The New York Times long ago devised a clever “out” by making its motto “All the news that’s fit to print.” With the decision on what’s “fit” resting with its publisher’s and editorial staff’s shoulders, it can freely pursue its leftist agenda by deciding that stories that are harmful to Democrats’ health are not newsworthy.
The Times, of course, is not the only member of the legacy media that is complaining it is on the current administration’s enemies list. Three hundred newspapers published editorials this week lamenting Donald Trump’s “attack on the free press.”
But that phrase free press cuts both ways. With the freedom to publish whatever they want, news outlets are also duty-bound to report all the news irrespective of whether it comports with their ideological worldview. That the media have been delinquent in fulfilling this obligation can be seen in their coverage of two current stories — or lack thereof.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
One of the stories is Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s remark on Wednesday that “America was never great.” NewsBusters’s Curtis Houck notes that of the three major networks, NBC and CBS were slow to report the story — both waited a day and even then limited their coverage to 37-second news brief on the comment — while ABC has yet to report it.
The second story, which is more important, has received zero coverage by the media, and that is accusations that DNC Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison physically abused a woman he was dating. The charges were leveled by Sierra Club activist Karen Monahan and her son, both of whom claim Ellison “laid hands” on Monahan on more than one occasion.
The allegations came at a time when Ellison was running in a primary to become Minnesota Attorney General. Nicholas Fondacaro, also of NewsBusters, wrote on Tuesday, the day of the election:
With just a couple of hours until the polls closed in Tuesday’s Minnesota primaries, liberal broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC had no coverage … of the domestic violence accusations swirling around Democratic Congressman and DNC Vice Chair Keith Ellison. … Since the allegations broke late Saturday night, only CBS had dedicated any airtime to the charges.
The citizens of Minnesota who voted in the primary had a right to know about the kind of man Ellison is alleged to be. The “free press” did them a great disservice by repressing the story.
The networks have a lot of catching up to do, especially since evidence of another abuse case involving the congressman has surfaced. This time, a police report was filed, making it impossible for Ellison to deny the charges.
