You would think the mainstream media would have learned its lesson when Dan Rather had his forged documents story explode in his face. It appears they did not learn a thing, though that is not surprising.
On May 24, Elizabeth Vargas and Brian Ross of ABC’s World News Tonight reported that House Speaker Dennis Hastert was under investigation for having dealings with Jack Abramoff. Of course, this story lacked facts to back it up. Primarily, the United States Justice Department has reported no such investigations are go on with Dennis Hastert. Brian Ross, being the good liberal that he is, is still standing by his story, although he has watered down his charges against the Speaker of the House. His new claim is that Hastert is “…not a formal target.” That, ladies and gentlemen, is not the same thing as being directly investigated by the Justice Department.
One might wonder why ABC would start rumors like this when they are so easily disproved. I have an idea. Democratic Representative William Jefferson is in trouble for hiding bribery money in his freezer (c’mon, at least hide it in a secret compartment under the couch, good grief). This story about Representative Jefferson, though the media has tried to ignore it, is damaging to the Democratic Party, who suffers from a culture of corruption. Since we are close enough to the elections, the media knows they must protect their constituents in the political world.
Perhaps this entire story is ABC’s feeble attempt to shift attention off of William Jefferson and back onto the Republicans. Could it be the media is really that desperate for a story that will protect its liberal friends? As a result, would it again try to run a story based on lies? They have done it in the past, so I wouldn’t doubt it.
I believe it simply goes back to the fact the media wants to control the political world. Though it sounds corny and a bit like a conspiracy, I believe it is true. I believe the mainstream media desires to take back the power Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite had during the glory days of CBS, ABC, and NBC. With the new media of talk radio, cable television, and blogs, the older media outlets simply can’t let go of their own desires to once again control public opinion. They have to resort to lying to gain that kind of control again. The only problem is that now we know when they are lying to us (at least most of us do).
On May 24, Elizabeth Vargas and Brian Ross of ABC’s World News Tonight reported that House Speaker Dennis Hastert was under investigation for having dealings with Jack Abramoff. Of course, this story lacked facts to back it up. Primarily, the United States Justice Department has reported no such investigations are go on with Dennis Hastert. Brian Ross, being the good liberal that he is, is still standing by his story, although he has watered down his charges against the Speaker of the House. His new claim is that Hastert is “…not a formal target.” That, ladies and gentlemen, is not the same thing as being directly investigated by the Justice Department.
One might wonder why ABC would start rumors like this when they are so easily disproved. I have an idea. Democratic Representative William Jefferson is in trouble for hiding bribery money in his freezer (c’mon, at least hide it in a secret compartment under the couch, good grief). This story about Representative Jefferson, though the media has tried to ignore it, is damaging to the Democratic Party, who suffers from a culture of corruption. Since we are close enough to the elections, the media knows they must protect their constituents in the political world.
Perhaps this entire story is ABC’s feeble attempt to shift attention off of William Jefferson and back onto the Republicans. Could it be the media is really that desperate for a story that will protect its liberal friends? As a result, would it again try to run a story based on lies? They have done it in the past, so I wouldn’t doubt it.
I believe it simply goes back to the fact the media wants to control the political world. Though it sounds corny and a bit like a conspiracy, I believe it is true. I believe the mainstream media desires to take back the power Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite had during the glory days of CBS, ABC, and NBC. With the new media of talk radio, cable television, and blogs, the older media outlets simply can’t let go of their own desires to once again control public opinion. They have to resort to lying to gain that kind of control again. The only problem is that now we know when they are lying to us (at least most of us do).
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