THE MEDIA HAS BETRAYED AMERICA

From the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law....prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press.... ". Our Founders knew that a free press is sacred and a cornerstone of democracy. A free press holds both government and public officials accountable to the people. With the right of a free press comes a tremendous responsibility of all media outlets to present information and news in an unbiased and balanced manner, to expose wrong doing and corruption, as well as bringing out positive information. Along with this comes the responsibility to investigate and report fairly all relative information to the public concerning government, public officials and events. The profession of journalism should also follow the underlying purpose and great responsibility associated with the First Amendment in regard to freedom of the press. The media should be the "watch dog" of our nation in order to preserve our democracy.

Yet 15 years down the line in looking back it will be the media who will have betrayed our nation more than any other single entity. One would have to be blind not to see that our great country is headed down the path toward sure ruin. Massive unsustainable debt and a declining economy; a loss of our core strength in manufacturing; a creation of a dependent society; lack of respect and leadership internationally; widespread dishonesty and corruption; the lack of an American identity; an eroding educational system; moral decay; and most importantly an absence of God that was NEVER intended by our Founders, yet has been twisted by false interpretation with the media helping to lead the way.

The media has abandoned it's role and sacred "watch dog" responsibility for our nation and become ideologically driven. As a consequence they clearly bias the news toward their ideology and those who support their ideology. They will even cover up wrong doing that runs counter, outright lie, distort, or make up stuff. Much of this is to the great detriment of our nation...THEY know better, not the people. They are expert at "headlines" that accomplish this which they constantly bombard the American people with to the extent that it makes communist cold war propaganda seem like child's play. Time after time we have seen examples of such things as reporting 10 people gathering that support their ideology as front page news, whereas they do not report 300,000 people gathering that runs counter. Recently a major newspaper sent out 20 "journalists" to dig out dirt on a candidate while covering up the wrong doings of their favorite candidate. This represents immense bias, not news. The once proud profession of journalism has been sabotaged to such an extent that newscasters, reporters, columnists, and editorial staff follow the wishes of their ideologically driven management, not news as it should be reported.

Lincoln said: "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time". In 2012 a Gallup poll revealed that 60% of the people did not trust the media. In April of 2016 NBC News and News Max reported that only 6% of the people trust the media, 94% do not. The media has betrayed America.

Al DiLascia
Chicopee, MA