Fourth Estate Sale

(Fourth Estate Sale)

In no great surprise, Ronna McDaniel's tenure at NBC has been terminated. The Network's current pool of on-air personality and their collective revolt against McDaniel's hire led to the decision. So, what had been Hunt-Brinkly, or John Chancellor, or even Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert, who all might have had liberal leanings, knew their first responsibility was to report the news. At CBS, there had been Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather and at ABC, there was the late Peter Jennings.

In addition to these Big Three television networks, the two main newspapers, The New York TIMES, and the Washington POST. They too have departed from an un- biased covering of the news to its publications. The truth is this. So-called journalists, on air or in print, began to sense its ability to influence to make news instead of simply covering it. Instincts of these people lean left so in constructing the stories, the bias is on display.

The Media choose sides and it started with the founding of the Cable News Network and the election of Bill Clinton and how the "right wing conspiracy" and how Republicans are a mortal threat that became more pronounced when Newt Gingrich led the Republican Party to its first Majority in forty years.

Battle lines were drawn. The national media who were largely Democrat to begin with, saw themselves as having to become advocates, instead of just reporters. Over the past few years it was the media that played its role in national politics. Then came Donald Trump. The former President who might be the future President. If there was ever a more unifying factor for the left-wing media, that would be Trump.

What has been lost is a journalistic ethos. That the old image of a beat reporter with a hat that has a "Press" tag and a small notebook, and a pen is an image from the past. That gumshoe-type is not possible now. One has the networks but one must also consider social media and, an exception to the rule, the advent of the Fox News Channel.

A vibrant media is critical for a free society. But what happens when the media is not free ? What happens when the news is controlled by corporate interests, as it is now ? What happens when the media sees itself as a protector against half the country, as represented by Donald Trump ? The self-righteous hypocrisy that is the A-Block or Page One is a daily occurrence. Ronna McDaniel found that out first hand.