As the courageous people of Ukraine battle for their freedom against invading Russian forces—some defending their homeland with shoulder-launched FIM-92 Stinger surface to air missiles…others with homemade Molotov cocktails…still others with rocks, bottles and anything else they can get their hands on—they provide America with examples of how dearly some people around the globe value their freedom.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for our spineless White House “press corps,” which continues to operate as a mangy assembly of cowering lapdogs. The people we should be able to rely on to provide United States citizens with accurate, truthful information we need to make informed decisions on critical issues instead prove day-in and day-out that they are perfectly willing to play ball with the worst Press Secretary in the history of America…Peppermint Patty herself, Jen Psaki.
Psaki may be #34 in the line of America’s Press Secretaries, but she’s the unchallenged #1 when it comes to lying, half-truths, and snotty asides she delivers from her podium in the White House briefing room.
It is little wonder that when Joe Biden (the “ghost” candidate who hid in his basement throughout the 2020 campaign and was kept on a tight leash by his handlers…lest he blurt out stupid observation like him telling urban podcast celebrity Charlamagne Tha God that “If you’re not sure of who you’ll vote for between me and Trump then you ain’t black”) ended up in the Oval Office, he would tap Peppermint Patty as his the public face of his Administration.
Psaki had already honed her skills as a professional liar during previous stints as a CNN hack and as spokesman for the State Department during the Obama/Biden Administration…which was the Off-Broadway tryout of her trademark twisting of the truth by attacking reporters who had tough questions about slimy operations like Obama and then-Secretary of State John Kerry delivering—literally—pallets containing hundreds of millions of dollars in CASH to Iran as part of a “deal” for them to cut back on their nuclear research. Peppermint Patty suggested that journalists challenging that outrageous plan were “siding with America’s enemies.”
That idiotic characterization has now popped up again, used by Psaki to club White House “reporters” over the head by slandering their timid questions about Biden leading-from-behind as Vladimir Putin ignores her boss’s threats and expands bombing civilian targets in Ukraine and defying White House threats of even more sanctions. Anyone who dares—primarily FOX News correspondent Peter Doocey-- to question Biden being on the verge of losing his second nation in 2022 is smeared by Peppermint Patty as “believing disinformation from Russia rather than our own American military and intelligence leaders.” Absurd and insulting, but our media representatives still show up every day to have this propaganda minister minimize and berate them on live TV.
The revered conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr. once observed that he would rather trust “the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than 2,000 professors on the faculty of Harvard University.”
With Buckley’s wise words as the backdrop, try this quiz: if YOU were a “journalist” in the White House “press corps” and you had been lied to for over a year by Jen Psaki on everything from Biden “following the science” on the China Virus… to Homeland Security “doing everything possible” to stop the tsunami of illegals on our Southern border… to “we have not abandoned American citizens in Afghanistan,” when she delivered the latest—and most vile—lie that Americans are paying astronomical gas prices solely because of Vladimir Putin (and if Americans want to “stick it” to Putin they should buy $60,000 electric cars) would you (a) shout “You’re lying” (b) throw tomatoes or other produce at the podium like villagers in the 1930’s Universal “Frankenstein” movies or (c) refuse to feature her prevarications in your print or television news stories except on the rare occasion actual news is being made.
The correct answer of course is (d) None of the Above. As noted up front, there is no moral outrage or even a modicum of self-respect among the spineless members of the White House press corps.
They are the linear equivalent of the sluggards I encountered in the early 1980’s at New York’s City Hall press room. Paunchy, cigar-chomping reporters sitting around like tired bears in the Bronx Zoo…waiting for then-mayor Ed Koch to issue a “news release” which they would then breathlessly read on-the-air (mostly verbatim) as so-called updates on city government. Ditto in various state legislatures I’ve covered in Missouri, New York, Illinois and Texas. “Enterprising” stories—a/k/a digging up news the Governor or President may not like but which the public has the right to know—is these days deader than Julius Caesar.
So if we can’t trust “journalists” to do their jobs (and that prospect is about as bleak as the rain-soaked streets of Gotham City in the stunningly groundbreaking new film The Batman) we must push for the removal of Peppermint Patty. (She’s already announced she will be leaving sometime in 2022…and media gossip is she’s being “furiously courted” by both MSNBC and her old haunt CNN.) I know, I know. Some will say that whoever replaces Psaki will be “just as bad,” but none of the 33 previous Press Secretaries throughout history have elevated lying to the art form the way Psaki has with her twisting of the truth, snide and condescending manner, and her unfulfilled promises to “circle back” with answers she can’t grasp.
In the 1976 movie classic “Network,” television anchorman Howard Beale—billed as “the mad prophet of the airwaves”—implored viewers to get up out of their chairs, go to the phone or to Western Union offices, and flood the White House with telegrams demanding they stop an Arab conglomerate from taking over his network (the fictional UBS.) By morning the next day, the White House was knee-deep in telegrams and the deal was off.
Maybe it is time for us to follow Howard Beale’s example. Every day Psaki is allowed to act as ringmaster for the twirling pack of Havanese dogs that comprise the White House press corps, America descends further into a Disinformation Quagmire from which we may never recover.
The “sell by” date for Psaki expired long ago. If you agree, get up out of your chair and call Western Union…or call the White House…or at least send an e-mail or text demanding that Peppermint Patty be shown the door.
The lying MUST stop.
Tom Tradup is V.P./News & Talk Programming at Dallas-based Salem Radio Network. He can be reached at ttradup@srnradio.com