Don's Tuesday Column

           THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   4/10/2018

               Newsreaders diss Sinclair values

This will be the last—almost too late—notice for you to reserve seating at this coming Saturday’s Republican Red, White and Blue annual dinner, this year saluting Tehama County Agriculture. The price per seat is $45 and, together with the proceeds from the silent auction, helps assure our presence at local fairs, festivals and events, in addition to providing scholarships to local deserving students. Please call today: 865-2666 (Linda) or 200-0091 (Jerry).

Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s principled on-air statement of adherence to truthful reporting and decrying of false social media news, read by dozens of announcers across the nation, saw reactions from otherwise calm and collected mainstream news media range from befuddled to nearly hysterical. Their reactions actually showed groupthink by the MSN that proved Sinclair right. MSN “news-readers” have corporate owners/editors providing scripted segments of video and text news stories for local network affiliates, like our KRCR and KNVN.

It’s ironic, even hypocritical, for a station to endlessly tout its “Get the facts right” motto while sliding seamlessly—not even a “Here’s the network’s version of national news” disclaimer—into repeating a canned report or story containing inaccuracies. It’s especially so when those stories often come loaded with spin and interpretation that invariably leans in the direction of the liberal, progressive or Democrat version of events. It’s so predictable that I can easily anticipate how any given news event will be portrayed by the networks in unison.

Reports on student anti-2^nd Amendment marches make no mention of the massive organizing effort by leftist gun control groups or the views of many gun-rights-supporting fellow students. Similarly, stories on EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s use of a room—one bathroom-less room— ignore the routine vagaries of transitional bed space for executives relocating families to DC. His flight expenses compare favorably to expenses for Obama’s EPA heads; MSN wants you to ignore the death threats from green wackos at Pruitt, making his security more costly.

It should be noted that Pruitt’s only real offense is that he is reining in the out-of-control and illegal policies of the EPA; i.e. applying the Waters of the USA law to seasonal puddles and streams, Obama’s global alarmist-inspired boondoggle of inefficient and unreliable wind and solar under his “Clean Power Plan.” Pruitt is reversing the deadly (for small car owners) and unrealistic fuel efficiency mandates—California must be brought to heel. He is also insisting that the scientific basis for policies be—oh, the horror—sourced to public, peer-reviewed studies.

We are never reminded of some of the most outrageous derelictions of journalistic duty: The cabal of reporters, editors and writers that formed a dedicated chat room during the Bush presidency, under the moniker “journolist,” so as to present a united, consistent (anti-war/Bush) version and narrative to the news-consuming public; The media’s insistence, back in House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s era under President Bill Clinton, on describing as “cuts” the mere reduction in the rate of growth of budgetary items like the “school lunch program.” Oh, the caterwauling about taking food out of the mouths of kids; Democrats could be expected to bray for partisan advantage but the news media and print press should have held to a higher standard and properly informed us that nothing was being “cut” from any program.

Going back a week or so to the news about President Trump’s Census Bureau asking all respondents about being a “CITIZEN” (all upper case on the actual form), were you told that the potential exclusion of non-citizens from the census count could reverse the loss of political power and fiscal benefits by African-Americans to Hispanic communities? Yes, America’s black citizens and politicians have been reduced to practically begging for their fair share at the political table due to the inclusion of Hispanic non-citizens and illegal immigrants in tallies used for Congressional districts and federal “benefit” distribution.

Incidentally, immigrants here legally, or being “normalized” (like the DACA youths), may be given an incentive to avoid federal housing, food, medical or other “benefits” if they hope to become citizens. In yet another burst of common sense (like building a wall to keep illegals and drug “mules” from walking over our southern border), Trump is considering honoring the spirit of America’s immigration principles—that those seeking to be allowed in, or become part of, America must not be “public charges.” Immigrants shouldn’t come here for freebies.

By the way, when Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown and his fellow loons in Sacramento make illegal immigrants into default voters upon receiving a driver’s license—only in local elections, mind you—they are effectively making the case that California’s votes be declared inadmissible for national elections. It borders on a secessionist-inspired legal policy that should invalidate California’s U.S. Senators and Electors in future votes. Are Brown et al willing to prove the validity of the results by having massive voter ID checks as ballots are turned in? Not likely.

How refreshing is Trump’s response to a massive caravan of Central American migrants heading north; it’s literally opposite of Obama’s. Obama encouraged notification of Hondurans, El Salvadorans and others to make the trek North through Mexico to America’s open borders; he then spread them far and wide to ease the transition for those seeking permanent, illegal entry. Trump talks of placing troops on the border and “jaw-bones” Mexico into taking action to head off the wave of border-crossers. Just call it “making America America again.”

Roger L. Simon: “We are close to, maybe even in, an all-out cultural civil war…The entire nauseating, disingenuous Russia investigation, instigated from the start by sleazy hypocrites who had been appeasing the Soviet Union and Russia for decades, is a disgrace.” It’s a coup by deception.