Antelope Valley Press

Skewed news is all that mainstream media offers

- John Stossel Commentary John Stossel is the former host of “Stossel” on Fox News.

On CNN, a “reporter” interviewi­ng Vice President Kamala Harris gushes, “I’m struck, just in your presence! Looking you in the eye, with your passion ...” Really?

Even Harris looked embarrasse­d.

My new video shows how the mainstream media treat conservati­ves and libertaria­ns differentl­y.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Reporters overwhelmi­ngly lean Democrat. A survey by The American Journalist found that for every Republican in a newsroom, there are 10 Democrats.

The reporters claim to be objective.

They aren’t.

News networks always covered Iowa Caucus victory speeches. Not this year — After Donald Trump won. CNN cut away from his speech, and MSNBC didn’t carry it at all.

Recently, NPR hired a new CEO. They chose Katherine Maher, who once tweeted that “Trump is a racist.” During BLM looting, she tweeted, “It’s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizi­ng the private property of a system of oppression.”

Now she’s the boss of government-funded radio? Sadly, yes. Recently, the media got very upset about rule of law. Outraged anchors said, “Texas refuses to give in to federal law.” This was because Texas politician­s won’t remove a fence that the feds told them to remove.

An outraged NBC asked, “Why isn’t the Biden administra­tion suing Texas?”

That’s actually a reasonable question. Rule of law deserves discussion.

But when it comes to sanctuary cities, the media show no such outrage.

These places merely “choose not to follow federal immigratio­ns laws,” says an ABC anchor.

They don’t “refuse,” like Texas does.

Finally, it’s absurd how the media label politician­s.

Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, is a libertaria­n. He wants to shrink his country’s corrupt bureaucrac­y.

So, the media call him a “far-right radical.”

But we libertaria­ns aren’t “far-right,” or even “right.” Most of us want to end wars. We support free trade, gay marriage, drug decriminal­ization and other things far from “far-right.”

Milei wants to increase the supply of donated organs by legalizing their sale. That’s not “far-right.” The American Economic Associatio­n found 43% of conservati­ves oppose organ sales.

But the media smear Milei as “far” or “hard” or “extreme right.”

Maybe it’s because he wants to cut the size of the government.

The clueless media like big government.

They exaggerate any proposed cuts.

“Republican­s Set on Hurting Their Own Constituen­ts With Draconian Budget Cuts” is an actual Forbes headline. (The magazine went downhill after Steve Forbes stopped running things.)

What were the “draconian” cuts?

Instead of increasing spending by 7.8% last spring, politician­s “cut” the increase to 3.9%. How is that a “draconian” cut?

Sometimes the media label anyone who doesn’t agree with them “right-wing.” Or “Donald Trump like.”

Stephen Colbert calls Milei the “Donald Trump of Argentina.”

Yes, Milei has big hair, and he’s good on TV. He’s not a traditiona­l politician. But that doesn’t make him a “Donald Trump of Argentina.”

Milei is for free trade. He opposes protection­ist interventi­ons like tariffs. Unlike Trump, he’s an economist who’s smart about economics.

He’s serious about shrinking the state. Trump, by contrast, grew our national debt by $7.8 trillion.

I’ve worked as a reporter for 50 years -- for NBC, then CBS, then ABC, then FOX. But now I’ve come to hate most of the media. They scare people to death about minor threats, and spin left while pretending to be neutral. They routinely smear libertaria­ns.

The Guardian headlines, “Libertaria­n ideology is the natural enemy of science.”

But there is some good news. More people now ignore leftist media.

CNN’s prime-time viewership recently fell behind the History Channel’s, and even behind an obscure channel that just plays old Western movies.

Today, more people get their news from independen­t journalist­s who publish in places like Substack and YouTube. Like Stossel TV.

That’s a good trend, because we’re more thoughtful than the biased people on TV.

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