Conservatives watched with amazement — and a sense of schadenfreude — last week, as young staffers at The New York Times revolted against their editors’ decision to publish an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., that suggested federal troops be used to quell the then-growing riots. Seeking to appease their underlings, the editors attempted to contextualize Cotton’s words, but when those efforts failed, the Times surrendered. First came an apology by the Times. Later, publisher A.G. Sulzberger pronounced his final judgment, stating the op-ed “should not have been published.”
The right laughed heartily at the Old Gray Lady’s demise. After all, for years conservatives had highlighted the left-leaning bias of the Times and other mainstream media outlets. Surely, the American public — 58 percent of whom agree with Cotton’s views — would finally see the truth: The establishment media has abandoned all journalistic principles and now serves as nothing but a liberal propaganda machine.
As conservatives chuckled and high-fived each other, the mainstream media proved itself unrelenting and still solidly in control. While we laughed at the Times’ liberal exhibitionism and saw the paper’s retraction as a self-authored obituary, the establishment media merely put its sights on its next conquest, proving the Times and its cohorts never stop and never weary. They want complete control, and we are impotent to stop it.
Sure, we can push back, but consider the media’s flash-mob reporting that President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to use tear-gas and rubber bullets to clear peaceful protesters from his path to St. John’s Church. Every detail reported was false, but a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth, and is there any doubt a huge swath of Americans believe that is what happened?
Within days, the cycle repeated itself, with the press falsely reporting that Trump had said, “George Flynn is looking down from heaven and happy about the strong job numbers.” How many more Americans internalized that inaccurate narrative?
Then, in what can only be seen as a final declaration of its intent to control the airwaves, truth be damned, MSNBC announced it had hired disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page as a legal analyst. CNN had already brought Page’s boss, Andrew McCabe, on board, and other mainstream outlets regularly trot out as an expert Andrew Weissmann, who served as Robert Mueller’s “pit bull” during the Russia collusion hoax investigation.
And then there are the unofficial media representatives who report to the White House or Capitol Hill for their day jobs, but diligently leak misleading and inaccurate intel to a hungry press happy to spur a new scandal.
This marriage between the press and liberal political operatives threatens the future of our country. This propaganda partnership came close to canceling Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, and while it failed to undo the 2016 election, it nonetheless succeeded in spinning a three-year investigation into Trump and his administration, followed soon after by an impeachment sequel.
So while it is understandable that conservatives find amusement in the New York Times folding to the social justice mob and thereby proving it no longer holds claim to any journalistic integrity, make no mistake: We are not winning this battle. While the collusion between the media and political operatives failed to override the will of the American people in 2016, our country may not be so lucky next time.
