American Elections 3 - Tips for International Followers - The Media Machine and Promoting News with Bias

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Anyone who has lived in or visited America has most likely witnessed the power of the media, the bias of the media, and the elitist attitude of America's Fourth Estate.

About 227 years ago, on September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution.  Ten of the proposed 12 amendments were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791. The ratified Articles (Articles 3–12) constitute the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, or the U.S. Bill of Rights.  In 1992, 203 years after it was proposed, Article 2 was ratified as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. Article 1 failed ratification.

Here is the exact text of the original third amendment, which eventually became the first amendment to the Constitution.

"Article the third... Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Now if ever there was a doubt as to the power of the press the first amendment to the Constitution should end the discussion.  In that action, two special interests received special rights and protection in America, religion and the press.  A third interest, the people, received a guarantee of free speech, the right to assembly, and the right to petition the government.

If our Founding Fathers could see the maze and mess of the media today one wonders if such special rights would exist.  Back then there were only newspapers and magazines, and current news could be a week and often far longer before it reached you.

The instantaneous nature of news today with the bias and lack of fact checking inherent in it, while broadcasting such a cacophony of dribble and drabble through radio and television would be enough to put Ben Franklin in a premature grave.  Add to that confusion the explosion of the Internet and the competition between everyone to control it, and the Founding Fathers would probably give us back to Great Britain.

So today, we are stuck with a New World media.  Once upon a time, the media in America had "ethics," "standards," and rules to assure "objectivity."  In fact all members of the traditional or Main Street media, meaning those who existed in the era of print, radio, and television, agreed to establish a Society of Professional Journalists and adopted a Code of Ethics in 1909.

Here is a summary of the Code.

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SPJ Code of Ethics

Preamble

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.

The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.

Seek Truth and Report It

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should

be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting

information.

Minimize Harm

Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of

the public as human beings deserving of respect.

Act Independently

The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve

the public.

Be Accountable and Transparent

Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one's work and

explaining one’s decisions to the public.

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Well, it was a great idea in 1909 but largely ignored in every presidential election cycle since until this year, 2016, when any such binding Code of Ethics for journalists seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth.

This year the American media has demonstrated an elitist attitude, a contempt for the people of America, a disdain for seeking the truth, and they despise many of the political candidates.  In short, ethics in the media is long gone.

Yet it is okay in this tumultuous election cycle because the candidates themselves have also bent the rules of decorum and obliterated any political correctness in the process.

As an advocate of the Lincoln approach to our system of government, an approach Honest Abe discussed in his First Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1861, here are his own words.

"The government, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."

Not only did he have 1861 in mind when he spoke those prophetic words, he was speaking for an America 155 years into the future, the year 2016, and the presidential election "revolution" that is underway.

What Abraham Lincoln foresaw as a possibility when the government, politicians, and special interests took control and ignored the will of the people, has materialized today.

The signs were there but the perpetrators including the media, politicians, and the establishment were blind to them.  Every poll for the last decade has reflected a growing mistrust of all institutions in America from the news media to politicians to Wall Street.

People are watching, and people are losing faith because they are not being heard and not being served by the very people they elected to protect them.  Institutional inertia and governmental paralysis are unacceptable and Wall Street rip offs are the height of arrogance by a privileged class.

Why do 50% of eligible voters refuse to participate?  Why did a little over 20% of the eligible voters elect our last president?  Why are there more registered Independents than Democrats or Republicans, for the first time in our history?  Majority rule by the people is a joke because long ago Minority rule by Special Interest cast the people aside.

What is clear to the America people but not clear to the political and corporate establishment and politicians is the fact that the long talked about "Silent" or "Forgotten" majority is finally fed up and ready to fight back.       

Media Bias

Regarding media bias, those who say it does not exist are plain and simple liars.  Many studies of the media undertaken prove where the major media outlets stand in terms of bias.  Here are the results according to Pew Research.

So, we know there is extreme liberal media, the liberal media controls the vast majority of major media outlets, the liberal media are Democrats, and the people of America can be characterized as some liberal, some conservative, most in the middle, and they are Americans first!

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The Iowa Caucus - Predictions from an Iowa Hayseed - Hillary or Bernie, Cruz or Trump?

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Today is the beginning of the American Presidential campaign to replace Barack Obama as Iowans caucus to pick their choices for Democrat and Republican candidates in one of the most unusual methods used in the USA.

The "caucus" Iowa style is like no other form of primary in that it is the first test of the strength of candidates and first test of their ability to appeal to people, not the media, not the contributors, but the people.

The two parties differ somewhat in how to run the caucus, with the Democrats disqualifying anyone with less than 15% of the vote, which means a redistribution of the votes for O'Malley to the surviving candidates Clinton and Sanders.

What the media failed to note until today, is that if Bernie and Hillary tie as the polls seem to reflect, and Clinton is the establishment candidate while Sanders is the outsider, it seems logical that the O'Malley votes are anti-Clinton and therefore will go to Sanders.

If there is a high voter turnout, and there most certainly will be, Sanders and Trump stand to benefit the most.  If the anti-establishment mood of the nation is real, and all evidence points to that fact, again Sanders and Trump benefit.

On the Republican side, there are a dozen good candidates, including two who won the Iowa primary previously.  Then there is the only true outsider championing the "silent majority" of Americans Trump, who has never run for public office.

Challenging Trump is Cruz, claiming to be an outsider but after winning a Senate seat in 2012 and personally managing the shut down of the US government a couple of years ago, he hardly qualifies as an outsider.  He also failed to mention he received one million dollars in last minute loans from Goldman Sachs and Citibank in order to win a runoff for the Senate seat.

In my mind, the anti-establishment mood of the nation is a direct result of control of our government by special interests, specifically the financial and banking powerhouses and pharmaceutical drug makers, through the failure to have adequate campaign financial limits.

In this election year, the most special of special interests finance and support two candidates.  First is Hillary Clinton, whose family received millions and millions of dollars from Goldman Sachs dating back to Bill Clinton's impeachment, while Hillary has received millions from the financial giants and corrupt hedge funds.

The second is Ted Cruz, who not only violated federal campaign laws by failing to report the Goldman loans, he also failed to mention in his bio that his wife is a twelve year employee and director of Goldman Sachs.

The news media chooses to make qualified predictions of what will happen today, sort of hedging their bets since they have been wrong about every aspect of the election this year.  If the turnout is very high, they say, there is a chance Sanders and Trump will win, but the odds seem to be a lower turnout and wins by Clinton and Cruz because both spent more money and have the best organization in Iowa.

I say nonsense a qualified prediction is like a wimp whose idea of taking a chance is going out on a limb that is two feet off the ground.  Perhaps we should throw the media into the establishment category as they have done as much as the big bankers and beholden politicians to undermine our country.

Did I mention Barack Obama is the third politician who represents the best office holder money can buy because of his own decade long relationship to Goldman Sachs?

At any rate, the Coltons Point Times is not afraid to make real predictions on the Iowa race and here they are.

The Winners

The American people who know our government, financial system, our political parties, and campaign financing system are corrupt to the bone.

Bernie Sanders who will send shock waves throughout the Democrat establishment machine by beating heavily favored Hillary Clinton with his multitudes of young, energetic, and untested volunteers.  At the same time, he will help strike a mortal wound to the equally corrupt political party machines that have controlled our elections.

Donald Trump who is the other side of the double-bladed sword that will lead to the destruction of the special interest control of America, and who, like Bernie, comes to the party with no strings attached.  Like Sanders, Trump is bringing millions of Americans back into the political process in order to slay the mighty machine that has bled America dry.

America has seen nothing like this avalanche of support for outsiders since Andrew Jackson became our seventh president in 1829 when he ran against the corrupt financial establishment trying to take control of the young America.

"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes."

                                                                                    Andrew Jackson

Jackson served two terms, founded the Democrat party, and closed down our national bank, the Second Bank of the United States.

Rand Paul considered inconsequential by the media and Republican Party but who can be invaluable in shaping a future America free of special interests.  I sense he will far exceed expectations.

The Losers

Hillary Clinton who finds she is no longer heir-apparent to the presidency and must stand accountable for all her bizarre acts in government.

Ted Cruz who discovers a conservative with no personality is largely boring and cannot be trusted.

Goldman Sachs who thought they had both political parties compromised but might just be wrong.  Even if she loses in Iowa, Hillary still is the prohibitive favorite to win the Democrat nomination since Bernie is not even a real Democrat and he is a socialist.

Barack Obama who is counting on Hillary to protect his presidential legacy even though trusting the Clintons to protect anyone other than a Clinton is not a good sign for our president.

Finally, Harvard and Yale could easily be losers as the two Ivy League schools have controlled the American presidency for the past 28 years.  There are 2,618 accredited colleges and universities in America, give someone else a chance.

Hillary (Yale) or Cruz (Harvard) is the standard-bearer expected to maintain the stranglehold on the presidency that Obama (Harvard), Bush, Jr. (Yale and Harvard), Clinton (Yale), and Bush, Sr. (Yale) have preserved through four straight presidencies.

  

Trump crowds

As for the caucus in general, I expect the Republican turnout to set a new record and the Democrats to be very close, if not break, the Obama record in 2008.

Bernie crowds

In addition, since Trump and Bernie will both win the New Hampshire primary in another week, the shock waves will continue to reverberate through the political parties and media as the campaign unfolds.

A side note, the Democrat winning the Iowa caucus won the presidency in 2008 but the Republican winning the caucus has not won the presidency in 20 years.

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