National media fails to provide balance

Some day when I have ample time on my hands, I want to pinpoint the exact time that the national media fell fully in the tank with the Democratic party.

I'm talking primarily about the alphabet television networks and their constant drumbeat promoting the Democrat's liberal agenda.

I once spent more time than I should watching MSNBC. I have always felt somehow more comfortable knowing the opponent's agenda and I knew without reservation that MSNBC would provide those well-scripted talking points.

And just to be fair, Fox News is lumped into that category as well albeit from the conservative viewpoint.

But over time these viewpoints on both sides of the political spectrum become so predictable that it becomes a waste of precious time to hear the same narrative repeated ad nauseam.

You can pick virtually any topic and know beforehand just how the various networks will try to twist the conversation in their preferred direction regardless of the glaring facts.

The blurry lines between editorial opinion and the facts has been so clouded that it has become difficult if not impossible to find objective reporting on the national level.

The liberal networks ignore and provide no coverage of issues that put an unfavorable light on this administration and their policies.

The New York Times - as just one example - has become little more than an embarrassing shadow of its former self.

The polarization of the American electorate is the fault of the national media as much as the political process itself.

If you take the time to look back and examine how the national press handled the Bill Clinton scandals, there were obvious differences of opinion but there was also fair coverage focused on facts and not political agendas.

The calls for Clinton's head came from his political opponents much more than the media.

But today, it's not a stretch to see that most of the national media is clearly in bed with this administration. Fox is the lone exception and their coverage is equally as predictable.

Advocacy journalism is fine for a local newspaper supporting a bond issue. But that same advocacy on the national stage provides a slanted narrative that is patently unfair and dangerous.

Conservatives often bemoan the low-information voters who cast their ballots based solely on the information spewed from the alphabet networks. Unfortunately, I see no change in that on the horizon.

There's not a lot of difference between an uninformed voter and a misinformed voter.

An uninformed voter has a 50-50 chance of making the right choice. The misinformed voter will cast a ballot based on what they have heard or read and that bad information always results in a flawed ballot.

As a conservative, I will always favor those choices that result in a smaller government and increased personal responsibility.

Yet even as a conservative, I'm more than willing to blast Donald Trump as a phony.

That is a balance that is sorely missing from the national media.