“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” — Thomas Jefferson
“If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, as Jefferson cautioned, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” — Ronald Reagan
Recently, there has been a big kerfuffle about the Trump administration revoking the White House press privileges of certain news media outlets. One of the First Amendment freedoms in the Bill of Rights in our Constitution is freedom of the press. I always find it amazing that many do not know what the very first right in our Bill of Rights is. It is the freedom of religion. The author of our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, gives us some very important lessons, being the astute man that he was. I would offer a simple question: how many Americans do you think have read the entire Declaration of Independence? Even more so, how many media outlets in America took the time to read the entire Declaration of Independence to the American people this year? I fully concur with Jefferson and his correlation of our liberty to the freedom of the press. And, as Reagan and Jefferson observed, it is imperative that, in order to maintain that liberty, We the People must not remain in the darkness of ignorance. However, what happens when the press, our media, takes it upon themselves to purposefully and intentionally leverage their freedom, their platform, to advance an ideological agenda that is antithetical to sustaining our liberty?
A free press must first be a responsible press, the unbiased umpire that calls a ball a ball and a strike a strike. But that has certainly not been the case in these recent years, as we have seen certain media outlets become platforms for political and ideological means. And when that happens, the media must realize that there are consequences, mainly the loss of public trust, but also a backlash. I remember watching CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer laughing and toasting in a booth during the 2016 Democratic National Convention. If you are taking the position of being an opinion reporter, that is fine, but one should not masquerade as a journalist, and that sentiment goes for both sides. You cannot be a cheerleader and also an objective reporter of the news, presenting facts.
But there can be no debate that this scale has tipped to one side.
How often did we see the leftist media accept the insidious testimony of former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that “the border is secure”? Matter of fact, who were the CNN, MSNBC/MS NOW, or any other leftist outlet reporters who challenged the Biden administration’s unconstitutional actions of open-borders policy and how that violated Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution? Heck, for that matter, who in the leftist media challenged Barack Obama’s executive order on “dreamers,” knowing that enumerated power is contained in Article I, Section 8, to the legislative branch? And why don’t leftist media outlets challenge governors and mayors who are declaring themselves as “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants? Harboring those who have violated our laws is unlawful and unconstitutional.
How much time did leftist media take covering the story of Jocelyn Nungaray? How about Sheridan Gorman? Laken Riley? The leftist media spent more time concerned with and reporting on the so-called “Maryland Man,” a criminal illegal immigrant, than they did on Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old American mother of five who was brutally raped and killed by a criminal illegal immigrant in Maryland. I mean, a U.S. senator, Chris Van Hollen, traipses down to have a drink with a criminal illegal immigrant, pleading his case, but never mentioned Rachel Morin. Did any leftist media outlet speak on that?
Perhaps there was no greater violation of the public trust by the leftist media than during the whole COVID episode. We all know that MS NOW host Jen Psaki, when she was White House press secretary, admitted to leveraging social media platforms to shut down any dissent to the Biden administration mandates and dictates. Why was it that the leftist media would not objectively address other means of COVID treatment: hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, budesonide nebulizers, and monoclonal antibody therapy? All we kept being told was to mask up, get the shot, take remdesivir, or be relegated to leper status, denied public access, or worse, lose your employment. Any dissent from the prescribed talking points of the Biden administration, parroted by the press, was to be squashed, ridiculed, and disparaged: textbook "Rules for Radicals," Saul Alinsky.
How long did the leftist media attack anyone who questioned the mental and physical acuity of Joe Biden? You would be utterly demeaned and denigrated by the American Pravda. Yet, when it became apparent to the world in the 2024 debate between Biden and Trump, the denial and cover-up were exposed. And, of course, you can say as you wish, but the numbers for the 2020 presidential election just do not add up. And then there was the Hunter Biden laptop, which was deemed Russian disinformation, intentionally false. Or why was it that the leftist media was never concerned about the business ties between Biden and his son, Burisma, and China? How many “journalists” in the leftist media were asking about the “Big Guy” and the family dealings?
And now we have the next leftist media rabbit hole, shades of “hands up, don’t shoot” and elevating a criminal drug addict to an absurd “national hero” status: Blacks are being lynched in Mississippi. I am surprised that the leftist media has not revised history to blame the hanging of Judas Iscariot on white supremacy. A young black woman was found hanged from a tree, but for some reason, the leftist media omits the fact that the two suspects are black men. A young black woman in Maryland was found hanged, and the media rushed to the same conclusion, or alluded to it. It was a suicide. Sadly, the mother has had to demand that her daughter’s tragic death not be leveraged as political talking points or used by race hustlers. It is getting close to the midterm election, so the leftists must once again stoke the fires of racial divisiveness and make people believe that Mississippi is burning. Funny, the leftist media is not going to tell the American people that it was the Democratic Party that established the Ku Klux Klan, all for the purposes of voter intimidation.
Yes, our Constitution clearly articulates the freedom of the press. But there are consequences for an irresponsible press that intentionally lies, deceives, and collaborates against the American public and undermines our individual liberty. We see all the softball interviews, and the omission of the truth is still a lie. I have only scratched the surface on this highly disconcerting issue. I am sure each of you recognizes this problem and can recount far more instances of leftist media bias and deceit.
I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and that does include freedom of the press. I am more than willing to support and defend an objective, responsible press, not a propaganda platform that supports ideologies that are antithetical to our Constitutional Republic, which seek to undermine and usurp our individual rights, freedoms, and liberties.
When Barack Obama asserted in October 2008 that we were five days from “fundamentally transforming” the United States, where was the media pushback? Recently, Marxist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated that her goal was to change America. A real journalist would seek to make her define her Hope and Change version 2.0.
Steadfast and Loyal.