As we close out 2019, there are several stories that characterize the condition of souls. The news media, to me, is the biggest of them. When freedom of the press is abused as it has been during the past year, it is no longer free, but rather a slave to agendas. The political intolerance and ideological bigotry of the news media is so far off the charts that it is the story of 2019. For without these characteristics of the news media, the ongoing coup to remove a duly elected president, the false narratives of Russia, Ukraine, and that anyone who voted for Donald Trump or supports conservatism and Christianity is a bigot or worse, would not be established within American society. This is the story of 2019.
Washington Times columnist Robert Knight recently observed: “Anyone tuning in to CNN, MSNBC and the three major networks – NBC, CBS and ABC – will see nonstop left-wing propaganda. Many media outlets run stories that rub raw the nation’s racial wounds. Much of it is designed to convey that liberals and Democrats love people and the truth, while conservatives and Republicans are racists who hate people and lie all the time. The same goes for nearly every major metropolitan newspaper, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, plus the wire services such as the Associated Press.”
Yet when faced with the truth about weaponizing fake news, the media bristles and whines about the “conservatives” and Trump’s attack on free speech. At the recent annual White House Correspondents dinner, the president of the White House Correspondents Association, Olivier Knox, said, “In nearly 23 years as a reporter, I’ve been physically assaulted by Republicans and Democrats, spat on, shoved, had crap thrown at me. I’ve been told I will never work in Washington again by both major parties. And yet I still separate my career to before February 2017 and what came after…And February 2017 is when the president called us the enemy of the people.”
Donald Trump did not say the media was the enemy of the people. He said fake news media was the enemy of the people. This misquoting of the President is a precise example of the propaganda of the leftist media. But by the twisting of this quote, ironically, the media is not only admitting to being “fake,” but also embracing it. In reality, the media’s own agenda is the threat to free speech and a free press—not those who point out the inaccuracies and weaponized media narratives.
This hate by both the media and the leadership in the Democratic Party made 2019 the year of ideological bigotry. This is fuel for persecution, and we are seeing it in both the Jewish and Christian communities. Ever so important that we respond as a 1 John 3:18 people: “let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” Truth is so hard to come by!