Not long ago I was speaking to a liberal friend. He is a well-educated man with strong political convictions. Nonetheless we had not spoken about the current political turmoil in some time. It was therefore with great relish that I listened to his interpretation of recent events.
What struck me was how incomplete his understanding was. Although he is an avid student of social change, he had not acquainted himself with many issues. He instead relied upon the commentators on MSNBC to keep him up to date.
Because he was so dependent upon this single source, he did not realize the degree to which it censors its offerings. Indeed, the mainstream media in general are guilty of many sins of omission. It is not just what they say, but what they do not say, that skews the opinions of their consumers.
Thus when my friend and I began talking about the FBI-gate scandal, I found that he believed it was more limited than it is. So far as he was concerned, it was all about the lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. He did not realize how many others were deeply biased.
From his perspective the affair was about a few bad apples, not a systemic conspiracy. As such, it could be rectified by removing the culprits. There was no larger scandal and therefore no reason for a political uproar. This was certainly not a constitutional crisis.
My friend did not perceive the FBI management’s actions as an attempt to protect Hillary from indictment or to frame Trump for a crime he did not commit. What is more, he believed it unfair that the FBI was vilified. According him, the conservative media were continually blaming the FBI as a whole.
I had to explain that figures such as Sean Hannity routinely denied any such intention. My friend has no idea that this was the case because the authorities upon whom he relied said just the opposite.
Even more troubling was his opinion of the recent incivility. He claimed this was coming from both sides of the aisle. He thus cited things said on the social media to validate his case. Conservatives were obviously as vulgar as liberals.
He, of course, had a point. It is amazing how nasty people can be on Twitter and Facebook. But that is not where the political asymmetry manifests itself. It is in the streets and mainstream media that the radical penchant for verbal violence and intimidation becomes clear.
We don’t find conservatives harassing liberal politicians at restaurants and theaters. Nor do we see them attacking prayer breakfasts or political offices. This is a specialty of leftists who, along with Maxine Waters, believe they have a duty to make life miserable for those with whom they disagree.
In fact, these activists describe what they are doing as “protests.” As they see it, they are “speaking truth to power.” They would never admit that they are threatening their adversaries. But that is what they are doing and it is a crime.
All of this was outside my friend’s awareness. Because it is not extensively covered in the media that inform his views, he assumed it did not exist. Actually, since he is gentle soul, he would probably be scandalized by the extent of the gratuitous incivility.
And so the bottom line is this, the media based cover-up of FBI-gate is working. Many otherwise decent people never realize how egregious the anti-Trump misconduct has been. They instead comfort themselves with the canard that the president started the downward spiral and therefore at fault.
Nevertheless, no democratic society can survive as a democracy when the publically available information is badly distorted. Too many people are led astray and make decisions detrimental to their long-term interests.
Totalitarian leaders know this. It is one of the reasons that upon taking power they seize the media. They are acutely aware that if they control what people see and hear, they can shape what they think.
Once upon a time, in the dark days of Watergate, the conventional wisdom had it that the cover-up was worse than the crime. And yet today, the solons of the media pride themselves on how effective their cover-up has been. They sanctimoniously believe they are saving our society.
The reality, however, is that they are saving no one. As my friend’s attitudes testify, they have been effective in squelching vital truths. But the consequence of this is an ill-informed electorate, and that can be lethal to the integrity of a democratic republic.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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