The Bias Of The Media Is Disturbing And Embarrassing

Larry Mendte, Contributor, The American Dossier

The bizarre story of actor Jussie Smollett faking a hate crime in Chicago has given birth to a myriad of columns, commentaries and opinions. Yes, this is an example of identity politics and of using victimization to gain power and garner attention. And I understand the awful ramifications, if it turns out that he did fake his own attack.

But Smollett also exposed something about the current state of our media that is both disturbing and embarrassing.

Smollett’s claims smelled rotten from the beginning. For anyone who has covered crime in Chicago, as I have, the idea of two men walking through the city wearing Make America Great Again hats and holding a noose looking for a man to attack, just doesn’t ring true. Trust me, in Chicago, MAGA hate people holding a noose are in much more danger of a vicious attack than anyone else.

Members of the media should have been thick with skepticism about the story, which is their job. Instead, they bought the story and gave Smollett exactly what he wanted – attention and adoration. It started with a fawning exclusive interview of Smollett by Robin Roberts on Good Morning America.

Roberts never questioned Smollett’s story, because she, and many others in the media were willing to ignore the most basic tenet of journalism, because she wanted the story to be true.

The Smollett story fit nicely with the narrative that a biased media has been pushing since Donald Trump was sworn into office. The red MAGA hats perfectly symbolized the cherry on top of the story that Donald Trump and his followers are racists.

If you believe, as I’m certain many do, that I am the one who is being biased in my opinion of the media. If you believe that there is no prevalent media biased to the left, don’t take my word for it. Listen to highly respected journalist and former correspondent for 60 Minutes Lara Logan.

During a recent appearance on a podcast, Logan pointed out that 85% of journalists are registered democrats, and that infects their coverage.

“We’ve abandoned the pretense or, at least, the effort to be objective today,” say Logan. “For example, all of the coverage on Trump, all of the time is negative. There are no mitigating policies or events that are out there in the media that you can read about. Well, that tells you that there is distortion of the way things go in real life.”

If for some reason, you don’t believe Lara Logan, how about Jill Abramson, the former editor of the New York Times. In her new book, Merchants of Truth, Abramson writes that the Times has become “unmistakably anti-Trump.” She goes on to say, “Some headlines contained raw opinion, as were some of the stories that were labeled as news.”

This left leaning bias in the media isn’t new. It’s just been allowed to grow and fester.

Former Senior CBS Correspondent Bernard Goldberg wrote in his 2003 book Bias that members of the media don’t even know they are biased because they operate in a geographical and ideological bubble.

When everyone around you, when everyone you know, thinks the same way, you get a false sense of objectivity.

I understand that, in this nation divided, there are still some reading this that don’t believe Lara Logan, Jill Abramson or Bernard Goldberg. Even though not one of them is a conservative, and they certainly didn’t work for conservative news outlets. There are some who will still claim that they and I are the ones who are biased.

“What about Fox News and other conservative outlets,” they will say with confidence, “they are biased too.” And they are absolutely correct.

But Fox News was created and allowed to exist as a counter balance to long standing liberal bias in the media. Ironically, the birth of Fox News was one of the worst things that could happen to the future of a “Fair and Balanced” media.

Now people can find a news sources that conforms to their pre-existing bias and demonizes those who disagree. It allows the populous to stay close-minded and divided.

With no honest arbiters of the truth, we allow ourselves to be susceptible to the Jussie Smollett’s of the world, and so does the media.

The ugly and inept Jussie Smolett case just exposed something that has been happening in both the left and right media for a long time. They report the news they want to be true and not necessarily what is true.

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Larry Mendte is an award winning writer, reporter, anchor and documentarian. He has been the main anchor of television newscasts at network stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. Currently Larry hosts two news television talk shows in New Jersey and Delaware and a radio show at WABC in New York. Larry was the first host of Access Hollywood and has won over 90 Emmy awards for his work.

Editorials•Politics