Media Mitt

Mitt Romney

Recently, USA Today reprinted a blog post by Mitt Romney which originally appeared in his senatorial campaign website after Trump accused the media of proffering fake news. Romney acknowledged that the media is often biased and left leaning before unloading the most obvious response that a free press is essential for a thriving democracy. He brought up the First Amendment while chastising Trump by writing "no American president has ever before vilified the American press." USA Today jumped on the opportunity to highlight a republican refuting Trump's latest attack on the media as "the enemy of the people." No one could possibly deny Romney's obvious assertions about free speech, so publically palatable, but Romney speaks quite differently in private. In 2012, while at an exclusive campaign fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida, a bartender secretly recorded Romney then leaked the clip to the liberal magazine, Mother Jones, a month before the election. Romney said,

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. These are people who pay no income tax, and so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Damage control was performed by Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan who asserted that Romney's word choice was poor. President Obama was quick to point out that the 47% included senior citizens and disabled veterans. As a multimillionaire who paid only 13% in taxes, Romney looked like a first class asshole as he attempted to distanced himself from the overt blunder. What do you expect from a guy who transports the family dog on the roof of the car while on vacation. No one was really surprised when he lost his presidential bid to Obama.

Back then, Romney handled the situation like a seasoned politician. He presented a different face publically than privately even though his basic statement was essentially true. Few media outlets refuted the figure that almost half the "taxpayers" pay nothing at all. In fact, it is worse than what Romney had alluded to. Upwards to 40% of the people filing taxes, get more money back than they pay out through the Earned Income Credit (EIC) program. EIC is a tax break for people who don't actually pay taxes. It's a means to give low income individuals government assistance. The limit on EIC before Obama was $12,100 which was raised to $39,900 for a family of four. That move exonerated almost half the taxpayers from paying anything. Now, the government pays people to live here.

Romney paid only 13% in taxes one year because our tax code allows all of us to write off up to half of our Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) to charity. Romney gave $24 million away to charity dropping his tax burden well below the rest of us. Obama famously wanted to get rid of this tax loophole making a comparison between $100 given by a lawyer versus the same donated by a bus driver. He said the bus driver deserves the tax break, but the lawyer doesn't. Truth be known, the bus driver likely doesn't give anything at all. In fact, it's well documented that democrats donate the least to charity and are the worst tippers.

Now, we have a senior White House correspondent, Jim Costa of CNN, "challenging" the president that the migrant caravan is "not an invasion" as if Costa's role is to debate the President instead of asking questions. When President Trump had enough and instructed an intern to retrieve the microphone, Costa refused to relinquish the mic, but instead "karate chopped" the woman's arm in attempts to deflect her. The media widely reported that the White House doctored the video which clearly shows Costa's hand come down on the young woman's arm. Much less contact than that would get you and me an assault and battery charge levied against us, but Costa just lost his press pass. CNN sued on free speech and due process grounds to get it back. A judge granted CNN's request of a temporary order without ruling on the underlying case.

What the White House reporters are all vying for is the all important cross shot which offers an extended air time. The goal is to have the cameras capture the reporter asking the question, not just the respondent answering. The best way to secure a cross shot is to ask a lengthy inquiry that pisses off the President or the Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The media outlets reward reporters who tangle with Trump because they think their viewers prefer that; after all, it's Trump we're talking about here, a President who likes to call people names. White House press briefings have been turned into performances as reporters shout out, interrupt and in extreme cases assault an intern who is just doing her job. Offending correspondents are rewarded with cable news contracts for their manipulative behavior which has nothing to do with free speech or news reporting. Instead, journalists are becoming the news.

FDR's Pool
New York Times, June 2, 1933

Back in September of 2018 Ronica Cleary, a political strategist and former White House correspondent, wrote a compelling article for USA Today chronicling her experiences in White House press briefings. She was so appalled by her colleagues lack of respect, enormous egos and the "allure of celebrity" that she quit her dream job after her first child was born. Her article is buried by search engines, presumable for going against the accepted narrative. Cleary had trouble getting a seat in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, which was once a pool installed by FDR, when she was nine months pregnant because her colleagues didn't want to relinquish their choice seats which afforded them the best chance of air time during briefings.

There's no doubt President Trump doesn't employ extensive advisory editing when commenting on social media. His sentiments often get him in trouble because a vocal minority is more concerned with liking the President than what the president actually does. Friends and relatives of mine are suitably pissed off at me for "defending the President." I'm sure they've rendered their opinion of this post without reading this far. I vehemently defended President Clinton against impeachment back in 1998 because I felt it unimportant to like someone to support their agenda. I may not be fond of the occupant, but I will always respect the Office. Today, the democrats have seized control of the Congress even though that was historically predictable. Now the media reports on the possibility of impeaching Trump when democrats take over in January. The news outlets also reported extensively on a "blue wave" that they were sure was to come with the mid term elections. It never surfaced.

The republican seats gained in the Senate were also unanticipated as well as underreported. The most salient metric, preened from the mid term elections, was that every Democratic senator who voted against confirming Bret Kavanagh lost their seat. The same thing happened in 1998 during midterm elections after Clinton was impeached by a Republican Congress. Democrats gained five seats in the house, narrowing the Republican majority. The sordid, soft-core details in the Starr Report, coauthored by Bret Kavanagh, pissed off the American people who turned out in record numbers during the subsequent midterm election. The last time an incumbent party gained seats in the sixth year of a presidency was in 1822. Apparently, most Americans are rightfully unenthused by taxpayer funded witch hunts.

Federal judges have blocked Trump's executive order to eliminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, an Obama era executive order, on grounds of "racial animus," or in other words, Trump is a bigot. The same tactic was employed by federal judges to temporarily block the ban on immigration from selected Muslim countries until the Supreme Court put an end to obstructing the administration based on the subjective evaluation of Trump's likability. Today, unelected, biased, federal judges are routinely obstructing the President, and no one seems all that concerned.

Is the media really the "enemy of the people?" The network news outlet's highbrow response is often wrapped in the First Amendment much like Mitt Romney's blog post. Journalists like to portray themselves as the keepers of free speech as they report on all the news they deem fit to print. The media is, first off, a for profit business that will do whatever it takes to snatch a chair at the table, even if doing so means a pregnant women must stand. Reporters should heed the warnings of history. The American people are the most well-informed populace on the planet, sometimes because of the media, but all too often in spite of the manner in which the news is reported today.

I, for one, think we should get rid of the lot of them and bring back FDR's pool.