It's time for the Mainstream Media to regain its standing as the Fourth Estate
... if it wants to.
Guilt by Association may not be proof in courts but the mainstream media has often decided not to even air some of these associations in the court of public opinion where it used to be common.
Recent examples: Former GOP Seminole Tax collector Joel Greenberg just got sentenced to 11 years in prison for trafficking a minor for sex and other crimes. He’s close friends with Representative Matt Gaetz, who’s also been investigated in that case. Joel has identified 27 individuals (including Gaetz) committing crimes. Five have been charged so far with two previously convicted. Also, Gaetz was the ONLY Congressman to vote against the anti-human trafficking bill.
Gaetz was seeking a pardon for something undefined before Biden was inaugurated.
Greenberg’s also friends with Florida’s Governor DeSantis, and Trump henchman Roger Stone.
And among the Oath Keepers just convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes from the January 6th insurrection effort, several have been closely tied to (or were actually providing security for) Alex Jones, Roger Stone and Mike Flynn.
The worst has been the media’s handling of people the strange ex-president’s associated with. The sex traffickers for the rich and powerful (Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell) for example.
In 2002:
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump booms from a speakerphone. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
In 2019: After Epstein came to national attention, Trump stated he “was not a fan.”
However, in 2007, Epstein was indicted on sexual abuse charges that had penalties up to serving a life sentence. A Miami US attorney Alexander Acosta cut Epstein a sweetheart deal: in return for pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor, he got just 13 months in a Palm Beach county jail.
Acosta would go on to serve as Trump’s Secretary of Labor, but resigned in 2019 when the deal came to light.
“He felt the constant drumbeat of press about a prosecution which took place under his watch more than 12 years ago was bad for the Administration, which he so strongly believes in,” tweeted Trump, “and he graciously tendered his resignation.”
(Note: the mainstream media did cover this one).
Here’s a number of associations that don’t get enough media attention, including hate groups, militias and fake conspiracy spreaders:
Matt Gaetz, FL - Proud Boys
Paul Gosar, AZ - Proud Boys, Cliven Bundy, Oath Keepers, Ali Alexander
Andy Biggs, AZ - Ali Alexander, Oath Keepers, Patriot Movement, AZ Patriots, American Guard
Mo Brooks, MO - Ali Alexander
Lauren Boebert, CO - Three Percenters
Marjorie Taylor Greene - Q-Anon, Nick Fuentes, Three Percenters
Minnesota Senator Al Franken was forced to resign after a picture of him goofing around with a sleeping fellow USO entertainer went public. The picture was taken long before he entered public service and the entertainer wasn’t offended by his actions, which she understood to be mugging for laughs.
Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress and went to prison for sexting with a teenager he never met. His actions helped trigger FBI Director Comey’s reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton less than a month before the 2016 election which likely cost her that razor thin election. But Matt Gaetz gets a free pass after having sex with a minor? Why?
Speaking of hate groups, the extremist right is up in arms trying to defend the rapper Ye’s anti-semitic comments. He got suspended from Twitter again for posting a pic of a swastika inside a Star of David. The suspension will be brief as Elon Musk continues his crusade to re-define what free speech means.
Elon believes it’s fine to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater or ‘Jew’ in a crowded crematorium. He’s wrong. So is Ye.
Ye’s comments are not about his mental illness nor about free speech. Ye is actively promoting hate. It doesn’t matter if some call him genius for his past works. His current works are ethically wrong and destructive and he should be blocked on social media by all good people.
Elon, too. Researchers indicate he’s restored the account of the head of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer and his decisions at Twitter have caused a massive rise in hate speech against people of color, Muslims, Jews and others.
This is not about a business practice or free speech. This is about two extremely wealthy and influential individuals consciously choosing to promote hate.
As for the strange ex-president, his meeting with Ye and Milo and the neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes is also not a ‘mistake’ caused by Trump’s lack of knowledge about the idiot.
Everyone who gets close to him has to be screened by the Secret Service. His excuse is a lie and the mainstream media is failing to make that clear.
Here’s a useful tip: people who deny the Holocaust occurred and praise Hitler are haters promoting genocide and fascism. See? Simple.
The Republican governor of Arkansas gets it:
“No, I don’t think it’s a good idea for a leader that’s setting an example for the country or the party to meet with (an) avowed racist or anti-Semite. And so it’s very troubling and it shouldn’t happen and we need to avoid those kind of empowering the extremes,” Hutchinson told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “You want to diminish their strength, not empower them. Stay away from it.”
A US Senator from Louisiana gets it:
Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy tweeted that Trump "hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites."
"These attitudes are immoral and should not be entertained," Cassidy wrote. "This is not the Republican Party."
Former NJ Governor Chris Christie condemned Trump’s decision as well.
So let’s make something else perfectly clear.
Hutchinson, Cassidy, Christie and other Republicans denouncing the fascists Trump met with? They are antifa, too.
This should surprise no-one. After all, the vast majority of Americans are opposed to fascism. It remains surprising that only a few Republicans are willing to openly oppose fascists.
And it remains surprising that much of the mainstream media is failing to note these facts and the connections of these Republican officeholders to fascists, hate groups and promoters of violence against people.
The strange ex-president has opposed the majority of Americans deciding elections for more than two years. His recent comments indicate he’s opposed to neutral judges in our justice system and that he believes loyalty to him is all that matters.
During his brief time in office, he weaponized part of the Justice Department against political opponents though some notable DOJ standouts refused to play his game. Now he’s claiming that Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland have weaponized the DOJ against him.
This is not what is happening.
What’s happening is Trump is losing court case after court case and he’s feeling vulnerable from multiple directions. In the past week, the SCOTUS decided unanimously that six years of his tax records had to be released to a House committee. A jury decision is forthcoming about his company’s accountant’s testimony that could impact whether the company is guilty of law violations.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Michael Flynn have testified to a Georgia grand jury. Staffers like Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy Pat Philbin have been testifying before a DC grand jury. And a federal appeals court has ruled that Judge Cannon was wrong to order a Special Master to oversee the case of the stolen documents that Trump repeatedly refused to release.
Now that Republicans have regained a small majority of positions in the House, they’ve openly stated their next plan of action. They’ll try to subvert the work of the January 6 committee as soon as they take charge in January. The committee, though, intends to release all of its work before Christmas to weaken that response.
The House Republicans also will investigate Hunter Biden and try to impeach the President. I favor the investigation of the President’s son because justice should apply to everyone and if Hunter broke any laws, prosecution should follow. But I’m also predicting there’s nothing that ties President Biden to anything Hunter has done. The GOP keeps insinuating there’s gotta be something. If that were true, they would have provided evidence of that long ago. So this is just the standard propaganda diversion game.
But justice is gained from facts, not insinuations.
Trump has another plan, as well. He opposed the lawful election results. He’ll now oppose our entire justice system - or try to - if he’s voted into office in 2024.
Per the Washington Post:
Former president Donald Trump expressed solidarity with the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sending a video of support to a fundraising event Thursday night hosted by a group called the Patriot Freedom Project that is supporting families of those being prosecuted by the government.
“People have been treated unconstitutionally, in my opinion, and very, very unfairly, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it,” he said in the video, which appeared to have been shot at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. “It’s the weaponization of the Department of Justice, and we can’t let this happen in our country.”
Trump, who last month announced a 2024 White House bid, pledged that in coming months, he would take a close look at what he characterized as “a very unfair situation.”
The Patriot Freedom Project advertises itself as “a non-profit organization providing legal, financial, mental-health, and spiritual support for individuals and their families — including young children — who are suffering at the hands of a weaponized justice system.”
Trump repeatedly has made clear that he stands with the mob that stormed the Capitol to stop Congress from counting the electoral votes for Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.
In September, Trump said he would issue full pardons and a government apology to the rioters, some of whom violently attacked law enforcement to stop the democratic transfer of power.
Let me clarify the latter: the attack on the Capitol Police was the worst attack on police in US history. So opponents, voters, judges, DAs, juries, the media AND cops
The bottom line is Trump would happily corrupt every branch of government, every law, rule, regulation, all the written and unwritten rules of civility, diplomacy and common courtesy. We’ve seen him bully, threaten, curse, literally and visibly elbow foreign leaders out of his way. He thinks golf courses should exclude all but the richest and most privileged. He admires foreign despots who jail and assassinate opponents and critics. He abuses women constantly including his wives and his daughter.
He’s openly racist. He’s disrupted military order, pardoning a war criminal despised by his fellow soldiers. He rips off workers and contractors and customers and charities. When called to account in court he does settlements that avoid admissions of guilt. He ties employees and sex partners to silence with NDAs and payoffs.
Complete secrecy is his preference, just as it is for all abusive people and criminals. He likes to think he can skirt the edges of laws to avoid consequences though his track record says he fails his own standard often.
And right now, he’s surrounded by DAs and the AG and a special prosecutor. He thinks his only way out is to evade and delay for one more year. With his followers ready to resort to violence to keep him on the ballot after that.
If he can just make it to January 2025, he’s sure he can void everything and rule as a dictator.
He can’t and he won’t. But it’s gonna take better work from the mainstream media to diminish his reach and dissolve his following. The sooner the better because less people will get hurt and die that way.
We have to demand better work from every televised news outlet and major newspapers. Most are currently falling short.