[This piece by regular Union columnist Terry McLaughlin was rejected by its editorial mavens for being too politically biased and containing claims that the Left considers patently false and/or unsubstantiated. I invite RR readers to compare Ms McLaughlin’s op-ed – posted here with permission – with those from leftwing authors that appear daily in the newspaper. I too have suffered similar rejections. gjr]
Terry McLaughlin
Are we seeing the end of corporate journalism? Do readers and viewers trust major media sources such as CNN and the New York Times or Washington Post any longer?
There are only so many times the public can be lied to or misled before reality starts to set in, leaving everyone wondering what is true, what is bias, what is blatantly false? Who can we trust?
Two sensational stories appeared before us in July – and most major media sources cannot seem to admit that they were either completely wrong or complicit in promoting these untruths.
Steven Colbert was informed that CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” would be ending next May. Major media sources rushed to inform the public that Paramount, which owns CBS, fired Colbert because he publicly expressed criticism for their settlement of a lawsuit with President Trump. They also promoted the idea that Paramount got rid of Colbert in order to curry favor with the administration’s FCC because of an upcoming merger.
The reality? Colbert’s agent publicly explained he was informed of the cancellation of the show two weeks earlier, while Colbert was on vacation. He opted not to share the bad news with Colbert until his return. The cancellation occurred prior to Paramount’s settlement of Trump’s lawsuit, or Colbert’s on-camera criticism of CBS and Paramount for that settlement. Once the cancellation was made public, we learned that Colbert’s show cost the company $100 million per year to produce, with a return of around $60 million on that investment. A $40 million annual loss seems like reasonable motivation for canceling a show with declining viewership. It’s just simple math.
Not only Colbert personally, but The Late Show, which has been on the air for 30 years, is being cancelled in its entirety in May. Since that cancellation was announced, Paramount signed a deal with the creators of South Park to pay them $1.5 billion for their next season. The fact that one of the first episodes of the new season depicts Donald Trump quite negatively in a homosexual relationship with the devil defies the idea that either censorship or pressure from the Trump administration played any part in Paramount’s decision-making.
Which brings us to the other big story, which most of the media is either ignoring completely or misrepresenting. Despite what some local contributors to this newspaper are claiming, actual evidence has now been revealed that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former FBI Director James Comey manipulated intelligence and then disseminated a false story to a compliant media in order to build the case that Donald Trump had conspired with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. If you are unaware of this evidence, it is because many in the media, rather than admitting their errors or correcting their previous reporting, are covering themselves by simply not reporting this news.
What has also been revealed in recent releases of declassified intelligence is that relevant information was actively suppressed. The initial intelligence assessments of any interference by Russia in the 2016 election found no evidence of “collusion” between Trump and Russia, but had concluded that Russia had gotten a hold of internal Democrat communications characterizing Hillary Clinton’s mental state as “intensified psycho-emotional problems, including uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression and cheerfulness,” and other physical and mental health details that had Democrat insiders concerned about how that information might influence the voters.
The intelligence shows that Russia had this information in October, and whether it was true or not, could have used it to ruin Clinton’s election prospects. If Putin was “colluding” with Trump and wanted him to be elected, why would it not have been leaked or released in the fall of 2016?
Even more recently released information discovered from John Durham’s investigation’s “burn bag” (hidden and intended to be destroyed) includes messages sent among DNC and Clinton campaign staffers and operatives prior to any investigation having begun: “HRC (Clinton) approved Julie’s (Clinton Campaign Advisor) idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections. . .. This should distract people from her own missing email.” “The FBI will put more oil into the fire.” So much more declassified information is now becoming public that it is hard to keep up with, unless you are intentionally ignoring it.
So after spending nearly ten years and tens of millions of dollars covering the “Russia collusion” story, now that it has imploded, will any of the major media outlets apologize? Will they give back their Pulitzer Prizes? The likely answer can be summed up by CNN’s Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny: “This is hardly information we should be repeating and spending much more time on.” The truth is not worth reporting.
Who got these stories right? While major media sources insisted we look the other way, nearly every story of consequence within the last ten years has been honestly reported by non-celebrity, low-paid journalists at independent outlets. From the origins of COVID to the legitimacy of Hunter Biden’s laptop, to the “mostly peaceful” protests erupting around the country, to the flood of illegal border crossings, to questions about the health of Joe Biden, it was independent media who asked the questions and persisted in learning and reporting the facts.
None of the complicit major media outlets will ever apologize for their role in the incalculable harm wrought upon this country by the destructive storm of misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies presented to a naïve and trusting public.
rebanesruminations.com 
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