I have always considered FOX News’ Bret Baier as a reasonable news analyst. I have not always agreed with his opinions, but they were still in what I call the “reasonable range.” I was disappointed in hearing his observations about the work of Nancy Pelosi’s one-sided Select Committee. Baier has not chugged down the Kool-Aid, but he has done some sipping.
While he recognizes that the Committee is one-sided, he seems to see that as a minor issue. In fact, it is the issue that completely obliterates the credibility of the Committee. We should be perfectly clear that NO ONE-SIDED TRIBUNAL WILL EVER … EVER … EVER ARRIVE AT THE WHOLE TRUTH. That is why the entire American legal system and culture is founded on the right of defense – or the other view.
Without cross-examination and challenges, the result is prosecutorial propaganda – especially when it was the avowed mission of the tribunal to “get Trump” and a throng of alleged seditionists. Anyone who puts total faith in the Select Committee are either hopelessly partisan … highly gullible or … stupid.
Any objective critical thinker would reject – or at least be very suspect – of the work of a one-sided tribunal. That is how authoritarians work. That is how inquisitions work. That is how the Democratic Party worked in the old southland. A flawed process cannot arrive at a whole truth.
Baier seems to think that they can. He is willing to accept the accusations … the testimony … and the political dog-and-pony production as germane to – as they say – getting to the bottom of things. He claims that the Committee has produced important and powerful testimony.
He talks about the outrageous behavior of the President as if that translates into a crime. It does not.
Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger has been the most outspoken member of the Committee – declaring that they have uncovered several crimes. Baier would be better served by listening more carefully to other members of the Committee. When asked if they believe Trump committed any crimes, other members of the Committee answer in vague terms – or avoid answering altogether. They will not even – at this point – say whether they will make Trump or others the subjects of a criminal referral to the Department of Justice.
Baier should be a bit more analytical in his analyses. He is giving his viewers the wrong impression.
So, there ‘tis.