Confession and Apology

For the past two years, I have defended the press from President Donald Trump's criticism. Having worked at both CNN and Fox News, I know the good hard work so many reporters do to provide us with the news. We have a president who found a way out of going to Vietnam, and we have reporters who rush into war zones, risking their lives to provide accurate coverage of dangerous events.

But I must confess I have a harder and harder time resisting the temptation to believe the American political press corps has become the enemy of the people. Increasingly, it seems that the political press is becoming the enemy of half the country. I try to pull myself back from thinking they are the enemy. But I fully understand why so many Americans believe they are.

The press reaction to the news of Covington Catholic is one of a long series of stories of reporters dripping with contempt and being quick to come to conclusions about people the press thinks need to be taken down. Right now, the media coverage is all about how the press was just trying to keep up with the story. The media is actually blaming Trump supporters. They cannot admit they judged a boy by his hat. There have been supposedly legitimate news stories about whether the boy was smirking at the drummer and what that smirk was supposed to mean. This is not journalism.

NBC News is running a story about a gay Covington high school student who graduated valedictorian and the school refused to allow him to give his valedictory speech. Only a careful reading of the story would make clear the student did not even go to the same high school and he was denied the ability to give his speech because he did not turn it in on time and violated school rules about political statements.

The American political press has become increasingly isolated in the security of its own liberal bubble of privilege. Reporters' skin colors and sexes may be varied, but their groupthink and herd mentality is all the same. The political press, like so much of the political left, has decided to build narratives instead of report facts.

Before the story about the Covington students at the March for Life, reporters attacked Karen Pence, the second lady of the United States, for teaching art to students. Karen Pence had worked at the same school for 12 years. It is a small Christian school in Springfield, Virginia. The students' families sign Christian confessional statements acknowledging they will adhere to a Biblical worldview and moral behavior.

I take this one personally because my kids go to a Christian school with a moral code reflecting my faith. The contempt and belittling reporting on Karen Pence was an attack on my faith and family, too.

There are many great and fair reporters in this country at both the local and national level. I have vocally rejected the idea the press is the enemy of the people. But I increasingly understand why they are so hated by so many and why so many cheer on their bankruptcies and layoffs. Too many members of the media do not understand or do not care why people feel that way.

I said this is an apology, too, and not just a confession. It is.

I must apologize for the growing belief that it is no longer worth defending our press corps. I increasingly feel, as a Christian and a conservative, that the press is not interested in telling the truth and facts, but is heavily invested in ruining people like me. Intellectually, I know better. But it is hard not to get emotional when I see so many vile press-led attacks on people of faith and so much willful misreporting because someone has on a red cap or is a Christian or a conservative. Within the media as a whole, I do not see a will to improve. Increasingly, the good, responsible journalists are getting overshadowed by clickbait and ratings that cater to people who look and think like the reporters ruining the industry. It makes me sad.

Erick Erickson

Posted: Jan 25, 2019

We have a president who found a way out of going to Vietnam

Cheap shot. And no less than I expected from this man.

I was fortunate enough to get a student deferment just before student deferments were ended. So Eric could say the same thing about me, I "found a way" to get out of going to Vietnam.

So let me share this for Eric's benefit, even though he will never read it.

My father was a three War Marine and a truer Patriot you would not find. In 1963 and 64 he was one of the Marine advisors in South Vietnam. He came home in late 64 and said to me and my brother that the politicians were going to turn our involvement in Vietnam into a major war and they were going to also turn it into a quagmire and disaster. He said that the politicians were going to micromanage the military and that was going to be a horrible mess because they had no understanding of the Oriental mind and no clue about fighting guerrilla warfare. He was prescient.

He told us that while the military was an honorable profession he said stay out of the military now if you can, they're going to leave a lot of American blood in Vietnam and accomplish nothing.

I’d also like to share something in regards to Mr. Erickson’s high-minded defense of our so-called journalists. Whom he apparently thinks have only begun to slide in the last few years. He’s completely wrong.

My father retired as a major in the United States Marine Corps in July of 1965. For much of the time he was stationed in the states he was an ISO, Informational Services officer. Military liaison with the civilian press.

He told me a little story that happened I believe in the early 60s. He said he was on a bus with primarily civilian press and they basically forgot he was there or more likely they just ignored him. He said he listened to them collude and plan to destroy a fairly high up defense department official. And then he said he watched it happen in the press. They did exactly what they were planning to do. So I don’t think the ethics of the press in this country have been worth crap for a good long time, probably before Mr. Erickson emerged from the birth canal.

My father was at the Pentagon during the first couple years of John F Kennedy’s tenure. I’m 12 years old and he’s telling me how the Press is covering JFK’s ass because of all the screwing around he was doing. He said they thought it was funny and would not print a word about it.

...it seems that the political press is becoming the enemy of half the country.

Recommend you suspend long-held beliefs, Eric, and focus on reality.
The reality is - and your phrase should read, "...the...press is becoming the enemy of America".

That is because "half of the country" or approximately all those that recently voted for Hillary do not realize that just as the MSM played them about Obama, they are being played by the MSM about Trump.

Indeed, that portion of the country regards the press as a beacon of truth and light; notwithstanding that is now obvious both Obama and Hillary are hardly a model of American patriots.

You might consider that you appeared at one time to be an anti-Trump operative of the MSM. In that light, this apology is less encouraging than a politician's, "I regret that happened."

But perhaps it is the first step in the right direction, we will see what follows.

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