America's Youth vs. Big Government

There is an amazing story that broke this week that I could simply not refrain from discussing here.  Journogate, as we will call it here, has only this week exploded into an embarrassing scandal, truly exposing the unethical journalistic approach of the mainstream media.
Uncovered by Tucker Carlson, whose website dailycaller.com has written extensively on the topic, journogate centers around 400 members of the mainstream media who belonged to a common listserv.  The listserv, journolist, was a shared email list comprised of several hundred journalists, professors, and activists.  As we have come to find out, it was through journolist that the mainsteam media and other intellectual elites met to discuss and plot strategies to enter liberal bias into the media and destroy any sort of counter thought from anyone disagreeing with their agenda. Not exactly the definition of impartial journalistic integrity, is it?

Journolist was created by influential mainstream media member and writer at the Washington Post, Ezra Klein.  Members of journolist included supposed ethical journalists from organizations such as the Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, the Guardian, the Baltimore Sun, Columbia Journalism Review, the Nation, and dozens of others.  Together, these agents of progressivism schemed to weave their thought into the minds of readers throughout the country.

In the lead up to the historic presidential election of 2008, one of the most stinging controversies to emerge about Senator Obama was his relationship to the highly racist Reverend Jeremiah Wright.  No matter how hard he tried, Obama could simply not dodge this  “inconvenient truth”.  During debates questions were asked of Obama’s membership of Wright’s church outside Chicago.  Clearly, the public had the right to know why Obama would attend worship at a church with a Reverend who spewed hate and racism from the pulpit.  With no where else to turn, members of the mainstream media and journolist, in particular, came to aid.

Emails leaked from April of 2008 (which can be read in their entirety at dailycaller) outline the elaborate scheme of the media.  Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent first propsed attacking opponents of Obama as racists, a common tactic from progressives.  Sadly, there were no objections from the other members on ethical grounds.  The other media members only objected to the efficacy of the plan.

There was outrage from members of journolist due to simple questions from debate moderator George Stephanopolous, himself a liberal.  Thomas Schaller, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun as well as a political science professor, upped the ante from there. In a post with the subject header, “why don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?” Schaller proposed coordinating a “smart statement expressing disgust” at the questions Gibson and Stephanopoulos had posed to Obama.  “It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort,” Schaller wrote.  Obviously, these elites believe that they know better than the rest of the country.  They would fix this mess by simply flexing their muscle.  Holly Yeager, of the Columbia Journalism Review, even told the other members to look for a story the next day in the Washington Post that would attack the validity of the questions and the motives of the anti-Obama crowd.  The members declared war on the rest of the country and would not rest until Obama was in office.

Ackerman urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”  This common tactic has become a lifeline of the progressive left.  They have been attempting to get their way by attacking conservatives of being racists simply because we do not support Obama and his big government agenda.  The racist argument is really losing its luster as it has been proven wrong time and time again.  The country was supposed to have been ushered into a post-race world due to Obama’s leadership, but has simply delved deeper into a racially divided country due to the antics of the progressive left as well as from the President himself.

Charges of racist taunts at the steps of the capital from tea party members directed toward Reps. Carson and Lewis have proven to be patently false.  This was another attempt to discredit the tea party and other conservatives as racist.  Fortunately, four different videos from the alleged verbal assault show absolutely no racist language at all.  Breitbart himself offered $100,000 to anyone that could get him video evidence showing racist remarks thrown at the Congressmen.  In today’s age of “make money make money,” not a single person came forward with the evidence.  Clearly, the charges were false and one more attempt from the progressive left to deflect attention from their government takeover of health care.

Still not convinced of the mainstream media’s plan?  It gets worse.  Members of journolist are so hate-filled that they would actually take pleasure in the death of a conservative pundit.  Sarah Spitz, a producer for the National Public Radio (another federally funded waste) stated she would “laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” if she were to witness Rush Limbaugh suffering a heart attack.”  Talk about an ignorant, hate-filled comment.  She went on, “I never knew I had this much hate in me. But he deserves it.”  Sadly, these are the kind of people who call themselves journalists today.  Other members even called for the government to step in and shut down Fox News, charging them of being unethical.  The double-standard spewed by the mainstream media is truly amazing.

This story is hugely important to the young generation.  We have touched on liberal bias in media in the book and clearly detail another important case in which Dan Rather rushed to air a story attacking the character of George Bush (that was clearly doctored).  This new proof, however, is equally or more powerful evidence of the leftist slant in today’s media.  The youth oftentimes get their news from many of these organizations.

Young people must learn that we cannot blindly accept the word of the New York Times, Washington Post, or Time Magazine as the gospel.  These so-called journalists have a clear agenda and we are just pawns in their grand scheme for progressives to take over this country and destroy our fundamental freedoms through increased government control.  I suggest finding alternate sources of news on the internet.  Caution still needs to be taken, as liberal bloggers have infiltrated seemingly independent organizations around the web.  Some websites that promote conservative thought include Drudge Report, Big Government, the Daily Paul, the Daily Caller, and my favorite Reason.  Get the real story, unfiltered.

The progressive left and their lap dog, the mainstream media, can no longer be trusted.  The evidence is out there and it is up to us to change the way we get news.  Do your part and help to defeat lefty news organizations everywhere.  Many are on life support now, and although I won’t laugh in the face of their imminent death like Sarah Spitz, I surely won’t lose any sleep over it!