by Dr. Eowyn
Americans already distrust the mainstream media (MSM). A January 16, 2018 Gallup Poll found that distrust of the news media has soared in recent decades, from 25% of U.S. adults in 1989 to 45% today saying there was a great deal of political bias in news coverage. 66% of Americans say that news media “do not do a good job” of “separating fact from opinion” (86% of Republicans; 44% of Democrats).
And no wonder.
Did you know that a study by Indiana University professors Lars Willnat and David H. Weaver found that in 2013, only 7.1% of full-time U.S. journalists identified themselves as Republicans? In fact, the percentage of Republican journalists continues to decline — from 25.7% in 1971, to 18.8% in 1982, to 16.4% in 1992, to 7.1% by 2013. No doubt the percentage is even less than 7.1% in 2018.
With the lawful election of Donald Trump to the presidency, the MSM have gone insane with vitriol and hate, showing that they really are the Hate America Media (HAM).
Here’s an example: a cartoon by New York Times editorial cartoonist Patrick Chappette, portraying U.S. soldiers’ mission as that of fighting Israel’s wars in the Middle East, and the soldiers refusing to defend America’s southern border against the impending invasion of thousands of “caravan migrants”.
No longer covert and sneaky, the Hate America Media have abandoned all pretenses at journalistic objectivity. An example of the HAM’s declaration of open warfare against Trump and his millions of “deplorable” supporters is the editorial board of the New York Times urging Democrats to go to war against a sitting President of the United States by deploying violent and unscrupulous “Godfather” mafia tactics.
Now, the American people are fighting back against the Hate America Media with open hostility, threats, and even physical attacks.
David Bauder reports for the Associated Press, October 29, 2018, that journalist associations are dispensing advice on safety and self-defense tips because of increasing anti-press incidents. The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) advise reporters to avoid one-person news crews; the National Press Photographers Association is developing workshops on safety. Chris Post, a photographer for WFMZ-TV in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said: “The environment has changed. I’ve witnessed the transition.”
The RTDNA has begun compiling anti-press incidents that it self-righteously calls the “press freedom tracker”. Last year, the first time a count was kept, there were 48 incidents; the count so far this year is 39, including:
- The June 28 shooting at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, where five people were killed.
- In October, an intruder was shot after kicking down glass doors at Fox’s local station in Washington, DC.
- In Dallas, Texas, a man purposely crashed a pick-up truck into the side of a TV station.
- In Miami, a reporter and a photographer were physically attacked while doing a live shot.
- In North Carolina, a news crew had its power cable cut while covering a demonstration.
- CNN correspondent Jim Acosta — who is barred from the White Housefor being rude, combative, and assaulting a White House intern by putting his hand on her arm to stop her from doing her job — has been the target of chants and epithets when covering Trump rallies, including one recently where a man looked at him and made a motion like he was slitting a throat.
- When WFMZ-TV photographer Chris Post arrived to cover an immigration rally, a man in a car asked him where he was going. Told it was a pro-immigration rally, the man became agitated and stepped on his accelerator, stopping just short of hitting Post. On the same day, a man shouted “fake news” at Post while driving by in a pick-up truck. Post said, “I’m 6-foot-5, 300 pounds. I’ve had somebody try to grab my camera. When it gets to that point, where does it stop? It’s a tough time to be a journalist.” But Post also had an experience while driving through a fast-food pickup line that gave him hope. He was handed a cup of coffee and told the woman in line ahead of him had bought it, wanting to pass along the message “thank you for what you do.”
- Caitlin Penna, a freelance photographer from Durham, N.C., said she constantly has her guard up on assignments. Even her conservative family is suspicious of her. “I’m pretty sure my grandmother thinks I’m this far-left liberal because of the things I cover,” she said. One night she was unwinding at a local bar and struck up a conversation with a man nearby. When she discussed what she did, the man said, “you report fake news” and walked away.
- Nic Coury, a freelance photographer who works in California’s affluent Monterey County, said: “Since the election, people are emboldened more.” Coury has been called part of the liberal scum media, an enemy of the state and told he and his colleagues lie all the time. When conservative Arizona politician and law enforcement officer Joe Arpaio made a local appearance, “it was like walking into the dragon’s lair.”
Some journalists are quitting because of the hostility. The hostility she’s felt from the public recently was one of the reasons why Los Angeles KNBC-TV news photographer Lori Bentley-Law decided to quit the business after 24 years.
In her blog post explaining why she was leaving, like other journalists such as Acosta who are devoid of introspection, Bentley-Law blames public hostility entirely on President Trump, as if his supporters are brain-dead zombies who can’t and don’t think on their own. She whined that when a president describes the press as enemies of the people, “attitudes shift and the field crews get the brunt of the abuse. And it’s not just from one side. We get it all the way around, pretty much on a daily basis.”
She says that although there are other factors that contributed to her desire to leave, including shoulder woes from carrying heavy equipment for many years and a constant diet of murders and other depressing story assignments, the current environment is definitely part of it. One recent day, a person in a Mercedes prevented her KNBC news van from getting off a highway until several exits beyond her destination. On another occasion, a man stuck his bare butt out the window and defecated. Bentley-Law wrote:
“I don’t want to be immersed in sadness every day. I don’t ever want a cute little girl in pigtails to look up at me and say, ‘We hate you.’ I don’t want to hear ‘fake news’ shouted at me anymore, or to be flipped off while driving my news van.”
Bentley-Law was flooded with texts and emails from frustrated journalists across the country who’d read her blog. Declining to be interviewed, Bentley-Law said via email: “I suppose my experience isn’t unique and certainly resonated.”
~Eowyn