By Raynard Jackson (NNPA Newswire Columnist)
I will be writing this column in the spirit of the 2002 blockbuster film, “Minority Report,” which starred Tom Cruise. The movie is set in 2054 Washington, D.C. The basic premise of the movie was that the government had the ability to arrest and convict a person of a crime before they actually committed the crime.
With that in mind, I predict the biggest loser of next month’s elections will be the American people, regardless of who the winner is.
Americans have already become more and more cynical towards our governing institutions; political, religious, corporate, and civic. When people lose all faith in their institutions, it’s a recipe for a total meltdown of society.
The WikiLeak e-mails have provided proof, not so much to Trump’s assertion that the election is rigged, but to the fact that the American way of life is rigged.
Over the years, I have constantly heard many Republicans complain about how biased and liberal the media is. I used to dismiss these charges as simply sour grapes and that Republicans have never really been very good at communications, but the WikiLeak dumps have proven that Republicans have been right all along.
The media “claims” to be the fourth estate and it is anything but. The fourth estate refers to the role of the media, especially print, in being a check and balance on the other three estates (or branches) of our government: the executive, judicial, and legislative.
What I find amazing is that this proven media bias puts the journalistic industry in direct violation of their own professional standards as established by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). The SPJ is supposed to be the arbiter of the standards by which all journalists must comport themselves to.
According to SPJ’s website, their mission “is dedicated to the perpetuation of a free press as the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty…To ensure that the concept of self-government outlined by the United States Constitution remains a reality into future centuries, the American people must be well-informed in order to make decisions regarding their lives and their local and national communities. It is the role of journalists to provide this information in an accurate, comprehensive, timely, and understandable manner…to stimulate high standards and ethical behavior in the practice of journalism…to foster excellence and to encourage diversity among journalists.”
What I find astonishing about SPJ’s mission statement is that they claim to “foster excellence and to encourage diversity among journalists,” but yet they don’t have one Black staffer in their headquarters in Indianapolis and have only one Black on their board of directors.
If the governing body of journalism is hypocritical, should we expect their members, the media, to be any different?
WikiLeaks has shown that major media entities and reporters are in bed with the Clinton campaign, specifically, and the Democratic Party, in general. But yet, according to their own mission statement, “It is the role of journalists to provide this information in an accurate, comprehensive, timely, and understandable manner…to stimulate high standards and ethical behavior in the practice of journalism.”
Since the media has been actively promoting Hillary’s candidacy, how can they then turn around and claim to report “accurately and to stimulate high standards and ethical behavior?”
The few times that mainstream media has asked Clinton directly about these leaked e-mails, the so-called journalists allow her to simply deflect by saying that Russia stole these emails. Neither Hillary nor her supporters can deny the substance of these e-mails.
Imagine that you have a teenage son whose best friend lives next door. They also go to school together and and one day your son mistakenly leaves his schoolbooks at the friend’s house. The friend’s mother returns the books to you, but also states that she found his report card in one of the books and tells you that she’s seen these grades. Your son never showed you the report card, because he had bad grades.
You question your son about the poor grades and his response is that the neighbor had no right to look at his grades. Regardless of how you learned about on his grades, it doesn’t negate the fact that he received poor marks.
Likewise, it doesn’t matter how WikiLeaks got all the e-mails, not one e-mail has been proven to be inaccurate and it is the media’s responsibility to question Hillary and her supporters like they have been doggedly questioning Trump over these women who are making “allegations” of misconduct. Hillary’s e-mails are presenting actual evidence of wrongdoing.
The media has totally ignored hard evidence of Clinton and her campaign having direct conversations with the State Department and Department of Justice regarding open investigations involving Clinton. How is this even possible?
Do you really wonder why the American people have lost all faith in our various institutions? Americans feel like if you have power or wealth, there is a different set of rules you live by. If Trump made the argument that the system was rigged in this regard, then he would have the support of most Americans.
Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter @Raynard1223.
