OPINION

Trumpism Is Alive But 'Journalism' Is Dead

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Even as the media breathlessly coronated Joseph R. Biden as the president-elect of the United States (despite the fact that votes are still being counted in several states, court challenges have been filed and the razor-thin margin in at least one state is expected to trigger a recount) Donald J. Trump –win, lose, or draw—will go down in history for his most indelible impact on American history: revealing the sad fact that what we once called “Journalism” no longer exists.

Of course, President Trump’s accomplishments are legendary in many other areas including delivering the most solid economic growth in decades, moving our U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (something promised then ignored by at least four previous Presidents), funding historically black colleges, creating the lowest unemployment rates for Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans and women in modern history, and rebuilding America’s military to cite only a few.

But pulling back the curtain on the “Fake News” industry in America may be his most enduring contribution in the quest to Make America Great Again. Suddenly, millions of Americans—many for the first time—have had their eyes opened to the disgraceful and ongoing distortion of the truth by alleged “reporters.”

EXHIBIT A:  Joe Biden — a congenital liar on subjects ranging from denying his oft-stated plans to end fracking to pretending he isn’t in favor of ultra-radical nuttiness like AOC’s “Green New Deal” — is depicted by the media as “the textbook nice guy.” His gaffes and obvious cognitive decline at age 78 conveniently glossed over by his campaign’s enablers at the AP, CNN, MSNBC and other “news” organizations.

EXHIBIT B: Kamala Harris—the single most radical member of the U.S. Senate by any commonly accepted measure including her tacit support for violent looters and rioters and her advocacy of free healthcare for illegal aliens—was described by the New York Times as a “sensible moderate.”  

EXHIBIT C: Partisan hacks like Chuck Todd (“political director” of NBC News…cue the laugh track) and George Stephanopoulos (onetime White House aide to impeached intern predator Bill Clinton but now billed as an “anchor” for ABC News) honeycomb the TV networks like fire ants. Alleged Republicans including former RNC chair Michael Steele and onetime Bush White House flack Nicolle Wallace have spent the past four years on MSNBC stabbing Donald Trump in the back, furthering every phony narrative from the now-discredited “Russian Collusion” baloney to the “Impeachment” scam based on one phone call to the president of Ukraine which the networks screamed has “endangered our national security.” Spoiler Alert: I’d bet dollars to donuts that CNN’s Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo couldn’t find Ukraine on a globe if it had a photo of Hunter Biden pasted on its designated position.

But Trump Derangement Syndrome—their visceral hatred of our 45th president for making monkeys out of all of them by defeating their anointed choice Hillary Clinton in 2016 and humiliating their buddies in the now-discredited “polling business”—turned otherwise mundane writers and broadcasters into raving lunatics for whom smearing Donald Trump was ultimately more important than telling the truth. And once-respected organizations such as the Associated Press cast a blind eye on employees like AP’s White House correspondent Jonathan Lemire. He began each day on MSNBC’s comically-biased Morning Joe program offering snide, slanted commentary ridiculing President Trump before heading to the White House to pretend he was “covering the news” for AP clients.

One can round up the “usual suspects” including Jim Acosta, Katie Tur, Brian “Mr. Plagiarism” Williams, and the aforementioned Jonathan Lemire…and it would be safe to say that not one of them uttered a single word about “social distancing” on Saturday as thousands of journalists and Democrats (but I repeat myself) poured into the streets shoulder to shoulder—with and without masks—to gesticulate wildly after TV networks declared Joe Biden our 46th president.

But the validity of Donald Trump’s “Fake News” designation may have had no more vivid display over the weekend than on a special Saturday edition of Morning Joe, as MSNBC’s Mika Brzeznski yukked it up over White House chief of staff Mark Meadows having tested positive for the China Virus. "A White House guy getting Covid," guffawed Joe Scarborough, "…didn’t see that one coming!" (Apparently smearing Meadows took up so much airtime they forgot to even mention their MSNBC colleague Rachel Maddow is currently self-quarantining after exposure to the China Virus.) Slimy, but hey that’s “Journalism” in 2020.

This saga isn’t over yet. The final vote counts aren’t completed. The court challenges and legal battles have not yet been exhausted. And millions of people of faith are still praying in unison that this is not over…despite our TV networks rush-to-judgement while simultaneously ignoring ham-handed ballot stuffing and other lawless acts by election officials in Democrat controlled cities. They believe—as I do—that a miracle is coming.

Late Saturday, we were visited by one such miraculous event:  even as weasels like Mitt Romney  and Jeb Bush preened for the cameras to push Donald Trump to concede, Mexico’s (!) president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to congratulate Joe Biden on his potential victory in the Presidential election. Lopez Obrador stated firmly that “we are going to wait until all the legal matters have been resolved.” To do otherwise, he added, would not be “prudent.”

When the president of Mexico has more factual integrity than Chuck Todd does, it pretty well sums up how correct Donald J. Trump was when he designated our networks and print organizations as Fake News. Your prayers for the free flow of truthful information in America’s future are hereby encouraged. 

Tom Tradup is Vice President/News & Talk Programming for Dallas-based Salem Radio Network. He can be reached at ttradup@srnradio.com.