years through world wars, civil wars and wars on the very people who actually built this country, because of a Big Lie.
Is there a bigger story out there, MSM?
Before going on, I want to thank the daily, weekly and monthly newspapers, radio programs, blogs, podcasts and other news sources which are showcasing our looming demise, and sounding the alarm. The Atlantic and NPR programs such as Fresh Air immediately come to mind, but there are scores of others.
Unfortunately, these smaller, targeted information-spreaders don't enjoy the wide-ranging, daily reach that newspapers like The New York Times or The Washington Post, as well as the alphabetical manure on TV — CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN.
These major outlets with minor league news sense see what is going on around us as some competitive sport to be handicapped, instead of using their significant resources to simply tell us what is happening and why it is so perilous.
Congressperson Liz Cheney, a blue-blood Republican if there ever was one, was just walloped in her primary in Wyoming to a candidate who by comparison makes Cheney's rotten family seem farther to the left of the political spectrum than the Clintons.
Cheney was beaten for one reason and one reason only: telling the truth.
Had she simply succumbed to the Big Destructive Lie, she would have won handily, and very well could have been Republicans' No. 1 choice for speaker of the house if, God forbid, they ever ascend to the majority again.
Instead, she was run out of Wyoming on a rail by a sick cult that pledges allegiance to an orange, racist carnival barker, who deserves jail and not the benefit of the doubt.
So if we can agree that this is true, why didn't we see this headline:
CHENEY BEATEN BADLY IN WYOMING FOR SIMPLY TELLING THE TRUTH
Truth is the enemy of Trump's Republican Cult. They are repulsed by it. It is the MSM's job to make sure that truth sees the light of day.
There's sickening irony here with Liz Cheney, of course. Up until Trump's Big Lie, the most damaging lie ever told in my lifetime was the one spit out of her dad, Dick's, lying mouth: Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
They didn't, of course.
That lie led to the destabilization of an entire region. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. servicemembers were killed or wounded, and the civilian casualties among the Iraqi population were catastrophic.
Dick Cheney got wildly rich with Halliburton during his and W. Bush's war, and no doubt used millions of that blood money to help fund his daughter's campaigns, while building his very own brutal empire.
Dick Cheney's was the Republican Party framed by Gingrich, Limbaugh, and O'Reilly.
Disgusting to be sure, but only a mere appetizer for what we are witnessing right now. Back then, McCain conceded gracefully, after being taken to the woodshed by the American voters. He most certainly didn't headline a bloody, attempted coup and attack on truth.
The Republican Party regrouped, and after President Obama's immaculate, scandal-free two terms came at us again with something even more lethal.
This version of the GOP simply decided truth no longer matters.
The mainstream media either doesn't know how to handle this, or simply refuses to responsibly report on it in their never-ending, futile quest to find both sides.
I am not aware of even one Democracy Desk being assembled in any of these newsrooms dedicated to providing viewers and readers hourly and daily updates on Republicans' attack on our republic and what it means to the tenuous future of this country.
The modern-day Republican Party is literally telling us they don't want elections to matter anymore.
They are telling us that no matter what happens in any election, they have a right to overturn it.
They are telling us that if we don't like it, they will do whatever is necessary to make us — Americans — see things their way.
They are telling heavily armed white militia groups to stand by, and voters to stay away.
They are telling us truth has no place in America, and not to believe our eyes.
The mainstream media better wake up and wake up fast, because the first thing to go under a fascist regime will be the freedoms afforded to the working press.
Democracy's deadline is at the door.
Originally published by Earl D. Stephens here. Follow his Substack, Enough Already.
Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash
D. Earl Stephens
Special Guest Tonight: Sue Wilson on The FCC and How to Make Our Media Landscape Better!
D. Earl Stephens is a published author and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes
Speaker of the Clowns
The Denigration of Independence
Republicans Have Brought Us to a Fascist Flashpoint
Don't Lose Hope - Two Weeks Is a Political Eternity
RSVP for the Sunday, August 28 Midterm Election Kickoff
Meet the Candidate: Ashlyn Preaux (SC)
This insightful quote from Prof. Bob McChesney in 2004 has been a