If there’s anything the mainstream media doesn’t need at a time like this, it’s to get utterly fooled by an astroturfing campaign put on by some leftist organization. Newspapers and television news outlets should have their guard all the way up against fake news, especially when it smacks of anti-Trump sentiment. Conservatives don’t demand that the media adore and worship the Trump administration, but we do demand fairness and truth from the nation’s media. There’s been far too little of that over the last three years. If these outlets ever want to salvage their reputations and regain the public trust…well, they’re going to have to do better than this.
Last week, at least 21 newspapers across the U.S. published the exact same letter – sent under a different name to each outlet – opposing the nomination of Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh.
“Brett Kavanaugh is the wrong choice to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court,” the letter read. “If he is confirmed to the Supreme Court, everything that we hold dear as a nation will be at stake. From protecting a woman’s right to choose to dismantling The Affordable Care Act, Judge Kavanaugh could be the swing vote that takes away our rights. His lifetime appointment would also mean he could also cement the Citizens United decision for decades, giving corporate special interests and mega-donors with extreme agendas even more influence in our democracy. It’s time to take the for-sale sign off our democracy. The Senate should not vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.”
The Washington Times, the Wilmington News Journal, the Santa Monica Daily Press, the Boston Herald, and the Fargo Forum were just a selection of the newspapers who were duped into publishing the letter, which was sent under the guise of coming from an independent, local reader of each paper.
If nothing else, this little campaign proves two things, both of which we already knew.
One, it proves that the media is far too willing to publish anything that parrots their own liberal views.
Two, it proves that the left is desperately trying to drum up something that just isn’t there, which is grassroots enthusiasm for a war against Brett Kavanaugh.
Americans aren’t foolish or naïve enough to believe that the Supreme Court is this sterling, apolitical organization, far above the petty ideologies of the common Washington congressman. But on the other hand, your average non-crazy leftist understands that when you win a presidential election, you get to pick Supreme Court nominees. It’s just that simple. There’s nothing extreme or corrupt in Kavanaugh’s history that should keep him from getting a vote. And no matter how many letters activists publish in the paper, that’s not going to change.
