There was probably a period of time before I was born when the American media was able to disguise any form of bias and just give us the news — or so legend tells me.
But by the time I was 13 and Bill Clinton was elected president, I was cognizant enough to know the media was campaigning for him.
Records from the time show that John F. Kennedy was a media darling while newspaper editors were doodling little horns and fangs on images of Richard Nixon. The election of George W. Bush resulted in 90% of the Associated Press placing calls to suicide hot-lines, while the election of Barack Obama had them dancing in the streets like Palestinians on the morning of 9/11.
In short, media bias is nothing new, and unless you were born with the specific sort of birth defect that makes you Katrina vanden Heuvel, the idea of a “center-right” media is laughable. But every once in awhile, maybe once a week or so, the media stops pretending to toe the line of fairness and instead opts to strap on a rocket thruster and blast over that line like the nuclear missile they’re pretending to hope doesn’t hit Israel.
This week, their total abandonment of objectivity can be demonstrated most effectively by the difference of coverage between the Tea Parties that have been springing up all over the country in response to an expansive and oppressive movement within the federal government, and the Tequila Parties which have sprung up in Arizona as a result of the state finally trying to get serious and crack down on illegal immigration. (Incidentally, I wish I could take credit for coining the term “Tequila Parties,” but in researching that I discovered someone else beat me to the punch. Regardless, I am sincerely happy it seems to be catching on.)
As the Tea Parties have grown in effectiveness as a political movement pointing out and standing up against the government’s assault on freedom, the media has increasingly tried to counter this effectiveness by discrediting Tea Party activists. The media attacks have carried all of the subtlety of a pickup line from Bill Clinton, famously starting with CNN’s Anderson Cooper labeling Tea Party activists as “Tea Baggers” for the sexual practice which only 60% of liberals and 1% of conservatives had previously been familiar with. 2009 saw Tea Party activists characterized as brainless rednecks, hillbillies, and of course racists, because according to the media the only reason anyone could possibly not adore the new socialist president was due to his skin color.
With the Tea Party’s opposition to the health care bill–which was forced on us, again, with all the subtlety of an amorous Bill Clinton–the media again countered the valid arguments of concerned citizens with an organized effort to discredit them. However, the stakes were now higher as the Tea Party was showing its ability to educate and sway public opinion. Obama’s approval numbers had crashed off the bridge like an automobile operated by Ted Kennedy and, unlike one of Kennedy’s passengers, something had to be done to save Obama’s agenda. In the sort of effort that would have made Hitler or Stalin proud, the media teamed up with the party in power to silence the voice of the people.
Following an unprecedented victory lap around Washington D.C. in honor of their passage of the health care bill, minority politicians immediately began reporting accusations of racial slurs and threats of violence coming from members of the Tea Party. The media dutifully and eagerly reported these events without gathering any evidence to support the claims. Remember, as we learned when Anita Hill sought to discredit Clarence Thomas, “it is the seriousness of the charge rather than the nature of the evidence” which counts when liberals need to slander someone but have no facts to back them up. This is how we ended up with weeks of coverage of “violent, dangerous, racist extremists” in the Tea Party who somehow managed to stay invisible to the vast army of television cameras which were busy covering the national spectacle.
This has been the media template ever since. Of course, it has long been a tactic of the political left to nullify opposition by branding them as “racists, sexists, bigots, and homophobes,” but now being called on for their glaring lack of visual aid, the left decided they would obligingly supply evidence . . . in the form of leftist operatives posing as Tea Party activists. A national and public campaign began to find volunteers willing to infiltrate Tea Parties and provide “evidence” of their extremism by doing the very things no true conservative had done but all had been accused of. The attempt was an apparent failure, but did catch the attention of the media, who actually reported these plots while simultaneously holding the conspirators up as heroes. They may not have been able to tarnish the Tea Party activists through confessed acts of slander and dishonesty, but at least they tried.
Weeks after the government blatantly defied the will of the people, a seemingly-unrelated issue reemerged as the state of Arizona decided they had had enough of illegal aliens crossing the Mexican boarder and killing their citizens, trafficking narcotics, spreading gang violence, abusing government programs, and generally undermining the American way of life. In an unprecedented move, Arizona decided that illegal aliens were actually breaking the law by virtue of simply being there and law enforcement officials should do something about it because they were, you know, illegal, and the police should probably do something about it.
Unfortunately for Arizona, their government is a center-right state rather than a leftist federal power, so the media has been duty-bound to side against elected officials in Arizona. Despite–or, perhaps, because–illegal immigration has proven to be a danger to the American way of life, the media has done its best to slander those who would put a stop to it. Never mind that illegals have been coming here and murdering American citizens. Never mind that illegals have been trafficking drugs across our boarders. Never mind that illegals have been bankrupting the government, both on a local and federal scale, by exploiting government services while refusing to pay into them. No, as with our new president, the only reason anyone could not embrace illegal aliens must be because of their skin color.
Meanwhile, the media has finally gotten what it has been salivating for in the form of violent protests against the government. These activists have been rioting, causing property damage, assaulting government officials, and threatening greater acts of violence. There’s only one problem: they are not members of the Tea Party. This is the aforementioned Tequila Party, a gang of violent extremists defying the will of the American people and violating the law in most cases just by showing up.
When it comes to the Tequila Party, where is the media coverage? When they bother to mention them at all, the media glosses over their acts of destruction and defines these people as a brave group standing up against government oppression in defense of their civil rights. In a sane world, this is how they would be accurately describing the Tea Party.
The proverbial icing on the cake is the left’s branding of conservative voices as political dissidents bent on overthrowing the government. Now that the people have turned against the leftist party of power and are advocating removing them from office in November through a process of peaceful constitutional elections, this is seen as talk of treason against the country. Meanwhile, at the heart of the illegal influx to Arizona is a very real effort to claim the southwestern portion of our country which many Mexicans feel was wrongly absorbed into the United States. Whether they know it or not, by supporting illegal immigrants and their agenda, the media itself is supporting treason.
The dialog on the Tea Parties and the Tequila Parties are one of the finest examples yet of how we are facing a political party and a media who have intentionally warped reality 180 degrees into a world where up is down, white is inherently wrong, and violent illegal immigrants are to be treated as heroes while peaceful American citizens must be silenced.
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