Media Integrity

The New York Times took the lead in throwing its journalistic integrity down the toilet and turning itself into an arm of the Clinton campaign. But then, they discovered that painting the Republican candidate (and half his supporters) as sexist, racist, Islamaphobic, homophobic xenophobes didn’t work. Maybe after hearing every GOP presidential nominee since Eisenhower denounced as the next Hitler, people got tired of the left crying Wolfgang and tuned them out. So the editors vowed to try to do better and start committing actual journalism. But old habits die hard. Trump has barely started picking his Cabinet  and they’re already raising shrill alarms about the sexist, racist, Islamaphobic, etc., monsters he has helping him pick those people. Can you imagine what they’ll say about his actual picks?

The current focus of outrage is Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon, formerly of Breitbart.com, whose appointment as a White House adviser sparked a major meltdown over what an evil, anti-Semitic, white supremacist he is (why, he’s the next Hitler!) Before anyone lets the leftwing howling sweep them away, check out this article, “The Borking of Bannon,” in the Jewish newspaper, The Algemeiner. The writer, Jewish author Ira Stoll, has had experience with Bannon and didn’t even recognize him from the hysterical description in the Times. He points out how it’s largely built out of guilt-by-association (a tactic liberals used to denounce as “McCarthyism” before they figured out how to make it work for them).

But of course, only conservatives are held responsible for what other people say. As Stoll notes, the Times, in the very same issue, quotes “experts” who want Trump to keep the Iran nuclear deal without noting that their book was “widely condemned by Jewish groups” and endorsed by David Duke.

Before you let yourself be roused into righteous rage by the latest media assault on any Trump ally, do some independent research to see how much truth there is to it, if any, and if the sources of those scary charges are reliable or have an agenda. As Mr. Stoll cleverly makes clear in this must-read article, if the New York Times and its publisher were given the same selective outrage treatment they are giving to Trump and his associates, it might well be known as the most sexist, racist, anti-Semitic newspaper on the planet.