Stephen Lendman

Press agent journalism substitutes for the real thing. Truth-telling is a lost art, absent in Western reporting on issues mattering most.

The fourth estate was never more disreputable than now, a shameful disgrace to its profession - featuring disinformation, fake news and advocacy instead of what legitimate journalism is supposed to be.

Trump is wrong on most issues, on the mark about the media’s deplorable state, painful to follow, impossible to know anything about the state of the nation and world by following its reports - red meat for critics like myself to take them to task, the deplorable NYT my favorite target.

Defending itself from justifiable criticism, arguments by the Times ring hollow.

Claiming its columnists, correspondents and editors are journalists, not Trump’s enemies, is utter rubbish.

They’ve waged war on the president from the time he announced his candidacy in June 2015 - remaining unrelenting from then to now, part of a major media plot to remove him from office, a disgrace to the profession for trying.

The Times: “If only President Trump denounced neo-Nazis as passionately and sincerely as he castigates journalists.”

Fact: He blasted white supremacists, neo-Nazis, the KKK, and other hate groups. The Times and other media scoundrels turned a deaf ear.

The Times: “(F)or all our failings, journalism remains an indispensable constraint on power. Trump has systematically tried to delegitimize the institutions that hold him accountable…”

Fact: US media scoundrels are beholden to wealth, power and privilege exclusively. They cheerlead US wars of aggression. They support corporate empowerment.

Fact: They blast Trump largely for the wrong reasons, not the right ones, notably ignoring his war crimes - a taboo topic never to bring up, only against US enemies, not its presidents, Congress or Pentagon commanders.

The Times: “The New York Times and The Washington Post have separately tallied Trump’s lies, with The Post calculating that he has now made more than 1,000 misleading statements since assuming the presidency.”

Fact: All politicians lie, notably US presidents, Obama the nation’s liar-in-chief for eight painful years, Trump continuing what’s traditional in America.

Fact: Nothing politicians say should be believed. Media scoundrel lie more than them. Relying on them for news and information assures being misinformed and disinformed.

The Times: “Trump’s caricature of journalists as dishonest is hypocritical and…insult(ing)…”

Fact: The truth hurts. Trump and others opposing his agenda are with him on this issue.

The Times: “…Trump is buoying the repressive instincts of dictators around the world.”

Fact: Bipartisan administrations and congressional members love dictators - as long as they’re US allies. They support so many of them, despising independent democratic governments Washington doesn’t control.

The Times: Trump “has always had a soft spot for racists…”

Fact: From inception, America has been a hugely racist society, beginning with George Washington, many other presidents following him, notably slave owners, Lincoln for wanting to deport freed slaves, Wilson for re-segregating the federal bureaucracy, others during Jim Crow years, FDR for incarcerating Japanese Americans, and every US president waging war on Islam, Trump included.

The Times: “(O)ur president is mentally unstable,” calling his behavior “bizarre.”

Fact: “Unstable” and “bizarre” are Times code words for a president it despises for defeating Hillary, its favorite, providing press agent services for her throughout the campaign - a contemptible display of extreme bias.

The Times: “(W)e are enduring an epic struggle over the principles on which our country was founded. These include the idea that a flawed free press is an essential institutional check on flawed leaders.”

Fact: The so-called principles involve rule of, by and for the privileged few, no others.

Fact: Independent media alone comprise a responsible free press in America. Corporate ones like The Times, along with corporate and government-funded public radio and television should never be trusted.

They suppress and/or sanitize all news, information and analysis vital to know, replacing it with worthless rubbish - a Times specialty.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."