Media muddies the waters by masking its biases
You’ve likely heard, read and talked about the arrest of state Rep. Dave Nangle, a Lowell Democrat who represents Chelmsford and Lowell.
Nangle was nabbed by agents from the FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division at his Lowell home.
The take from Dan Kennedy, associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University (and “nationally known media commentator and a regular panelist on ‘Beat the Press’ ” according to his Twitter bio) included this tweet:
“Rep. Nangle is responsible for his own behavior. But this is one of the inevitable consequences of bringing casinos to #mapoli,” a reference to Massachusetts politics.
Nangle was indicted on 10 counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, nine counts of making false statements to a bank and five counts of filing false tax returns. The scope of the investigation went back to 2014.
Our two big casinos in Springfield and Everett opened in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and even so it seems like a bizarre bank-shot to suggest that not-yet-even-open gambling facilities were the trigger for allegations of such incredibly widespread corruption.
Then again, they call him “Professor.”
But this line of convoluted conspiracy-theorizing is not new in left wing politics. Liberal activists, grifters and their media friends will run with any wacky theory as long as it confirms their internal narrative of political good guys and bad guys.
During the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court justice hearings, the media gave oxygen to attorney Michael Avenatti’s positively fantastical and lascivious allegations about high school gang rapes supposedly committed by Kavanaugh. CNN even continued to entertain the idea that Avenatti was a serious presidential contender.
But of course, the media’s favorite theory is the biggest one of all.
Another Boston guy, Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC, brought to air a startling declaration of a force even more pernicious than casinos in magically bringing down Democratic politicians: Russia.
“The president is a Russian operative,” O’Donnell exclaimed. “That sounds like the description of a bad Hollywood screenplay, but it is real. It is Vladimir Putin’s greatest achievement.”
The fact that there is no proof — not one shred of evidence — that Russia affected the outcome of the 2016 election, media types have long since abandoned the possibility that there was anything but.
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle stated unequivocally, Friday, that President Trump’s 2016 win “will forever have an asterisk next to it because of Russian interference.” She even wondered aloud why Trump wouldn’t “do everything possible to prevent that from happening in 2020 so he can have a clean win?”
Donald Trump could garner 100% of the popular vote and run the table on the electoral college and many in our hysterical media would not give him a “clean win.”
On “CNN Right Now,” host Brianna Keilar sounded the alarm on the president’s latest pardons and commutations declaring that Trump has “granted pardons and clemency to a crew of white collar fraudsters.”
Of course, that is perhaps not untrue but it is also something of a tradition in the White House. Ask Marc Rich.
From wild, disconnected theorizing to downright, naked bias, we are not being served well by this media. It would not be so detrimental to society if supposed journalists would declare their activism and shout their hysteria publicly but while they hide behind once-iconic and respected news brands they are toxifying our culture.