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February 6, 2023

The framers of the Constitution designated the press as a special institution designed to report to the people on the actions of the government.

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Here is what the First Continental Congress in 1774 wrote:

The last right we shall mention regards the freedom of the press. The importance of this consists, besides the advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts in general, in its diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of Government, its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated into more honorable and just modes of conducting affairs.

The founders saw the press as a medium to promote “communication of thoughts between subjects” and “union among them.”  That means the press was designed to facilitate free exchange of ideas to encourage debate and hold the powers that be accountable to the people. 

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Today, however, the media see their purpose completely differently.  Instead of “communication of thoughts between subjects,” the media took it upon themselves to decide which thoughts they will promote and which they will ignore.  They decide which “subjects” are worthy of a platform and which should be shunned.  The media declared themselves as the moral compass for all of us:

American view-from-nowhere, “objectivity”-obsessed, both-sides journalism is a failed experiment…The old way must go. We need to rebuild our industry as one that operates from a place of moral clarity.

Thus, instead of promoting unity, the media seek to promote conformity.  As for the “officers,” the media don’t “shame and intimidate” every one of them equally.  The government officials are held accountable not based on their performance, but based on their goals.

To achieve unity, you need different viewpoints that work together to find common ground.  The public can then decide which argument is based on science, logic, and common sense.  But the media take a different approach.  First, they pick the argument they consider “moral” and declare it the only legitimate way to think.  And if the facts and science contradict that argument, they either disregard them or twist them to fit.

If the media can hide the facts that go against their agenda, they will.  For example, they ignored the southern border invasion because it reflects negatively on the Biden administration.  They don’t cover massacres on the streets of Chicago and other liberal cities because it’s the black drug gangs who are responsible.  They completely ignore shoplifting and homelessness in California because they will never admit that progressive policies destroy cities. 

But when the facts are so in your face that they can’t be ignored — that’s when the spin starts.