HORIST: MSNBC and CNN politicize Independence Day … big time

Let me try to put this in some perspective.  I have long recognized that the bulk of the mainstream media is biased in favor of Democrats – especially of the left-wing variety.  That has been documented by polls and studies over the years.  Since Donald Trump has ascended to the presidency, the bias has become more extreme.  Knowing all that, however, did not prepare me for the coverage of the Washington Independence Day festivities by MSNBC and CNN.

You will recall that there has been a lot of lip service paid to NOT politicizing the holiday.  We should all set aside our differences and focus on the common beliefs and interests that bind us together as Americans. Isn’t that what holidays are about – an intermission from the tensions and burdens of everyday life.

Heading into the Fourth of July holiday, the anti-Trump media was queuing up narratives that Trump was politicizing the holiday with an excessively grand celebration.  He was acting like a third world despot by making this year’s focus the American military.  They speculated that Trump was turning the holiday into a personal campaign rally.  With that lead-in, there was nothing that would occur on the Fourth that would not be subjected to follow-up criticism of the establishment elite.

Even with all that in mind, I was shocked — and angered — by what I saw on MSNBC and CNN.  I actually was consumed by outrage and disbelief by what I saw.

I started watching the President’s speech on CNN.  It was straightforward coverage with no commentary.  When they broke for a commercial, I switched over to FOX News – figuring that they would not interrupt the ceremonies with commercials.  I was right.

After watching FOX for a while, I switched over to MSNBC to see how they were handling the event.  They were not.  Well, as if that was not bad enough, what they were airing was beyond my comprehension.  On this national holiday — with all the calls for setting aside politics — MSNBC was airing a re-run of the Democrat presidential debates.  Yep!  They were regurgitating the most politically partisan program in their archives – essentially giving the Democrat presidential candidates a freebie infomercial while Trump was speaking to all Americans.

I switched back to FOX to watch the remainder of the speech and then to CNN for the post event analysis.  They brought on their usual panel of parroting pundits.  For this occasion, it was retired Admiral John Kirby, spokesperson for State Department during the Obama administration, David Swerdlick, political reporter for the Washington Post, April Ryan, White House reporter for American Urban Radio, and Philip Mudd, CNN security analyst .

With that lineup, it was inevitable that the spin was not going to be good for Trump, the military and traditional concepts of patriotism.  These are among the most strident members of the #NeverTrump Resistance Movement.  Even with that in mind, however, I was not prepared for the disgusting, disgraceful, dishonest and vile opinions they proffered.

Of course, they picked up on their own pre-event baseless and biased conjectures.  There was nothing they liked about the entire event.  They did not like that the President was center stage in hosting the official Washington celebration.  I suppose they would have preferred Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez … seriously.  Their shameful and vile evaluation of the festivities was provoked by only one thing … one person … Donald Trump.  They did not put aside political differences to celebrate the traditional overarching unity of our nation … no, no, no.  They widened the chasm of our national divide with their one-sided partisan views.

Even as an ex-military man, Kirby could say nothing positive about the display of our military arsenal.  This is the kind of show dictators put on.  According to them, we do not need to brandish our military hardware to intimidate our adversaries.  Of course, that is NOT why each of our military forces performed an individual fly-over.  It was for the pleasure and amusement of we the people – and to honor those who defend our nation.  Never before has any good American ever claimed any of those flyovers that occurred at thousands of special events for years was to impress enemies.

According to the panelists, Trump’s speech was a grade school civics lesson.  They repeatedly referred to Trump’s speech as Schoolhouse Rock approach.  How arrogant can these elitists be?  There is nothing wrong with being reminded of the people and events that mark our national history – and the way we ignore civics in schools, many of the younger generation can benefit from knowing of America’s greatness.

Would these journalism reprobates criticize addressing the history of the labor movement on Labor Day?  On Memorial Day, should we not reflect on the sacrifices made by those who perished defending America?

Since Trump’s speech did not provide these folks with the political asides for which they so desperately longed, they provided Trump with a back-handed compliment.  They said he read … stuck to … the speech that was written for him by others.  They then went on to attack the writers.  It was a terrible speech, in their malignant judgment.

When asked what he thought, Mudd was not about to be outdone by the vicious criticism of the others.  “I hated it – professionally and personally,” he proclaimed.  Mudd went on to attack everything about the speech, the event and the military involvement.

Mudd and his colleagues viewed the presence of military leaders as props.  Yes.  Those who defend our nation are just political props when publicly honored.  Kirby said that such prominence of the military might have been better on Veterans Day, but even then, he said he would not like it.

Of course, they feigned respect for the military, just not the way Trump honored them.  As a Gold Star grandfather, I took their barely concealed contempt for our armed forces as a personal affront, by the way.

Ryan carried out her traditional role by playing the race card.  In a bit of ass-back logic, she said that for Trump to honor the names and historical significance of Martin Luther King and those young men who kicked off the sit-in movement that changed the course of civil rights – one of whom was present at the event – was inappropriate because she sees Trump as a racist.

These folks were so bad that they could not even report the size of the crowd – a standard piece of information at large events.  Maybe because it was surprisingly large in view of the pre-event criticism and the rainy weather.  But, for them, no fact is too small to politicize – in this case, by the sin of omission.

Maybe calling these media personalities the “enemies of the people” is a stretch – not a big one – but they are most certainly the enemies of truth, fairness, objectivity.  Out of hatred for Trump, they are the corrupters of the profession of journalism that they claim to embrace.  One does not have to like Trump to see the dishonesty of these news media degenerates.

So, there ‘tis.