The Liberal Media, an Urban Myth

I know it’s only been just over a week since my last sermon, but I’m just steaming and need to vent and beg your understanding. More school shootings -- approximately thirty-five in the United States so far this year. More senseless gun deaths. More fathers arrested, apparently unconcerned that they allowed their troubled teens easy access to weapons of mass destruction. Compounding this terrible American bifurcation -- the Second Amendment Great Wall of law and politics -- is how quickly gun violence becomes below the fold or even page eight column inches. And evidently none of this impacts the electoral sensibilities of the American public.

Just where is this “liberal mainstream media” which the Donald blames for everything from his felony convictions to his sexual peccadillos to his increasingly Alzheimers-like word salads. Certainly not Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, or even the New York Times any more, or sadly, no longer the Washington Post either. All of these increasingly money-poor print outlets keep ragging on Kamala to explain how she’s different from Joe or other frankly insignificant nits in this terribly meaningful election. And they give front page coverage without ridicule or damnation to JD’s pronouncement that school shootings are now “A FACT OF LIFE”, a speech delivered from behind layers of bullet-proof glass! Irony which totally eluded the “liberal mainstream media.” Lest we forget that his Dear Leader the Great Donald had earlier this year after yet another school shooting declared, “WE HAVE TO GET OVER IT.”

Broadcast media is no better. Newscasting has become a game of thirty second soundbites designed to be as inoffensive to as many people as possible and -- heaven forfend -- certainly not to irritate corporate sponsorship. Lead with the school shooting, show as many tearful witnesses of parents as you can corral with your microphone, then switch to Vance or Trump and their obscene oral flatulence. Wow, balanced reporting. While occasionally in the print media you will see Trump’s remarks labeled as incorrect and rarely as the lies they are, you won’t often hear that on NBC, CBS, ABC, or CNN. Is there any reliable and balanced news source remaining other than The Onion? I jest . . . . but only slightly; my search for daily input now seems to center more on The Hill and Huffington Post than NY times or WashPo, both of which I read for my favorite opinion columnists more than for any expectation of objective news coverage.  

In the latest web-blast from The Lincoln Project, Joe Trippi nails it: “If the media would take five minutes off from trying to press Kamala Harris for ‘more specifics,’ they’d notice that there are a couple of total monsters running against her.” 

Anyone who would try to normalize gunning down children and teachers in schools in my estimation is no better than a war criminal. Thank you MAGA Republican Party for getting us to this point. Usually in these think pieces I try to find a path forward with at least a glimmer of optimism, but today I’m stumped. As we get closer to November 5 (61 days from now as I write) and the race still seems tight in spite of the fact that the only initiative Trump has advanced in recent days is his intention to put Elon Musk in charge of most everything, an announcement which instantly should have cost Trump five million votes if not more. As I asked last week, who could possibly still be an undecided voter? Would you want to eat a meal prepared by someone who truly couldn’t decide between Donald Trump/JD Vance and Kamala Harris/Tim Walz? Maybe the debate next week will move the needle, but why am I not optimistic. Will the “liberal mainstream media” take note if Trump pees himself? Will Kamala get plaudits for anything other than not laughing like the Joker?

Please people, submit your votes for the best media to track to keep objectively informed so we can form defensible opinions based on fact. What are you all doing to remain sane, or are we all just drifting until after the election.

OK, I’ve depressurized enough and won’t bother your inbox for awhile . . . . unless there’s another explosive event. As always, please comment and discuss among yourselves. Please invite others to join our discussion group. Please stay sane and well.

Arne Werchick, after fifty years as a litigation attorney, pro tem judge, law writer and lecturer, former Presiding Arbitrator of the State Bar of California, and past president of the California Trial Lawyers Association, moved to Hawaii and lives with his wife Ruth and their rescue dog Topaz.  He can be contacted at liberalmind@werchick.com.