Who are the Colluders?
By Pat Culverhouse via http://www.faxnetupdate.com
8/21/2017-- 7:59 PM CDT
If all the media focus on the violence in Charlottesville has accomplished anything it has, for the moment, given us a brief respite from the collusion theories that have haunted the Donald Trump administration since day one. Don’t look for that to last.
Collusion is roughly defined as a secret coalition, sometimes illegal, organized to cheat or deceive. We’ve been bombarded with alleged facts that Russia colluded with Republicans, specifically Trump and/or his campaign team, to cheat Democrats out of the White House.
OK. Let’s talk collusion briefly. In the humble opinion of your humble observer, what is being presented as a masterfully orchestrated conspiracy by the Grand Putintate of Russia is, in reality, amateurish folly when compared to our homegrown colluders.
An overwhelming majority of our country’s media that allegedly exists to investigate and disseminate uncompromisingly accurate information isn’t doing its constitutionally protected duty. The similarity of every story line leads one to conclude the sameness in content is not coincidental.
What has become apparent is the majority of our media sources are combining their efforts with a single purpose: to destroy this administration. Whether it’s the former Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) or the many cable outlets (CNN, MSNBC, etc.) and associated blogs and social media sites, there’s a negative and confrontational commonality.
Each day the theme is the same. If The New York Times says Trump’s condemnation of hate groups in Charlottesville was insufficient, grim-faced anchors on 90 percent of broadcast news parrot the theme. Likewise, an overwhelming majority of major print media will feature similar headlines and identical story focus.
It’s more than coincidental that themes, even buzz words used to describe Trump or his administration (i.e., isolated, in chaos, irreparably divided) are universally repeated by talking heads and the other end. Only Pravda, the official mouthpiece of the former Soviet Union, displayed such uniformity in presenting the official line.
To be fair, Pravda only repeated the official government narrative. In this country, the media seems to set the narrative and leaders on both sides of the political spectrum channel the theme like a ventriloquist’s dummy.
There’s no longer a question of whether or not Trump is despised by many in the media. That’s not helpful to we, the great unwashed, as we search for the truth in matters of concern. These people are allowing their personal animosity to get in the way of their professionalism.
In the days when journalism was real, that malpractice would be a job-killer. Today, though, the rude and contentious reporter is a folk hero. As one who watches and reads numerous news sites daily, YHO wonders when news, and news conferences, will become insightful rather than inciteful.
We have two words of advice for this crop of alleged reporters: Grow Up. Show respect for someone other than those who are burning, beating and berating. And you, Mr. President, likewise try being an adult. And for America’s sake, try thinking before you speak.
A final thought. If we’re going to cleanse this country’s history by removing symbols and proponents of hate, racism and any other “ism” we can invent, we must wash away the stains from all sides of the washtub.
Republicans, conservatives and Confederate statues aren’t the problem. It’s intolerance, from everyone involved in circumstances like that in Charlottesville. Media focus on the event has been that everything started when neo-Nazis, KKK members and white supremacists collected to protect a Robert E. Lee statue. That was the stick of dynamite, but it wasn’t the match that lit the fuse.
Trouble began when Antifa (Anti Fascist) “freedom fighters” showed up to protest the protesters. Of course these black-clad, masked keepers of the peace brought along their bats, clubs and nail-tipped boards to literally break up this awful gathering of “ists.”
Surprisingly, no Democrats reportedly were targeted during the counter-protesters’ attack. Lest the communist inspired Fascist fighters forget, 99 percent of the statues erected to honor and promote racism and slavery inspired by white supremacist traitors were erected when Democrats were in power.
And, my fellow Democrats who demand the removal of all symbols of racism, hatred, bigotry, etc. ought to think of what comes after we scrub Confederates from the face of history. Already, we’re hearing that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, all signers of the Declaration of Independence, Theodore Roosevelt and Christopher Columbus must go.
Fine. Using slave ownership and bigotry as only a couple of measuring devices for cleansing, out goes U.S. Grant, Senator and presidential candidate Stephen Douglas, former West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond, Sen. Al Gore Sr., Muhammad and every member of Congress who voted to exempt those honorable institutions from the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Selectivity is not permitted if we’re eliminating hate.
(C) THE DEAD PELICAN 2017