The MSM's Dangerous Monopoly on Information
Our pseudo-journalists in the media once again demonstrate their dangerous control over the news cycle
This article was originally published in Lone Conservative.
Any rational person would expect news outlets to cover that which is, well, newsworthy. The job of said national outlets is to cover stories that have a significant impact on public opinion and which actively inform the reader in doing so. The average person should expect this from journalists and reporters. As we know, such a person would be greatly mistaken.
To put things in perspective, here are the biggest developing stories in the United States as of now: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home scandal, the fight against powerful teachers’ unions to reopen public schools, and the fight against Big Tech, among several others. Governor Cuomo’s nursing home scandal and potentially criminal cover-up of it is arguably the most important of these. Despite the significance of these developing stories, the mainstream media isn’t too concerned with any of them.
The very important story that currently occupies mainstream media is Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) vacation to Cancun. That’s it. That’s where their focus is centered.
According to the Daily Caller, early Wednesday morning Cruz “flew to Cancun, Mexico, with his wife and children as his home state of Texas faces a deadly winter storm, leaving millions without power for days.”
It’s fair to say that Cruz’s 1-day trip is “bad optics“ in the midst of a deadly winter storm. It’s worth noting, however, that it is not anywhere close to what the mainstream media is making it into by blowing it way out of proportion. No, this is not a scandal or a controversy, although it is being portrayed as such. At worst, it is a minor lapse in judgment on the part of Senator Cruz, and that is all.
Cruz explained, according to a statement he released, “With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon.” This statement is not, as some journalists have suggested, blaming his kids. It’s an explanation, not a deflection or an excuse.
But this is all beside the point. What’s more damning is how, with the widespread boosting of this “story,“ the mainstream media has managed to completely distract the general public from Governor Cuomo’s nursing home scandal and cover-up.
According to the New York Post, Governor Cuomo’s secretary “privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state’s nursing home death toll from COVID-19 — telling them ‘we froze’ out of fear that the true numbers would ‘be used against us’ by federal prosecutors.”
This is almost certainly an obstruction of justice, but it doesn’t stop there. Just recently, a New York Democrat Assemblyman named Ron Kim came into the spotlight. We now know that, according to the New York Post, over a phone call on the night of February 11, Cuomo “threatened to ‘destroy’ him if he didn’t help contain the damage over the Cuomo administration’s cover-up of nursing home resident COVID-19 deaths.” I’m not sure if that is illegal, although it is obviously corrupt. What it sounds like is more evidence of obstruction of justice.
The mainstream media is focused on Ted Cruz’s vacation in Cancun, however. Their monopoly on information allows them to create a mirage of outrage through their news coverage in order to avoid covering the major scandal in New York State. This kind of power is dangerous.