Why do the public dislike journalists so much; treating them as they would the sanitation workmen in the days before sewerage made their jobs redundant? The answer to that question might be that they are engaged in the most partisan of worlds, the world of politics and whatever they say is going to insult someone’s opinion. 

I say ‘might be’ the answer because that is not the reason they are disliked. They are disliked because they display all the hubris and arrogance of the tyrant who cannot be held to account. They willfully misrepresent what people have said, take it out of context and insult their audiences with inane, childish questions (“how did you feel when you were run over by that bus?”) for not other reason than that they can do so an maintain the narrative; Hubris with a capital H. 

In Australia, it is the broadcaster that refers to itself as Australia’s most trusted source of news whose journalists cross-pollinate the Nine/SMAge empire. In the United States it seems to be the vast majority of major networks, often referred to as the mainstream media; the MSM, the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, Associated Press, ABC and the vast sprawling Comcast cable network channels, CNN and MSNBC, just to mention a few). 

All of these outlets have taken over the Democrat narrative concerning President Trump and they have dogged him with every deceptive journalistic technique in the hope that he will stumble and fall. Protected by the organisations they represent and with increased pride, the journalists have shown a soulless disregard for the truth; that is until the President appointed Kayleigh McEnany as his new press secretary. McEnany had responded on May 1 to an AP question, assuring the journalist: “I will never lie to you.”

On May 6, Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason asked McEnany: “You made a comment … in which you said President Trump will not allow the coronavirus to come to this country. Given what has happened since then, obviously, would you like to take that back?” 

McEnany’s response highlighted exactly why the public dislike journalists: they have only their own narrative. After having explained the background to her comment to which Mason had referred, McEnany responded: 

I guess I would turn the question back on the media and ask similar questions. Does Vox want to take back that they proclaimed the coronavirus would not be a deadly pandemic? Does The Washington Post want to take back that they told Americans to get a grip, the flu is bigger than the coronavirus? Does The Washington Post likewise want to take back that our brains are causing us to exaggerate the threat of the coronavirus? Does The New York Times want to take back that fear of the virus may be spreading faster than the virus itself? Does NPR want to take back that the flu was a much bigger threat than the coronavirus? And finally, once again The Washington Post, would they like to take back that the government should not respond aggressively to the coronavirus?

Remember the confected media outrage when President Trump produced a video mid-April that highlighted his timely responses to the Chinese virus? Rather than admit that their own reporting was incorrect, biased and misleading: the Washington Post, CNN and the British Telegraph attacked the President for showing a “propaganda video”: a case of ‘we can do that but not you.’ While the New York Times was silent about the video, Charles M. Blow called for an end to the corona briefings.  

Kayleigh McEnany’s response showed journalists to be soulless people moved only by their love of power. The MSM response to her reply shows their inability to see themselves as they really are. 

Dr David Long is a retired solicitor and economist.

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