Question: How do you know President Trump is lying? Answer: His lips are moving.
Funny, huh? Sometimes I crack myself up.
Seriously, here’s an up-to-date definition of integrity: Trump voters who ask themselves, “What the hell was I thinking?”
Apparently, two recent letter writers haven’t gotten there yet. Mary Jane Newell is “offended” ad nauseam, beginning with the media’s bias against the Orange Crush. Thomas Shields, in lockstep Fox fashion, blames the “national media.”
That‘s just so much tired, recycled, thoughtless nonsense.
As a former member of the national media (covering national security for Business Week in the Reagan years), I promise you that what motivates journalists isn’t partisanship. It’s conflict.
So the press assigned its best people to the story when:
• The Vietnam War tore the country apart … under a Democratic president.
• An Arkansas land deal, uncovered by the New York Times, looked so dirty that Congress insisted on a special prosecutor, forever staining the reputation … of a Democratic president.
• A sex scandal rocked the White House and led to the impeachment … of a Democratic president.
• Extremely careless misuse of an email server, first reported by the New York Times, mortally wounded the presidential campaign … of a Democrat.
Let’s not confuse the messenger with the message — the conflict of a clueless, twitter-happy charlatan “leading” the world’s greatest continuing experiment in democracy.
So spare me the whining about the “liberal media,” OK? And for crying out loud, Fox isn’t “news.”
Dave Griffiths, Mechanic Falls
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