PJTV Trifecta - Terror in Boston: The Press Must Stop Blaming America

The mainstream media and their friends wasted no time blaming tax protesters, small government and the Republican Party for the terror attack at the Boston Marathon. Why must the press politicalize everything in this country? Hear more on this Trifecta.

NOTE: To share or email this 'Specific' article, you must click on the Title of the article.

Austin Hill - Diminished Trust and Woodward’s Woes

It’s difficult to imagine that he was surprised by the outcome.

But the White House response that ensued after Author and Journalist Bob Woodward dared to question and criticize the President should be an eye-opener to the world. And the fact that America’s beltway media culture has essentially “sided” with the President and seems quite comfortable with the White House hostility is a very telling sign.

Consider the relationship between the presidency and the press over the course of American history. Believe it or not, the White House has been home to lots of outlandish and at times illegal behavior over the past two hundred years or so, much of which was known to White House reporters at the time but was never reported.

I wouldn’t have believed this, necessarily, until I began researching and writing my first book “White House: Confidential” back in 2005. It was at that time that it became glaringly apparent to me that everything changed in this important relationship during the Nixon presidency. And that very necessary change was mostly brought about by Bob Woodward, and his former Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein.

First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln, conducted séances at the White House in an attempt to “contact the spirit” of their son William, who died at the age of twelve while Lincoln was still President. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt recruited and hired White House reporter Lorena Hickok, and the two of them lived together at the White House in what many believe was a lesbian relationship.

Senator Warren G. Harding was widely known to have had a mistresses and an out-of-wedlock child. So before he was recruited to run for President, his party – the Republican Party – paid the mistress to leave the country until his presidency was completed (she returned after Harding died in office).

President and former Senator James Buchanan, America’s only bachelor President, was known to have shared bedroom quarters during his congressional days with Senator (and future Vice President) William R. King (the press called them “Mr. Buchanan and Aunt Fancy”). And our two Presidents Adams – John, and his son John Quincy- were so ticked-off about being un-elected after one term in office that the both left town a day before their presidencies were completed, and didn’t attend the inaugurations of their respective predecessors.

Was there scandalous behavior at the White House before Richard Nixon arrived? Absolutely. And while historical records suggest that much of it was known to the press, most of it never got reported. Presumably journalists of the day were concerned that such “news” could have been damaging to the presidency, or perhaps to the entire nation.

But everything changed with Nixon – and with Woodward and Bernstein. The two young thirty-something reporters from the Washington Post quickly discovered that the presidency could be a harbinger for serious, and potentially deadly corruption. One can argue that the fraud of the Nixon presidency helped make a lucrative career for Woodward, but Woodward couldn’t have known that while he was in the process of confronting the corruption head-on.

The courage of Woodward still exists today, largely with independent, web-based media operatives like Matt Drudge, James O’Keefe, and those associated with the late Andrew Breitbart. Most in the traditional media, however, have become so comfortable with the thuggish behavior of “”their President” that, rather than express any real concern over this latest episode of abuse, they’ve instead turned on Woodward himself.

There are many very good reasons why Americans’ trust in traditional media is at an all-time low. Consider Bob Woodward’s story as one of them.

Austin Hill

Austin Hill is an emerging American voice, addressing culture-defining questions through books, talk radio, web, speaking, and interviews. His recent books "White House Confidential" and his new title "The Virtues Of Capitalism" show his range from whit-infused writer to thought-provoking expert on the intersection of philosophy, religion, politics & culture. Hill helps to make the complex seem simple when exploring capitalism, socialism, and other "Isms".

He is an editorial contributor to national publications such as U.S. News & World Report, a columnist with TownHall.com, and is a popular expert-host on radio from leading stations in Washington DC, Chicago, Phoenix and Los Angeles, and nationally with networks such as Fox NewsTalk Radio.  He hosts the "Austin Hill Show" weekday mornings at Fresno, California's Talk Radio 105-9 KMJ-FM,  and weekday afternoons at Boise, Idaho's Newstalk 580 K I D O radio.

Hill holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, and a Master's Degree in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Biola University in California.

NOTE: To share or email this 'Specific' article, you must click on the Title of the article.

Austin Hill - In Obama’s America, A Somewhat Less-Free Press

Campaign operatives masquerading as media “fact checkers.”

A President who uses the power of the Executive Branch to shutdown blogs.

Do American journalists care?

The left-leaning sensibilities of America’s dominant journalist culture are well established. But what isn’t so well established is how comfortable American journalists are with the undermining of their own craft, by a Democrat President named Barack Obama.

Had media professionals been more interested in facts back in 2008, rather than merely advancing the narrowly defined agenda of “diversity” and ushering in America’s first Black President, there may have been concern about Barack Obama and the company he keeps. Now after nearly three and a half years of “change,” it remains to be seen if the journalists among us remain committed to the agenda.

On May 26th of this year, ABC News Senior Correspondent Jake Tapper correctly noted that the Obama re-election campaign’s media “truth team” operation is “muddying the waters” of information about the President. The “truth team,” as Tapper pointed out, is obviously pushing a campaign agenda, and is anything but an objective “fact checking” service despite how they portray themselves.

Then on June 1st, USA Today reporter (and actual “fact checker’) Eugene Kiely noted that the Obama “truth team” was actually wrong about some claims made against Thomas O’Malley, an oil refinery owner and Republican Party donor. One can imagine that Kiely may have paid a professional price for daring to write such a thing, but facts are facts – Kiely called it as he saw it.

Yet American journalists may have seen this Obama “win at all costs” agenda coming, had they been willing to ask questions of the President. In 2009, for example, Cass Sunstein, an American legal scholar and Harvard Law Professor, was appointed by President Obama to head up the “White House Office Of Information and Regulatory Affairs.” His title is sufficiently broad and ambiguous, but throughout his tenure in the Administration he has wielded plenty of power. And had journalists been the least bit curious about Sunstein’s 2009 book “On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done,” they may have become a bit concerned about their “freedom of speech,” and the free flow of information, generally.

You owe it to yourself to do an online search, and read about Mr. Sunstein and the ideas that he advances in his book. In particular, many of the thoughts that Mr. Sunstein expresses about the internet seem consistent with present-day behavior of both the Obama Administration, and the Obama re-election campaign.
Perhaps most disturbing is Mr. Sunstein’s vision for the future of web content, as he argues for a so-called “notice and take down” law. Under this provision, those who operate websites - - The Washington Post, radio stations, private bloggers, and perhaps even you, yourself -we would all be required “take down falsehoods upon notice” from the U.S. government.

And not only would the original content of websites be scrutinized by the government for “falsehoods,” website operators would also be held responsible for the content of “posts” created by the website’s visitors and readers. At first blush it may seem that, for a web operator to be held accountable for content generated by “posters,” is completely untenable. But that may very well be Mr. Sunstein’s goal - - to create an untenable situation for website operators - given his assertion that imposing “a ‘chilling effect’ on those who would spread destructive falsehoods can be an excellent idea..”

But who shall determine what, exactly, is “true” and “false?” Mr. Sunstein laments the supposed “lie” that emerged during the 2008 presidential race, that “Barack Obama pals around with terrorists.” Despite the fact that a friendship between Obama and known domestic terrorist William Ayers was something that both men acknowledged, Sunstein alludes to the notion that this was one of those “destructive falsehoods” of the sort that needs to be policed.

Less than a year ago on my daily radio talk show, a caller to my program observed that “there’s no way this (Mr. Sunstein’s proposals) could be legal, or constitutional..” Thoughtful Americans of all sorts will immediately view this situation through the lenses of constitutionally guaranteed rights.

But we should all realize by now that issues of “legality” don’t matter so much with the Obama Administration. Likewise, as Chief Justice John Roberts noted in the Supreme Court’s ruling over Obamacare, it is NOT the role of the court to save us from bad policies made by legislators.

Austin Hill

Austin Hill is an emerging American voice, addressing culture-defining questions through books, talk radio, web, speaking, and interviews. His recent books "White House Confidential" and his new title "The Virtues Of Capitalism" show his range from whit-infused writer to thought-provoking expert on the intersection of philosophy, religion, politics & culture. Hill helps to make the complex seem simple when exploring capitalism, socialism, and other "Isms".

He is an editorial contributor to national publications such as U.S. News & World Report, a columnist with TownHall.com, and is a popular expert-host on radio from leading stations in Washington DC, Chicago, Phoenix and Los Angeles, and nationally with networks such as Fox NewsTalk Radio.  He hosts the "Austin Hill Show" weekday mornings at Fresno, California's Talk Radio 105-9 KMJ-FM,  and weekday afternoons at Boise, Idaho's Newstalk 580 K I D O radio.

Hill holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, and a Master's Degree in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Biola University in California.

NOTE: To share or email this 'Specific' article, you must click on the Title of the article.