Dear Friends,
It seems to me, when the primary sources of information in a society, are captured by an ideology, they become not only unreliable, but actually harmful to the right ordering of society, the economy and government. The problem of unequal knowledge exists across all dimensions of human interaction. No one would argue that unequal knowledge makes a transaction more fair. Indeed quite the opposite. The greater the inequality of knowledge, the greater the unfairness of the interaction. If you buy a car, there is an inequality of knowledge about that car. If the seller put sawdust in the trans-axle, to silence impending failure, that is relevant information that if equally shared, would change the entire equation. The same holds true for buyers, sellers… and voters.
Those who are the sources of information have a duty. Anyone who calls themselves a “journalist” can spout a dozen reasons why they have a duty to report the facts. Then justify doing the opposite in the next breath. This is especially true of those who claim the mantle of “unbiased.” The New York Times, the “Paper of record,” for example. In a recent court filing, the NYT claimed that, in their news section, their story stating that Project Veritas’ video of open election fraud, was a “hoax,” was hyperbole, opinion and clearly not fact… and everyone knew it. A claim the court rejected allowing the suit to go to discovery. Nevertheless, that claim in and of itself, was the paper of record admitting their news section is nothing but opinion, establishing it as fact in a court of law, they have abandoned their duty.
All legitimate governments must have the consent of the governed, else they are tyrannies, pure and simple. The inequality of information becomes ever more important in the political sphere the more corrupt the government is. Sadly, government corruption and media complicity become a positive feedback loop. The corrupted media push their uncorrupted competitors out, by shutting down their servers, blocking their apps and character assassination. One way to tell if the media is biased, is to step back from a normal readers perspective, and instead read and listen to news like an editor. Is there any opinion at all in this “news story?” Is there a point of view? Would this reporter write the same story if the political sides were reversed? How can anyone so obviously deceived cast a valid ballot?
When the media is the handmaid of a political faction, that media has abandoned its duty, is undermining the consent of the governed, and therefore establishing tyranny. What else would you call a government that deceives its people? Since deceit itself is a villainous act, to argue it is done as a virtue, is to argue water is not wet and fire no longer burns. Political factions don’t use propaganda, manipulation and outright lies, to foster equity… they do it to amass power. To that end, a media that has abandoned its duty is very handy. It allows that faction to create a false narrative for any situation, then, since there is no other “legitimate” narrative, to expose it as a lie, that self serving narrative becomes the cultural truth. Factions with this power can, have… and will, create Hell on Earth.
Let’s take a glance at our “unbiased” media’s recent reporting. In the last year and a half, we have been bombarded with wall to wall coverage of a deadly virus, to terrify us, as the media dehumanizes those who refuse the experimental shot. Meanwhile, the press has dutifully avoided any mention of the 2020 election audits, and when they have had to, they have added a generous helping of opinion to those “news stories.” When the media that calls itself unbiased characterizes a thing as, “unprecedented,” that is always opinion. Because, as we all know Horatio, there is nothing new under the sun. What is also not unprecedented, is renaming censorship. Call it right think, anti revolutionary, or misinformation, and censorship is still censorship. A rose, lilac or turd, by any other name, smells the same.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
