President Trump has opened our eyes to the perfidy of the legacy media and continues to expose their lies in the daily ChiCom virus Task Force briefings. Every question asked is aimed at undermining the federal government’s response to the virus, not at illuminating anything that would actually benefit the American people. The virus is merely the latest manufactured event that is being exploited in their all-out attempt to “get Trump.”
By now, they have become completely transparent. After observing the WaPo and NY Times fairly closely over the past 4 years in particular (while holding my nose), I have discerned their apparent modus operandi:
- An editor assigns a story with a particular narrative to one or more "reporters." (Conversely, a reporter sells an editor on a particular storyline known to be acceptable in advance.) All of the narratives are purposely anti-Trump/anti-Republican, with the narrative far more important than any "facts" compiled and presented.
- The "reporter" collects (or constructs out of whole cloth or misconstrues) quotes from unnamed sources that fit the desired narrative. There are plenty of people willing to assist their political “soul mates” in the media in this endeavor. How many Russia collusion and Ukraine hoax articles over the past three years quote “unnamed sources” that were later debunked? Hundreds, if not thousands.
- Any conflicting information is ignored, and no attempt is made to collect an opposing point of view. Why would they, as that would undermine their narrative? If the facts don't fully support the narrative, a heavy overlay of innuendo and projection is used to convey the desired message.
- The draft article is presented for review and approval, as appropriate. At this point in the process, it is possible that several narrative threads are cut-and-pasted together from multiple reporters in order to strengthen otherwise weak articles.
- A dramatic headline is then crafted for emotional impact that stretches the story beyond even the narrative presented. After all, the WaPo and NY Times are about getting mouse-clicks to justify their ad rates.
- One or two pictures that present the target in the worst possible light are selected and captioned accordingly to amplify the presumptions of the narrative.
- If the article is suitably sensational, it gets printed above the fold in hardcopy editions, as well as featured on their websites. Regardless, once posted/printed, it gets picked up and repeated endlessly by other legacy media outlets in the media echo chamber.
That’s how they roll, and nobody ever calls them out on it. In fact, the Democrat lemmings and Never Trumpers swallow their swill on a daily basis because they are predisposed ideologically to believe anything and everything that is anti-Trump.
Oh, yeah, there’s a part 8 to the process: the debunking of the hit-piece by independent and conservative media which almost invariably happens. That timeline for debunking is getting shorter and shorter as more people are onto the games played by the legacy media. Exposing their nonsense has become a cottage industry, for all practical purposes.
I am convinced that just about any fool could write for the WaPo or NY Times. The hacks who have been generating unsourced hit-pieces and sitting in on the White House press briefings are an embarrassment to journalism. Everyone seems to have sacrificed objectivity and personal integrity in pursuit of career advancement.
I am also fairly certain that they even pre-write hit-pieces and save them for use when convenient in order to attack or misdirect whenever necessary. A recent example was the hit-piece on my state governor Kristi Noem (R-SD) after she announced first-in-the-nation approved clinical trials for hydroxychloroquine this past week.
And sure enough, the WaPo hit-piece came out within 48 hours of Governor Noem’s tweet announcing those clinical trials and “coincidentally” on the same day of the closure of the Chinese-owned Smithfield packing plant in Sioux Falls (15 April).
Check out the headline of the article: “South Dakota’s governor resisted ordering people to stay home. Now it has one of the nation’s largest coronavirus hot spots.” And check out the ridiculous picture of the governor that they included within the article. This is the classic example of hit-piece journalism.
The media narrative is that hydroxychloroquine testing and use must be squelched at all costs because President Trump has publicly mentioned that it has shown promise in combating the effects of the virus. We can’t allow that to be true, so the media do everything they can to bash those who support testing and use – even under a physician’s care and without regard to honestly investigating whether lives are saved.
If that WaPo hit-piece had been an actual act of investigative journalism, a real journalist would have included the following information – or at least speculation about these items – in his article:
- A real journalist would have mentioned the fact that Smithfield is Chinese-owned. To leave out that important detail was journalistic malpractice. Do you think it was an accident that the South Dakota ChiCom virus hot spot is centered around a Chinese-owned plant?
- A real journalist would have questioned who was Patient Zero at that Smithfield plant and how that person contracted the virus in the first place.
- A real journalist would have investigated and provided demographic statistics about that plant, including the number of people who have traveled to/from China (or met with Chinese at other Smithfield plants in the US who have traveled to/from Hubei province) since January.
- A real journalist would have mentioned that South Dakota was granted authorization to run the first clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine and Z-pac in the nation, thanks to Gov. Noem's personal initiative.
But then, the WaPo isn’t interested in real journalism anymore. All they are concerned with is the daily anti-Trump narrative, regardless of the lies necessary to make it happen. Thank God for independent news media like UncoverDC and JustTheNews where people can get straight news and fact-based opinion!
The above is just one example of how the legacy media operate. Who on earth takes what the WaPo publishes at face value these days after 4+ years of this nonsense? Their credibility is on a par with China Daily or Xinhua News Agency – complete propaganda that is not to be believed.
Stu Cvrk served 30 years in the US Navy in a variety of active and reserve capacities, with considerable operational experience in the Middle East and the Western Pacific. An oceanographer and systems analyst through education and experience, Stu is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, where he received a classical liberal education. This functions as the key foundation for his political commentary. He threads daily on Twitter on a wide range of political topics, such as the military, foreign policy, government, economics, and world affairs.
Twitter: @STUinSD
Web: stuinsd.net
