Reverse Pravda: Is The Free Press Dead?

I led a team into the former Soviet Union in the 1980s. Our Bibles were taken away at the border (even a copy of TIME magazine) because the Communist Party controlled their society and didn’t want “free” ideas entering the land of the gulags.

At that time the Soviets ran the media outlets, including the famed “Pravda” newspaper which spewed Bolshevik propaganda. I remember being concerned at the time that a government could control the press.

Today, in the United States, it seems almost the other way around. A “free” press treacherously colludes with a Deep State to bring down an elected government.

Is the free press dead? If so, what should we do?

I’ve been concerned about biased media coverage for years. When I was young, Walter Cronkite and Peter Jenning commanded respect and “the news was the news.” As Bill O’Reilly describes that period, journalists were taught to “seek the truth.” Just the facts. If there was bias, it was small, not obvious, and generally confined to the editorial page.

I noticed a change in 1992 when, for the first time, the major media outlets in America acted to bring down a sitting president and replace him with two men who shared their liberal values–Bill Clinton and Al Gore. They  succeeded by lying about a recession and elevating the “young guns”.

Apparently Clinton’s values were their values. They got their man.

In the 2000 and 2004 elections, George W. Bush was not their guy. Dan Rather lied about Bush’s military service and alcoholism problems to try and influence the election. Bush won and Rather lost his job.

Then the secular mainstream press got their man, Barack Obama, in 2008 and 2012. According to one pundit, they “spent eight years cheer leading the Obama administration, seeing not a smidgeon of corruption or dishonesty.”

Then came 2016. Reporters were first amused at Donald Trump seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Later, they colluded to elect a woman who would carry on the Obama progressive agenda. Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton was a serial liar and terrible candidate. To the utter anger and disgust of the secular media, Donald Trump won and their agenda lost.

Since then, they’ve been openly colluding with the Deep State and Democratic Party to falsely smear and bring down Trump. Hence, the term “Fake News.”

It’s the new norm.

As I’ve said before, Donald Trump was not my first choice for president. But when he beat a strong field of conservatives, won the presidency, and began to appoint godly people to high office, I realized he might be a “miracle from God”–the only person who could have triumphed over the forces aligned against him.

But why is the media against Trump?

Because we’re fighting a worldview battle in the USA. Christian Europe lost that war decades ago and is being Islamicized and traumatized by terrorism. The final, major bastion of the free world is the United States and its Bible-based Constitution. Demonic forces and their earthly allies are hell-bent on tearing it down.

Barack Obama accelerated that cause. Hillary Clinton might have  completed it.

Donald Trump signalled a U-turn. That’s why the secular forces, with the media holding the biggest megaphone, are angry and trying to stop him.

Don’t forget the big picture. We are engaged in a world view civil war. The media is now a brazen participant in that war–not reporters of it.

Michael Goodwin is the respected chief political columnist for the New York Post. He previously worked for the New York Times for 16 years. In a recent speech in Atlanta, Georgia, he gave this assessment of today’s American media:

“I’ve been a journalist for a long time. Long enough to know that it wasn’t always like this. There was a time not so long ago when journalists were trusted and admired. We were generally seen as trying to report the news in a fair and straight forward manner. Today, that’s all changed.”

“For that, we can blame the 2016 election, or, more accurately, how some news organizations chose to cover it. Among the many firsts, last year’s election gave us the gobsmacking revelation that most of the mainstream media puts both thumbs on the scale–that most of what you read, watch, and listen to is distorted by intentional bias and hostility. I have not seen anything like it. Not even close.”

Goodwin shares these sobering points:

• “Liberalism is backed into the journalism cake” because many social revolutionaries of the 1960s and 70s went into the media (and academia) to try and bend the nation toward their ideals.
• He laments, “I blame the New York Times and the Washington Post for causing this breakdown. The two leading liberal newspapers were trying to top each other in their demonization of Trump and his supporters. They set the tone, and most of the rest of the media followed like lemmings.”
• Here’s his long-term proof of liberal (Democrat) bias: “The New York Times has not endorsed a Republican for president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, meaning it would back a dead raccoon if it had a “D” after its name. And the Washington Post, which only started making editorial endorsements in the 1970s, has never once endorsed a Republican for president.”

Why? Because today’s mainstream press, which includes the New York Times, Washington Post, the Associated Press, the three major networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) and two of the three major cable networks (CNN and MSNBC), all desire a secular America–and where that could lead.

“Faith-based” America stands in the way of those plans. An unusual deliverer–Donald J. Trump–is turning the clock back with the help of working people and an awakening Church. So, Trump must be destroyed–the same motivation the demonic world has for all human beings.

Dick Morris is one pundit who warns us about the new Pravda. You can watch his short video here.

Is deceptively “fake news” here to stay? Mary Spaeth of the conservative-based Daily Signal states:

“Different definitions abound, but I submit that fake news, at its core, is reporting in which the journalist selectively chooses and ignores facts, and interprets or paraphrases those facts to reach an unwarranted conclusion that conveniently validates his own views. It goes to the heart of how many reporters see their job these days.”

“The lesson for American news consumers is to be skeptical of what you read in all media and take the time to give the facts a second look. And there’s an additional lesson: Urge journalists to employ a little more self-examination to make sure they don’t cherry-pick the “facts,” quotes, and experts that simply ratify their predetermined conclusions. And when they do, we should call them on it.”

The prevalence of this new “Pravda” in America means we need to re-think our media consumption and get involved in reclaiming this important domain.

Here are my recommendations.

1. Stay away from most network and cable news. We’ve even cut back on Fox News. Some believe FNN is beginning to drift in the progressive direction due to the Murdoch sons’ new control. Last week they jettisoned the slogan “Fair and Balanced.” Be discerning.

2. Listen to and read those you trust. Most evenings Shirley and I watch Bill O-Reilly’s “No Spin News” on the Internet. I consider him a concise and fair commentator. His 25 minute podcasts feel like an FDR fire-side chat. The service costs $50 a year, with no commercials or pressure points. You can sign up here. My other favorites are Sean Hannity for passion and Rush Limbaugh for philosophy.

3. Get a free subscription to Dick Morris’ daily “Lunch Alert” (a 3-5 minute video), take in the headlines on The Drudge Report, and/or subscribe to a number of faith/conservative emails and periodicals of your choice. In the Information Age, you must stay informed.

4.  Cancel biased newspapers, don’t buy from corporate sponsors who disrespect your values and make your voice heard in the public square. Michael Goodwin says “You have to join the side you’re on.”

5. Spend more time in God’s Word and in prayer. Filter out the lying noise with the pure, unadulterated source of truth. I’m enjoying more quiet times a day–not just the morning. Center your being in the One who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6).

5. David Kubal of Intercessor’s for America believes we can pray in a shift of the media bias. He’s right that our fight is primarily unseen. Many believe that a new conservative news network could emerge to take Fox’s place. Let’s bind the lying voices and pray in truthful ones.

6. Pray that Christian universities will train and send students into the media world to help transform it. Never forget that “the philosophy of education in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next (Abraham Lincoln).

A free and truthful press is worth fighting for.