The three major broadcast networks did not do their job last night. ABC, NBC, and CBS either put the president's speech on their streaming websites or limited the airtime of his speech. All three however, gave full airtime on the broadcast stations to their so-called "fact checkers." ABC and NBC were the two that aired the stage on their streaming websites, which have far fewer viewers than the broadcast channels. CBS aired the speech but joined it late and then left early to air their version of a fact checking program.
One of the undeniable truths of life in my world is that every news report you read, here, or watch is biased. Sometimes that bias is understandable because of things like time or space constraints. A reporter has to decide what facts or information is most important to their audience. But this is the worst kind of bias. This is the bias in which the broadcasters have decided to take actions that are designed to mislead the audience.
In my opinion, a reporter's job is to report the facts without any opinion being part of that report. Air the president's speech on the broadcast networks like you have done with almost every other president and let the people see what actually happened. By either limiting what the people saw or airing it on a place where few people have access, the fact checker programs can then tell people what they want them to hear. That leads to a tremendous opportunity to misinform the people and create a picture that is not true.
Maybe they were worried about what was in the documents the president referenced in his speech. I have seen not only the national Intelligence Report but have read some of the documents from which it was created. A memo from the CIA created in 2020 contained a tremendous amount of information about how the Chinese government tried to influence the elections in 2018 and 2020.
One of the things the Chinese government did was identify reporters and news outlets that were highly critical of Donald Trump. They then paid them to air more negative stories about the president. Some of these payments may have been direct, while others were payments for advertising that didn't air. Could CBS, NBC, and ABC have been recipients of those payments? They certainly were critical of the president at the time.
But that's what people do when they cannot win the argument on the facts. They manipulate the data by taking it out of context or outright lying. And they have done this enough, that I think it's time they do lose their broadcast licenses. Part of having a license is that you have to contribute to the public good. That's a very broad statement but I don't think anybody can argue that if you lie about what's happening, you are not contributing to the public good no matter what your motives might be.
I'm sure it won't happen but there should at least be an investigation.
