There are moments in life when one remembers exactly where they were when a particular event occurs. The death of JFK, the moon landings, Hillsborough, the death of Diana, 9/11. For all these events I could tell you precisely where I was at the time, right down to the GPS co-ordinates, if necessary. Today, the 7th of November 2020, will join that list. For today is the day that global media truly jumped the shark. Not content with peddling 5 years of Trump Derangement Syndrome, they decided to become the final arbiters of the US election.
I am a little bit angry about this. Rip heads off necks and shit down throats angry. I’m not angry with the Democrats. I’m not angry that President Trump during his term in office was not more conciliatory and less alpha male. I’m not even angry with the majority of journalists who for many years now, have had to wrap themselves in a cloak of political correctness and kept their mouths shut to save their jobs. I won’t be this angry even if the Supreme Court or the Electoral College decides that Joe Biden is the rightful heir to the presidential throne. No, I am angry because the fundamental rock upon which our current fourth estate rests an ample arse upon, is nothing but a mere mirage. That “rock” was meant to represent democratic accountability, or less succinctly, a mechanism where the ills of society were redressed impartially and objectively in a spirit of truth and honest investigation. I know, I can hear you all laughing like hyenas at my naivety and gullibility. However, when the Associated Press, Reuters et al jump on the same tawdry bandwagon as Facebook, Twitter etc. it is game over when it comes down to any press credibility. Political bias, censorship and partisanship is not a good look when it comes to truth, the media or legal process. Deciding the outcome of an election is unequivocally not the role of the press. It is down to the Demos, and if necessary, the courts. Such behaviour is even less welcome in a complex world where things are rarely black or white, left or right, Trump or non-Trump. There are enough political lobbyists without the press, thank you very much. Your job is to report the news, not make it.
I must be thick. I really don’t understand why Donald J Trump is so despised and ridiculed, apart from being a clear lightening conductor for the anti-capitalist movement and the radical feminists. I would have thought that a revolutionary anti-establishment figure would be right up their alley. While I would be the first to admit the man has character flaws, I would counter that with the fact that we all suffer likewise. He is an abrasive bruiser of a man, both physically and verbally, but looks can be deceptive. He is the first President in living memory not to take America to war. He is pro-life, and is the first President to visit North Korea. His personal style is not everyone’s cup of tea, my own included. A President Rookwood would probably be just as pig awkward, but I would give my battered opponents sufficient space to go off and lick their wounds, I might need them later. He was elected on a particular ticket, and as far as I can ascertain, he has accomplished that well, insofar as having one hand tied behind his back by his enemies. For a modern politician, that is indeed revolutionary.
So let us talk the reality of politics and high office. For a start, the media has treated his office with utter and complete contempt. This is the President of the United States of America for goodness sake, not some coked-up son of some B-list politician. When you enter the position of high office, the game changes somewhat. Everything becomes distorted, your good points become withered and your bad ones the instant focus of your opponent. The slightest weakness is exploited, your every movement documented, including bowel. You cannot just just order a Big Mac and have it delivered. You are living in a gilded cage, and as such, many freedoms we all take for granted (pre-Covid) are verboten. The biggest pressure is that even if you do what you believe to be the right thing, there will be a dozen people telling you that you have not. You need to have skin thicker than a rhinoceros and an ego bigger than Vesuvius. So here is my first flaming arrow in the direction of the corporate fishwives we call the “media”. So is this the best you can come up with? Daddy dancing? Artificial tan? Big hands? All attacks on the things an ordinary individual would struggle with changing, their presentation, demeanour and indeed their physical makeup. The anti-Trump rhetoric is strong on personal assassination and weak on any deeper analysis other than he is clearly a narcissist (or a tax dodger conspiring with the Russians). Forget about examining what he has achieved. Don’t give a sucker an even break.
Herein lies the rub. DJT has thrown open the Pandora’s box of political conundrums. For once the media start truly examining the issues he has brought to the political stump, their own credibility is in jeopardy. Clearly, any anti-globalist thought is an existential threat to a 24/7 worldwide network. President Bush summed this up well. You are either for us or against us. Once again, those you would assume to be the first to applaud such radical thinking vomit out their dummies. Only now, with the possibility of a Biden success on the horizon, are the media starting to look back and see things in a broader perspective. Five days after the election, I glanced my first sighting of a GOP member on Sky. Five. F****ng. Days. Where were they all on election night? Admittedly, now that the possibility of a Trump defeat looms large, all the lowlife are crawling out from beneath their respective rocks. Or maybe the White House was just on media lock-down. So I won’t lay that blame totally at the door of Rupert Murdoch. Just a proportion of it.
I’ll let you into a secret here. If Rookwood was given his time here on earth again with what I know now, I would want to be a journalist, lawyer or policeman. I love people, but at the same time I am acutely aware of the fact we are all flawed creations. Society needs watchmen to look out for the good of everyone. When things go wrong, the middle class look to such individuals. No more. The professions of policeman and lawyer have now been discredited to the point that only a minority can be considered worthy of the authority. I was holding out for journalists, you know that old “freedom of the press” and “unbiased reporting” thing. Hence my anger. Sadly, I gave up on the established church long ago.
I have worked with a few journalists, and we have got on like a house on fire. Why? The decent ones see through all of this, and realise the agenda is driven by editorial policy and comes from the top. Idealistic from the start, unless successful, they end up bitter or jump ship. Most are trapped and desperately unhappy, because they wanted to live the dream. That dream, driven by Woodward and Bernstein, who brought down Nixon, by the admission of the Washington Post, is now unachievable. The blame for this according to them, is part new media (all that “Fake News”) and the lack of an independent judiciary. How about re-encapsulating all of this by suggesting the post-modernist agenda has infiltrated all of the establishment to the point that Watergate is peanuts in comparison to what goes on now? Epstein anyone? I do sympathise with the media on one point though. If your audience is so dumb that you need to tailor it to the reading age of a 14 year old (Verbal advice – Senior local government PR officer), we are truly screwed. How else can you explain the relentless character assassination of Trump? Expect fluffy kittens and flowers if Biden succeeds, along with a large “Save the world” flag, soon after.
I am vehemently apolitical with panderings to the left and right depending on issue. That said, a newspaper, even by the cartoon imaginings of Superman, is meant to be a guardian of all that is good and holy. Yes, it would be really boring if there were not opinion pieces, pictures or editorials. However, the reality is sadly thus. Media is funded by advertisers. Long gone are the days where a newspaper had any financial independence or indeed credibility. The Times of London took much pride in its nickname, “The Thunderer”. Sadly, it is now just a trail of bloodied used tampons as it has adopted more and more “woke” feminist columnists. I abandoned my weekly Sunday Times addiction a few years back when I came to realise that as a white, middle class male, I was really not a welcome demographic any more. The fact they have sat back, done nothing, and said little of importance when it comes to the twin issues of immigration and child grooming gangs, speaks volumes. These two evils, if plastered on a broadsheet newspaper every day for a month, would soon get some political action. Especially if names were named. That, however, would scare away the paying advertising piper. An independent press? My left and right testicles are more independent.
The press and media should be held in a particular place of honour in our lives. I believe in credit where credit is due, and your life expectancy as a decent investigative reporter is such that no insurance company will cover you. There are journalists up and down the country that are decent, honest individuals. My dealings with one during my “whistle-blower” phase was nothing but professional, courteous and decent. They went out of their way to be impartial, but off the record, they new exactly where I was coming from, and were totally straight with me. Their hands were tied, and unless sufficient “critical mass” was reached, there was no way editorial would approve publication. They needed sufficient “evidence”. In my personal opinion, that requirement was considerably more than would cause a jury to convict. This was hampered by many people angry with the situation who were not willing to go on the record, even anonymously. So I get it. Genuine journalists value and understand reputation.
So if I invite you, Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Media into my home, I expect certain standards. I want you to feel completely welcome, but at the same time I am not impressed with people who take the piss. Lying to my face doesn’t go down well here. Even more so, as I pay good money for your company, I want something tangible. Truth would be a good start. I don’t have a problem with opinions and beliefs, however diverse, provided they are entertaining and don’t put myself and my family in danger. I draw the line at being insulted and being treated like a complete idiot. If you have a modicum of power, and we develop a relationship, I expect you to exercise that power if you agree I have been a victim of injustice as my voice is not as loud as yours. For we believe in the same things after all, don’t we. No? No. This rot goes all the way to the top. A fundamental betrayal of expectation and trust. As I have learned, the corporate media is not a two way street.
It is interesting that the greatest paradoxes of the current US election cycle is offence. Everyone seems offended by DJT, but ignorant of the offence they cause by demonising the man. Taking a totally objective stance, I would say more offence is caused by ignoring the current destruction of young lives by grooming gangs and the ongoing destruction of our culture by untrammelled immigration. Those precursors are a symptom of a bigger problem that our beloved press has remained effectively silent over, on both sides of the pond. You dare not mention the dangers of globalisation, unless of course you are a conspiracy theorist or a Green candidate. Nicely repackaged for the masses, only the fringe take any interest now, but to to give the Guardian its due, they did do a piece on the Bilderbergers and then it all went quiet. I have got to come a conclusion that the press, are in all honesty, effectively, just a heat-sink and gatekeepers. Sad.
My visceral anger has cooled somewhat since I started writing this piece. I won’t forget though. I have been betrayed, an institution I had a lot of regard for has shown what it is made of. “Bullshit” I hear you say, but I have a tiny sliver of hope. Maybe Trump will be a wake-up call. Maybe not. The current fiasco where the media, superseding the current confusion, is found to be final voter, may be the straw that breaks the back of the camel. They have clearly exceeded their authority in deciding the outcome of the US election. I truly hope and pray that the US court system strongly repudiates the current media consensus.
I have calmed down now. Let God and justice prevail. I’ll leave you with my opening thoughts that inspired this piece. It is interesting to note however, that Google cannot find any decent reference as to who first coined the phrase “media whore”. Somewhat ironic.
The reason that child abuse is so abhorred in a civilised society is down to the long-term damage it causes not only to the victim, but to society as whole. The present corporate media establishment is no longer a whore. It has sunk beneath pederasty into paedophilia. As such, it needs to be shunned and labelled as such. It may not literally sell sex or physically abuse children, but employing the same techniques as a paedophile uses to groom the population on a mass scale, is just as abhorrent. For one of the key reasons we are disgusted by such acts is not just the physical abuse, but the abuse and betrayal of trust.
Link: WaPo article
© Rookwood 2020
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