Unfair, Unbalanced and Off the Wall

 
A few days ago, I found the CNN display of vice-President Cheney — a black “x” flashing across his face as he spoke and a headline at the bottom of the picture proclaiming: CHENEY: “I DO NOT BELIEVE IT IS WRONG TO CRITICIZE” — a truly creepy example of (to put it politely) “media bias.” I thought then, and I still believe, that it was just one more example of the dark thread of evil which runs through the MSM. Only the strand seems to be assuming the proportions of a rope. One can only pray it is eventually long enough that they will all hang themselves from the pile of their own lies.

Commenters came to reassure me it was a “technical goof”, a “glitch,” etc. Michelle Malkin was pointed to as the final arbiter. Michelle says nothing to it, so nothing it is. I was skeptical, as I said at the time:

	I'm not the paranoid type except when it comes to the MSM. Too many decades of "true technical goofs" that somehow never happen to the politicians the MSM favors...
	...sorry, but I simply don't believe them. Someone with better equipment than I --the political teen, I believe -- had the video on just as I went to bed last night. So "the x marks the spot" went on for a while.
	...and Michelle Malkin is welcome to diverge from my belief; that's okay. It doesn't change my mind that some idjit was having a bit o' fun...
	...who are you going to believe, CNN or your lying eyes?

Well, readers, it turns out my intuition was correct. In fact, when it comes to the MSM, believe your worst intuitions because they will usually be correct, conditioned as they are by decades of lying, smearing, leaning, obfuscating and otherwise contorting the truth.

Surely a romp through one issue of the New York Times — lately known as the old Gray Whore as her numbers plummet — would convince you? If not willing to attempt that heady experience (I’m not — Shrinkwrapped does it for me), try:

• AL-Reuters
  
• NPR (National Palestinian Radio)
  
• Associated Press (Arab Press, which Wikipedia cites as having 210,000 hits regarding its slant — “slant” hell, it’s made-up news).
  
• And how could we leave out USA Today’s website picture of Condi Rice and her demon eyes?
  
• If the MSM coverage of Hurricane Katrina didn't convince you of their mendacity, what will?

A picture, perhaps, of a reporter in a canoe "paddling" in a street flooded with three inches of water? Trying to be cute, the Today Show, just before going to a segment in which it would claim that the Administration staged its video of a conversation between the President and some soldiers, staged its own attempt to embarrass the President with the dangerous floodwaters of ace reporterette, Michelle Kosinski.

Well, Bill Quick has the story now. And you can forget the candy-land dreams of “glitches” and “goofs.” This is more in line with witches and cloven hoof:

	Unfortunately for CNN, a large number of their demographics also participate in Internet communities and Blogs, representing a large portion of their viewership and posing a threat to news cable and newspaper subscriber's fees.
	Millions from across the country telephoned CNN to alert the network about an accidental "X" over the Vice President's face, only to be told that the "X" was intentional against the present administration.

Okay. At least they’re honest about it. Or does this represent a turning of the tide, an open break between the media’s hatred for this administration, referred to by many reasonable people as “Bush Derangement,” and their schizophrenic demand to be seen as neutral and unbiased?

They can’t have it both ways. Nor should we simply dismiss this as trivial. By itself, it would be nothing. But this disrespect, this targeting of vice-President Cheney, is part of a much larger system. And it is building. Fueled by lots of money from the Saudis, who spread their disinformation with impunity in this country, and driven by a visceral left wing hatred, this is a dangerous and growing phenomenon. Sure, this newest episode is just one stupid, sophomoric trick. But so have been many of the others.

And some are not so naïve; when Eason Jordan casually claimed that American soldiers were targeting journalists, he made the remark in off-the-cuff statement in Davos. He never expected to be called out for it, even though it was a lie, calumny against the military which defends his elitist ass. This episode is paradigmatic of the journaliste attitude to America’s foreign policy efforts. What Mr. Jordan said was not a political disagreement, it was a terrible slander of our military. We rose up against this lie and he lost his job. Deservedly so. He should have lost it years ago for his very unprofessional relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime. He sold his soul for access and hundreds of thousands of people died because of it. Unlike Duranty with Stalin in the 1930's Mr. Jordan didn't get away with it.

We are lied to every day and we are lied to relentlessly. The fact that we haven’t given up, the fact that we continue to make fun of them and to point out their wildly obvious biases shows that we’re in this for more than trivial pursuits. It speaks to our resiliency and to our on-going demand that the powerful media learn to discern the difference between the facts and what are merely their own opinions.

They want to be respected but they’re not because they’ve thrown away their good name repeatedly. The MSM in this country is a joke. A sick joke played at our expense. Fortunately, like Dan Rather and Mary Mapes and Eason Jordan and the photographers in Palestine who set up their “candid” pictures, and the reporters who claimed Jenin was a “massacre,” they will be uncovered and booted. But only if we keep the pressure on.

So good on you, Bill Quick. Thanks for the effort, thanks for the capture of their self-condemning audio.

And good on us, everyone of us out here who refuse to simply glance at the mayhem out the window and drive on by. “Not my problem”? The hell it’s not. It’s my country, dude. And it’s your job, you “journalists” at CNN, to present the facts — in this case, the speech being given by the vice-president — without your slimy, dangerous editorializing.

CNN has a new motto: “X” Marks The Spot. They deserve it.