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POLITICAL COMMENTARY

Skewed News

A Commentary By John Stossel

On CNN, a "reporter" interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris gushes, "I'm struck, just in your presence! Looking you in the eye, with your passion ... "
Really?

Even Harris looked embarrassed.

My new video shows how the mainstream media treat conservatives and libertarians differently.

We shouldn't be surprised.

Reporters overwhelmingly lean Democrat. A survey by The American Journalist found that for every Republican in a newsroom, there are 10 Democrats.

The reporters claim to be objective.

They aren't.

News networks always covered Iowa Caucus victory speeches. Not this year -- After Donald Trump won. CNN cut away from his speech, and MSNBC didn't carry it at all.

Recently, NPR hired a new CEO. They chose Katherine Maher, who once tweeted that "Trump is a racist." During BLM looting, she tweeted, "It's hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression."

Now she's the boss of government-funded radio?

Sadly, yes.

Recently, the media got very upset about rule of law. Outraged anchors said, "Texas refuses to give in to federal law." This was because Texas politicians won't remove a fence that the feds told them to remove.

An outraged NBC asked, "Why isn't the Biden administration suing Texas?"

That's actually a reasonable question. Rule of law deserves discussion.

But when it comes to sanctuary cities, the media show no such outrage.

These places merely "choose not to follow federal immigrations laws," says an ABC anchor.

They don't "refuse," like Texas does.

Finally, it's absurd how the media label politicians.

Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, is a libertarian. He wants to shrink his country's corrupt bureaucracy.

So, the media call him a "far-right radical."

But we libertarians aren't "far-right," or even "right." Most of us want to end wars. We support free trade, gay marriage, drug decriminalization and other things far from "far-right."

Milei wants to increase the supply of donated organs by legalizing their sale. That's not "far-right." The American Economic Association found 43% of conservatives oppose organ sales.

But the media smear Milei as "far" or "hard" or "extreme right."

Maybe it's because he wants to cut the size of the government.

The clueless media like big government.

They exaggerate any proposed cuts.

"Republicans Set on Hurting Their Own Constituents With Draconian Budget Cuts" is an actual Forbes headline. (The magazine went downhill after Steve Forbes stopped running things.)
What were the "draconian" cuts?

Instead of increasing spending by 7.8% last spring, politicians "cut" the increase to 3.9%. How is that a "draconian" cut?

Sometimes the media label anyone who doesn't agree with them "right-wing." Or "Donald Trump like."

Stephen Colbert calls Milei the "Donald Trump of Argentina."

Yes, Milei has big hair, and he's good on TV. He's not a traditional politician. But that doesn't make him a "Donald Trump of Argentina."

Milei is for free trade. He opposes protectionist interventions like tariffs. Unlike Trump, he's an economist who's smart about economics.

He's serious about shrinking the state. Trump, by contrast, grew our national debt by $7.8 trillion.

I've worked as a reporter for 50 years -- for NBC, then CBS, then ABC, then FOX. But now I've come to hate most of the media. They scare people to death about minor threats, and spin left while pretending to be neutral. They routinely smear libertarians.

The Guardian headlines, "Libertarian ideology is the natural enemy of science."

But there is some good news. More people now ignore leftist media.

CNN's prime-time viewership recently fell behind the History Channel's, and even behind an obscure channel that just plays old Western movies.

Today, more people get their news from independent journalists who publish in

places like Substack and YouTube. Like Stossel TV.

That's a good trend, because we're more thoughtful than the biased people on TV.

Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom.

COPYRIGHT 2024 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

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See Other Commentaries by John Stossel.

Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports. Comments about this content should be directed to the author or syndicate

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