It’s no secret that I think the so-called mainstream media is largely in the tank for Democrats and liberals. After all, I have discussed examples of that phenomenon every month.
Many journalists and J-school academics scoff at the notion of left-wing bias in the media. They say it’s not really bias; it’s “news judgment.” They don’t explain, though, how “news judgment” always seems to redound to the benefit of liberals and Democrats.
As someone who has been harping on this issue since the early ’90s, it’s heartening when something
happens that validates everything I’ve written about the collusion among Democrats, liberals, and the mainstream media. The most recent example is the leak by WikiLeaks late last month of Democratic National Committee emails.
The initial “news” from these emails was that the Democratic National Committee had been working with the Hillary Clinton campaign to torpedo the campaign of Bernie Sanders. But hidden in the leaks, and almost completely ignored by the media, were emails attesting to a relationship between Democrats and the media that goes far beyond cozy and borders on the downright obscene.
Very quickly Democrats and the media mobilized to change the subject from the content of the emails to who had hacked them. Russia and Vladimir Putin quickly became the story as the media anxiously covered up its own sordid complicity betrayed by the leaks.
One email showed that The Washington Post and the Democratic National Committee held a joint fundraiser, but only after an email discussion as to how to hide the Post’s involvement. Another showed that Politico reporter Ken Vogel sent a story about Hillary Clinton’s fundraising to the Democratic National Committee before the story’s publication and even before it had been seen by his editors.
For those whowonder why this is an issue, this is something that simply is not done by reputable journalists. Politico later announced lamely that “there were no substantive changes to the piece” after it was vetted by the DNC.
Other emails show that then-DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz pelted MSNBC executives with complaints about criticism of Hillary Clinton on “The Morning Joe” program. Ironically, the comments were critical of Clinton and her people for rigging the system against Bernie Sanders, something the leaks definitively confirmed.
Another DNC staffer wondered in an email “if we want to offer Jake Tapper questions to ask us.” There is no indication that CNN’s Tapper accepted any questions from the DNC, but the email makes clear the DNC didn’t think that was outside the realm of possibility for CNN.
In case you were wondering, no emails surfaced of the media colluding with any conservatives or Republicans. Funny that.
Jon Ham recently retired as a vice president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.