One showed up in my mailbox today. A copy of a nationally distributed newspaper filled with headlines and articles we’re all too familiar with. So, with smoky skies over my city and no desire to go outside, I sat down to give it a read. Right away my radar was up and functioning, vetting each page with:, “How does this align with what I already know? Is this content slanting one way or another on the political spectrum? Is someone’s personal agenda hiding in here? Could this be an attempt to influence the reader while claiming (in black & white type) to be factual and unbiased?
I read about summer time protests, Chinese subversion, Covid-19, Trump vs Biden campaign positions, international spotlights and more. The paper, whose name I won’t mention, auspiciously seemed to be giving the scoop on a basic level, but a gut feeling told me to read into it deeper. Had this issue been strategically crafted to favor certain people and particular points of view?
Was there a subtle attack on tradition and freedom? Was it the notion our country’s leadership aims to preserve and protect all that is moral and good? Hmm. That doesn’t fit. Leadership in Washington has failed miserably by my own estimation. Most of us don’t need a newspaper or media report to tell us what our nation’s leadership cares about or values most. Not in the age of sound bites, tweets, videos, etc.
Such comes out by the words they speak, the tweets they write, the policies they tout … although sometimes it must be reissued in a doctored version to mend a tide of public outcry. Oops! I guess that didn’t go over so well…
This self-proclaimed “news” paper I was holding had meticulously peppered in enough universal human interest to softened the blows of its journalistic attack on mainstream political views demanding justice, honesty, integrity, unity, and reasoning. While the Chief Editor’s picture and paragraphed statement appears as a “nice” guy who seeks to uphold honest unbiased reporting, the message grew clearer this is a fringe newspaper that had its own point of view, demonizing Americans standing up for justice, while dancing around the errors of dysfunctional and misguided leadership.
Upon Googling the name of the publication my suspicions were validated.
Deception and false information comes in clever little packages to win over those minds that fail to see a whole picture. Unfounded rhetoric swirls around us, casting out to readers who statistically take the bait. Sadly, traditions, freedoms, liberty, founding fathers, and patriotism are all American institutions that have been bent, spindled, and mutilated to the point they are no longer recognizable by many of us who actually value them.
Who is to blame? Conservatives or liberals? Both have a hand in wedging this great American divide. Yet neither is as relevant today as is truth, perspective, integrity, and compassion. Bonds that hold our nation together. The gold standard to define a lasting democracy. But those elements are NOT being upheld! A majority of Americans know it. Yet some of them stubbornly deny it.
Meanwhile, in the closing weeks ahead of the election, many a last ditch effort will come to our mailboxes in an attempt to win our hearts, our minds, and our votes, through cleverly planned deception.