Our democracy will die in darkness.

Part I: The Great Big Cover-Up

I can tell you there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan (Mike Pompeo on ABC’s This Week in May 2020).

After that heads-up from Secretary Pompeo, the US press chose to present him and President Trump as cuckoo conspiracy theorists. Why believe a US Army veteran and West Point valedictorian, Harvard Law graduate and Thayer Aerospace co-founder, former congressman and CIA director, when Red China was involved? Far better to believe flip-flopping Fauci, whose recently leaked emails are trust busters. The US press should be ashamed.

President Biden has ordered a 3-month investigation, and 200 GOP lawmakers just asked Speaker Pelosi to look into how COVID-19 originated in China, prompting ABC’s Jonathan Karl to issue this media mea culpa: “A lot of people have egg on their face.” Speak for yourself, Jon, because this blog reported in June 2020 that “Australian and British press report better than 50-50 odds COVID-19 was a bio-weapon that leaked from a lab.” Smoking guns abounded.

After the Asian Flu (1956), Hong Kong Flu, SARS, and Swine Flu (2009), the West should be suspicious of China, which was operating a bio-hazard lab in Wuhan (whose locals could travel abroad but not around China). The WHO soft-balled Xi and hard-balled Trump, and economic chaos and societal panic had befallen China’s rivals. It’s a story line worthy of a blockbuster movie, but America’s press hit the “pause” button.

The constitution created a ”free press” to serve the governed, who deserved more information about the origin of this novel coronavirus. COVID affected every American’s life and living – even the reporters who turned White House briefings into intellectual food fights. Pompeo’s theory was taken seriously by our English-speaking friends, for whom a closed society like Red China was not above suspicion. They reported China might be denying a bio-weapon mishap and could have released a bioweapon to map America’s response.

The overarching problem with the US press was political bias against Donald Trump. He was blamed for every glitch in the emergency response. His open-up supporters were shown as petulant goobers. Washington Post writer Josh Rogin saw the journalistic malpractice: “the lab theory didn’t change [or] jump from crazy to reasonable…it’s always been the same…the [press that] got it wrong changed their minds. They are [now] writing about themselves with zero self awareness.”

There was a cover-up. Anti-Trump politics begat reckless disinterest in what America’s chief rival might have done. A good reporter should differentiate between Trump’s estimation of an inconsequential inaugural-crowd size and a consequential national-security threat. A good reporter would credit Trump for harsh-yet-consistent opinions about the threat of illegal immigrants, freeloading NATO members, and Chinese imports. A good reporter admits screwing up.

A bad reporter blames the source, so Karl says Trump was “widely dismissed” because he made “a frankly racist appeal about kung-flu and the China virus.” The Post’s Aaron Blake blames Trump because “everything about Trump [invited] caution and skepticism.” The Times Maggie Haberman blames Trump because he “refused to release the evidence.” NPR’s Todd Zwillich blames Trump because the theory wasn’t presented in “good faith.”

Part II: Mad Liberal Disease Began Fifty Years Ago

The press was to serve the governed not the governors (Justice Hugo Black in June 1971).

The arc of the media’s “moral universe” peaked in 1976 after a “free press” exposed the Vietnam lies (Pentagon Papers by the New York Times in 1971) and Watergate cover-up (the Washington Post from 1971 to 1974). Gallup found 72% of America trusted the press then, compared to only 32% in 2016. Clearly, the moral arc took a nose-dive, probably because 60% of the nation believe the press serves the Democrat Party.

Watergate elevated the media’s self confidence to the equal of the presidency. Thus, the Post’s Ben Bradlee could ignore Jack Kennedy’s extramarital affairs and give no quarter to Dick Nixon. After CBS launched 60 Minutes in 1968, the media realized millions loved gotcha investigations. Woodward and Bernstein turned routine reporting into sensational headlines and journalists into media stars. But, just like Icarus, reporters were drawn too close to the sun.

Watergate left the press greedy for the next conspiracy sensation. They went after every occupier of the Oval Office and found very little “there” in there. The press ruined Bert Lance during the Carter years, but the Georgia banker was no Nixon. Americans yawned when Iran-Contra was admitted by Reagan. Everyone but Republicans forgave Bill Clinton for Travel-gate, Whitewater-gate, Monica-gate, and Furniture-gate. Absent the rush of Watergate, reporters settled for solidarity with America’s liberal party.

This solidarity is what gave Jimmy Carter a pass in 1979, after he suggested legal competition was a “mistaken idea of freedom; the right to grasp for ourselves an advantage over others.” By 1998, the solidarity was so bad the Washington Post broke the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal only after the Drudge Report outed Newsweek for sitting on news of the affair. Thanks to Ronald Reagan and an Internet gossip column, Carter’s closet socialism and Clinton’s sexual predation did not go un-noticed.

In 2000, Gore called Bush to concede, called again to rescind, challenged Florida’s results, and created the hot mess that is now 24-7 news. CNN and MSNBC aired non-stop the “count every vote” theme. Fox News responded with “stop the steal” roundtables. Today, taxpayer-funded NPR still claims “a generation of Americans [thought] the White House should have gone to Gore” because five conservative justices “gave” the election to Bush. Everybody lean left!

It’s bad. Barack Obama belittled business owners (“you didn’t build that”) and successful Americans (“you didn’t get there on your own”) in 2012, but Fox News alone took him to task. When Joe Biden denied any knowledge of his son’s pay-to-play scheme in 2020, the New York Post alone reported his private dinner in 2015 with Hunter’s Ukrainian benefactors. Whereas LBJ faced a hostile press every day of his presidency, Obama and Biden faced like-minded cronies.

If the press is not part of the information solution, it’s part of the misinformation problem. Voters were (mostly) not informed on Biden-Burisma and (mostly) mis-informed on Trump-Russia. President Biden went 50 days, and Kamala Harris 74 days, without a press conference. I’m still waiting for a damaging “anonymous” leak. But no – Democracy dies in darkness, and Biden’s media allies are making damn sure his presidency is hidden from the electorate. Bottom line: we the people suffer.

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By Spencer Morten

The writer is a retired CEO of a US corporation, whose views were informed by studies and work in the US and abroad. An economist by education, and pragmatist by experience, he believes the greatest threat to peace and prosperity are the loudest voices with the least experience and expertise.