‘Liberal’ media complacent as GOP commits treason

By Thomas Sass

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Conservatives have perpetuated the “Big Lie” that the U.S. media is liberally biased. Many examples to the contrary have been offered by individuals in various forums but apparently to little or no avail, even for non-conservatives.

A lie, repeated often enough without adequate scrutiny - by media outlets - turns into an accepted truth.

This last couple of weeks should have produced just about as clear a signal that while some who write for media outlets identify themselves as left of center, their reportage is often anything but liberal. Americans witnessed the worst example of treason this country may have experienced in its relatively short history.

An entire political party - Republicans - sided with a foreign leader and nation - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel - against the president of the United States, and the so-called liberal media's reportage not only did not question that but aided and abetted the foreign leader/nation.

This so-called liberal media, who we are constantly conditioned to believe holds President Barack Obama in such high esteem and without whose assistance he never would have become president, did not even suggest how un-American the Republicans' posture was and provided absolutely no political cover to the president's actual speech.

Instead, they reiterated the conservative Big Lie narrative Obama did not suggest: Israel has been asked to place itself into an untenable position regarding the establishment of a permanent Palestinian state.

Obama stated what other presidents have articulated - the last being George W. Bush in 2008 - as well as many Israelis. Yet, his political opponents quickly pounced by miss-stating (lying about) Obama's position and the so-called liberal media reinforced that lie.

An astute political

observer did suggest that it was not the message but the messenger that created this extreme backlash and which fits the general narrative Obama's opponents have taken ever since Jan. 20, 2009: put him in a position of not being American enough to defend Israel by any means necessary and no exceptions/nuances are allowed without being universally condemned.

The Big Lie in this case was that Obama was “throwing Israel under the bus,” which, again, was not the case. Yet the mission of an entire political party, along with the so-called liberal media, was to lie to the point where it was generally accepted as the “truth.”

Please imagine the uproar from the right - and the so-called liberal media - if a Black African nation were given such an honored place at the table and then their leader scolded and lectured George W. Bush on international television.

Then imagine the entire Democratic Party siding with the Black African leader/nation. Conservatives would be condemning the un-American, treasonous liberals and the backlash would eventually become so extreme that a few conservatives would even go so far as to suggest a good old-fashioned lynching of the African leader.

A truly objective media would call out such lies rather then aid and abet those whose sole purpose is to move even further to the right.

Thomas Sass of Iowa City, a University of Iowa graduate, has worked at Pearson in the student assessment field for last 11 years. He is a student of history and has authored a book about the treatment of African-Americans in this county. Comments: tom.sass@pearson.com