We Need More Checks On Power And More Ways To Address Grievances
By: Joe Miyaki
Tags: Congress, First Amendment Rights, First Amendment, Constitution, Mainstream Media

DISCLAIMER: This should not convince anyone to “go left” or “go right”.

We have a first amendment, and obviously it is great. It is meant to be a “check” on power.

However, one of the “checks on power” is also in bed with power, and drunk on their own power. The media companies with the largest reach and influence are also not trustworthy.

We know that the left leaning outlets are NBC, MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post.

Fox leans right. Sinclair Broadcasting is known as a conservative media giant that has aggressively acquired televised local news.

In theory, a “free press” should help be an adversarial force to existing power. But our “free press” is on the side of the power that it is supposed to be monitoring.

The White House Correspondence Dinner Invites The President And White House Staff To Join The Event

In general, the press and the white house should have an adversarial relationship. This helps us know that the press is doing their job regardless of whether or not the White House will approves.

Correspondence can have a dinner. It is fine for the media to want to celebrate their job, and the hard work that job entails.

On the note of presidential attendance:

The last president to outright skip the event was Jimmy Carter, who did so twice — in 1980 and 1978. Richard Nixon also skipped it twice — in 1974 and 1972. Nixon warned the press he would do so and followed through… Nixon, told [his] chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “The press is your enemy.”

When Nixon told his Joint Chiefs Of Staff, “The press is your enemy.” that line could make anyone uncomfortable. “Enemy” is a fighting word.

To put it more lightly, Nixon was saying, “the press is not on our side”. And that is perfect. The media should not be on any “side” of the aisle. Unfortunately, that is what we see when your major networks clearly lean one direction and simultaneously claim that they don’t lean in any direction.

Additionally:

Former State Employees Are Paid Contributors To Media Narrative

In 2018, John Brennan, former CIA Director from 2013 to 2017, signed a contract to contribute to NBC News and MSNBC. He is still a contributor.

John Brennan has worked for the highest levels of power.

And the CIA even has experience planting agents inside of media companies to help control narratives produced by those media companies. Even former CIA officer Tom Braden directly talks about how the CIA did this, saying:

We had placed one agent in a Europe-based organization of intellectuals called the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Another agent became an editor of Encounter. The agents could not only propose anti-Communist programs to the official leaders of the organizations but they could also suggest ways and means to solve the inevitable budgetary problems.

To be clear, I am not saying the CIA-planted John Brennan “inside of NBC” to control a narrative. But also even if that was the case, that would be a secret that was protected.

In a separate case, CNN employs former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director Michael Hayden. These “contributors” can’t possibly have an adversarial relationship with the very organizations they gave their lives to, but a media grounded in principles of independence should have an adversarial relationship to government power.

What Is The Solution?

The first amendment and second amendment give power.

But clearly that power for the people is not enough.

But our first amendment has become compromised.

On the side of the first amendment, words are often unheard. Or the words that we use may be heard and nothing is done about it. Even protests don’t necessarily lead to any change.

On the extreme case of the second amendment, we have a right to form a militia, but that is an incredibly extreme remedy to addressing a grievance with the government.

At the time of this writing, I do not know what those are.

Additionally, we would need congress to literally approve us taking away power from them.