Something the Founding Fathers didn't anticipate...?

[Jumper]

I heard Bill O'rielly awhile back, during the Obama years, make a statement that I thought was pretty insightful. It has been brought to my mind more and more since Trump got elected. I think of it when I see how Adam Schiff lied about the Russia/Trump collusion hoax, talking to the press at key times saying He's seen classified evidence that supports the case against Trump but, never producing any evidence. Then the media amplifying it on almost all outlets.

How Devin Nune's released his memo with evidence showing how the Russian Collusion narrative was a hoax. Then Schiff releasing his memo with no evidence saying its not a hoax. The media downplayed Nune's memo and ran with Schiff's.

Another: Leslie Stahl of 60 minutes in her interview with the president explaining why the media isn't covering the Hunter Biden scandal because its uncorroborated and Trump countering with- the media had no problem for 3+ years running the completely uncorroborated Russia collusion story.

Also -Twitter (a private company I know but existing in a quasi press function) completely blocking the NYPost article about the Hunter Biden laptop. And I could fill up SnipersHide with example after example...

So with that back to Bill O'Reilly.
I believe he was talking about the press to a Supreme Court Justice (Clarence Thomas?) and remarked: "There is something I think the Founding Fathers never counted on when they wrote The Constitution, and that was a corrupt Press." (Quoted as best I can recall, not verbatim). So I thought about that and I think olé Bill might be right. The framework of our government is 3 co-equal branches; Legislative, Executive and Judicial. Each offsetting the power of the other. The First Amendment guarantees a free press and freedom of speech. With that privilege afforded to them, the press is supposed to be the watchdogs of Liberty, exposing abuses at all levels and branches of govt.

But what would happen if the press were to become biased? No longer dispassionate reporters of fact but advocates for their ideology and presented as un-biased reporting?

Then I think we get what Trump and company have lived through these last 4 years. Now going beyond impeachment, having failed, to a color revolution to change our country away from the ideals it was founded on. All of this bullshit would have ended right quick had the press done their job. But they are clearly biased if not outright corrupt. Not sure Our Founders considered that. Or perhaps they did when they were finished debating the first amendment and it was time to pen the 2nd?

 

[6.5SH]

Surprised this hasn't been edited or censored into oblivion yet:

Pamphleteering | Encyclopedia.com

PAMPHLETEERINGPAMPHLETEERING was a means of propagating new or controversial ideas through the distribution of inexpensive and easily produced tracts or pamphlets. Because the pamphlets were brief and written in a popular style, they enjoyed tremendous circulation. Source for information on...

www.encyclopedia.com

The more things change the more they stay the same. Be your own press. Even back then a newspaper skewed to whoever owned it or was the main patron.

 

[Sieg]

the press was extremely corrupt during the days of the founding fathers

Though the number of impressions that press could make was extremely limited. Now every idiot has a 'smart' phone that comes with the entitlement of expressing their opinion reaching a huge platform of like minded idiots within seconds.

 

[theLBC]

how many of you remember this fucking outrageous lie?

 

[Austan]

I get all my news from pamphleteering ... or is it memes?

 

[Jackwagon]

Malfeasance of the press is staggering. The Fourth estate has become the Fifth Column.

 

[FS1]

The problem is not the corruption. The problem is the concentration. Before the 1996 Telecommunications Act, big media was against the law. Thus the corrupt were always countered by truth. Our media was so decentralized that it was impossible for one entity to use it to sway the masses.

There were hundreds if not thousands of of media companies. There were laws saying one person could only own so many. Bill Clinton changed all that in 1996. The cable companies were the main driver of the change.

Monopoly has killed truth. That much power corrupts and the press was never meant to have that much power. JMHO

 

[...]

So with that back to Bill O'Reilly.
I believe he was talking about the press to a Supreme Court Justice (Clarence Thomas?) and remarked: "There is something I think the Founding Fathers never counted on when they wrote The Constitution, and that was a corrupt Press." (Quoted as best I can recall, not verbatim). So I thought about that and I think olé Bill might be right. The framework of our government is 3 co-equal branches; Legislative, Executive and Judicial. Each offsetting the power of the other. The First Amendment guarantees a free press and freedom of speech. With that privilege afforded to them, the press is supposed to be the watchdogs of Liberty, exposing abuses at all levels and branches of govt.

But what would happen if the press were to become biased? No longer dispassionate reporters of fact but advocates for their ideology and presented as un-biased reporting?

Then I think we get what Trump and company have lived through these last 4 years. Now going beyond impeachment, having failed, to a color revolution to change our country away from the ideals it was founded on. All of this bullshit would have ended right quick had the press done their job. But they are clearly biased if not outright corrupt. Not sure Our Founders considered that. Or perhaps they did when they were finished debating the first amendment and it was time to pen the 2nd?

please, a biased press that advocated ideology is literally how our country was formed.

the difference were seeing now is the press is actively advocating for those that want to see the destruction of the Country. Disagreement of policy is one matter, disagreement of whether the Country should even exist is another.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

The problem is not the corruption. The problem is the concentration. Before the 1996 Telecommunications Act, big media was against the law. Thus the corrupt were always countered by truth. Our media was so decentralized that it was impossible for one entity to use it to sway the masses.

There were hundreds if not thousands of of media companies. There were laws saying one person could only own so many. Bill Clinton changed all that in 1996. The cable companies were the main driver of the change.

Monopoly has killed truth. That much power corrupts and the press was never meant to have that much power. JMHO

^^^ This.

Along with the fact that universities are now equally-corrupted. Places that in the Founders' time were places of expression and wide-ranging thought are now run by and for Marxists. Who are not there to teach dialectic, Socratic discourse or expanding minds... but to suppress any thought that is not woke, neo-communist, socialist claptrap. And they are educating... er sorry... indoctrinating the next generations.

Not just of journalists... who are taught from Day 1 that they are not there to report news, but to change minds, be activists and use their power to bring social justice... but everyone. Business students are not taught about fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. They are taught that their companies must be about 'social justice' and that profit is bad... making the world a happy place with unicorns and rainbows is their job. And they are doing it! And bankrupting their companies in the process.

What the founding fathers DID understand was the power of the human spirit. Of the human need for independence in thought and action. The ability to look at a failing system or company or news outlet... and build a better mousetrap. The mainstream media is garbage... even the quasi-non-mainstream media like Fox has gone 'woke,' infiltrated from inside. But look at the amazing number of small news sources out there!

You have places like Breitbart, Project Veritas and Judicial Watch. All are either journalists or quasi-journalists... pamphleteers to use the quote from above. And they have Twitter and facebook accounts that give them more reach that William Randolph Hearst ever dreamed. 20 years ago, if Judicial Watch had existed and found something "juicy" out, they would have held a press conference... and noone would have come. It took Matt Drudge to break the Monica scandal. A small, independent digger. Who changed the whole trajectory of the Clinton Gang's futures. Today, there are hundreds like him. And their stories ARE getting out. Widely. Much to the chagrin of the main stream media and big tech... which are trying to suppress them, the same way the British and their Loyalists tried to stamp out pamphleteers...

Last, in the times of the founders, don't forget... society lived by a different set of rules. Today, if insulted in the media or lied about, you might file a suit... if you can afford it. It goes before a corrupt partisan judge who sides with the newspaper or so-called journalist and you are finished. Back in the time of the founder, a slander or an insult against an honor was met with a much more 'direct' response. Dueling was common... a reporter called out could easily find himself facing a pistol. Not to mention printing presses got dumped in rivers, newspaper offices smashed and people tarred and feathered and run out of town on rails.

I'd like to think that the Founders knew that, sometime in the future, we would all be more civil. And, in reality, we are. That has also let the so-called journalists and reporters run amok with no fear whatsover of printing lies... hiding behind half-truths... and generally acting like communists mobsters and apparatchik.

The last thought is that there is always a pendulum... and right now the backlash against the media is growing. CNN lost $100 Million last quarter. They are being bankrupted with their wokeness. People have no respect for the 5th estate. And I can't help but think that the growing tide of "This story is false news" and "Your post is hidden by our censors" is not just aggravating to the folks trying to share information... but to those who want to read it. Because every time they see a banner saying "We censored this" what Big Tech and media is REALLY saying is...

"You are too stupid to process this information yourself and make good decisions concerning it... so let us help you out and do it for you because we went to Harvard, we are smarter."

And I don't care if you are PhD professor or a ditch digger... if you are a human being with any normal synapse activity... that is going to piss you off. Because noone wants to be told what to think. Even those that live their lives by being told what to think. Sooner or later, enough wake up and start throwing printing presses into the rivers and breaking out the Tar and Feathers. Hear that, Fourth Estate?

What's that nasty smell anyway? Is that Tar Pots bubbling all across America? Hummmmm.....

Sirhr

 

[isofahunter]

A Lazy/Stupid Electorate does not help either. Coyote is latest example.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

please, a biased press that advocated ideology is literally how our country was formed.

the difference were seeing now is the press is actively advocating for those that want to see the destruction of the Country. Disagreement of policy is one matter, disagreement of whether the Country should even exist is another.

A fantastic image... and one of the great propaganda pieces of all time.

But don't forget that the founders were actively advocating for those that wanted to see the destruction of the country.... England... as the sovereign over the colonies. They hadn't even decided what to 'build' yet and would not for another 13 or so years. They had a revolution to fight. And thankfully, at the end of it, it came out to be a brilliant Constitutional Republic... Not a monarchy (which was a real possibility... King George Washington 1) or a democracy (the mob ruling over the minority). But a Republic in which the minority was always protected by ensuring that the whims and vagaries of the masses did not turn into a crushing of minority dissent.

Does anyone really appreciate how lucky we are that our Revolution turned out the way it did? That the vision of the founders was to avoid... all the things that Monarchies, theocracies, oligarchies, dictatorships invariably turn into... managed to create such a great system of checks and balances? All built around limiting government... and maximizing individual liberty with the belief that a free people are a responsible people?

Those trying to destroy America today are focused on failed ideologies. Things that have, again and again, proven that they belong on the Ash-heap of history. That have failed every.... single... time they have been tried. And yet these idiots cling to their Red Books and their Das Kapital and their illusion of Social Justice with the "But it just wasn't done right the last 50 times..."

This is what we are protecting against... not a vision of something new, untried, exciting and, maybe, prone to fail. We are fighting against a failed ideology that has never worked. But which sounds so good on paper that idiots subscribe to it in droves. An ideology that calls them useful idiots right up front... yet they think their intellect is what drives them to it. An ideology that explains away all its failure points and gives excuses at every turn to explain why failure can be dismissed. When the reality is that their Marxist system is doomed to fail unless they breed every bit of human spirit out of humans. Devolve our species into little more than Eloi or Epsilon-semi-morons... while using them as farmed labor. Read your dystopian fiction for those references.

We're not fighting a revolution at this point... we're trying to protect the system that was created by one of the few revolutions that worked.

Making us the shining city on the hill. As long as we can hold on to it.

Sirhr

 

[Romeo458]

“You Have a Republic, As Long As You Can Keep It”

A government such as ours depends on an informed and involved population. The vast majority of the population is neither. The schools do not teach why we have the bill of rights or the reason behind the 10 amendments known as the bill of rights. They don't teach that the Constitution is there to limit the government and that it does not grant us anything.

The vast majority of people believe that we live in a democracy simply off of word play by the media. If the people were informed and paying attention that would have been corrected. Is the people were informed and not indoctrinated in schools who wouldn't have Pelosi and AOC preaching socialism in our government because they be out on their ass or hung for treason.

Republics become democracies that fall into socialism and socialism leads to communism. We have lost our republic. The 17th amendment was the first step towards democracy and once they remove the electoral college it's finalized.

We the people have been too absorbed in ourselves and not the concern of our future or of our fellow countrymen. None of this is the fault of the media, although they play a part, the fault lies in our laps and our failure to preserve this republic for the generations yet to be born.

 

[atomic41]

"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed".
--Mark Twain

 

[Sean the Nailer]

how many of you remember this fucking outrageous lie?

That biden quote in there, is/was damning. This SHOULD be more 'out there'.

 

[Jgault]

I think the founding fathers were well aware of all of the perils to our fledgling republic, but set up the best system they could to protect freedom, while also knowing that the forces to destroy it were ever present. Reading their other writings it was explicit that it would be up to us to rise up again if needed, hence the tree of liberty needs to be watered from time to time. It’s rarely an accident when cultures end up losing their freedom it’s usually a series of choices made by the ignorant majority one small step at a time, because each little step toward socialism seemed like a good idea. Socialist just figured out that if you control the schools and media then the sheep will march willingly into virtual chains, which is much easier than whips and handcuffs.

 

[Rthur]

R

 

[Thorny]

please, a biased press that advocated ideology is literally how our country was formed.

the difference were seeing now is the press is actively advocating for those that want to see the destruction of the Country. Disagreement of policy is one matter, disagreement of whether the Country should even exist is another.

That picture does not show this person.
Chrispus Attucks, who was an African American man killed during the Boston Massacre and believed to be the first casualty of the American Revolution . But...., that might be him on the far left, face up, with a slightly darker complexion ?

 

[candyx]

Other then feeding the Tree of Liberty there is really nothing that can or will be changed in the near future unfortunately as we move to a socialist government ever so slowly.

A free press could be a good thing if we change the liable laws to hold them accountable for the words they print and speak. These liable laws should also be applied to politicians as well to remove the power of spreading lies and propaganda. They can still retain their " Unnamed Sources" in their stories for if they liable someone then the press can recoup the money they had to payout from their unnamed source.

 

[AGrizz]

What most people do not understand is the Constitution of the United States was written to protect the citizens from YOUR government. This document the "Constitution" states the Citizens rights. Your rights and protections from your government.

These are not the your governments rights "THE CONSTITUTION IS YOUR RIGHTS AGAINST YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS, "GOVERNMENT". That is why the politicians what it changed and eliminated. This is "now us against them", The Citizens against our Government. Two completely separate entities any longer. Just like 1750. This country had allowed this to happen to itself due to persuasion and ignorance from our education systems.

 

[Crang]

Read up on the Election of 1800. The insane mud slinging in the press was as bad or worse than we have today. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson went to war in the papers. Even worse- there was no TV, radio, internet, photos, etc. All you got was what was in the papers. Our founding fathers sure knew about the bias and exploited it like politicians do today. Political Scientists still study its effects on that election.

 

[wade2big]

What most people do not understand is the Constitution of the United States was written to protect the citizens from YOUR government. This document the "Constitution" states the Citizens rights. Your rights and protections from your government.

These are not the your governments rights "THE CONSTITUTION IS YOUR RIGHTS AGAINST YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS, "GOVERNMENT". That is why the politicians what it changed and eliminated. This is "now us against them", The Citizens against our Government. Two completely separate entities any longer. Just like 1750. This country had allowed this to happen to itself due to persuasion and ignorance from our education systems.

Bingo. The people can and should hold the press accountable. The government sure won’t as the media protects them. It is us vs the government (us vs them) and it always will be.

 

[seanh]

how many of you remember this fucking outrageous lie?

I remember it very well. One of the ATF agents killed was a guy that came into our shop... Gave us crap from time to time. He was the firm belief, is either of his friends, that citizens shouldn't have guns

 

[Jumper]

Read up on the Election of 1800. The insane mud slinging in the press was as bad or worse than we have today. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson went to war in the papers. Even worse- there was no TV, radio, internet, photos, etc. All you got was what was in the papers. Our founding fathers sure knew about the bias and exploited it like politicians do today. Political Scientists still study its effects on that election.

You're kinda making my point. The election you referenced was held after the Bill of Rights was ratified and adopted in 1791. The founding fathers wouldn't have had that experience when they penned the Bill of Rights. They created a system of checks and balances for the government and the guarantor of that system was the free press. But I'm not aware of any system of accountability that applies to the press? I guess at some point the FF figured somebody has to do the right thing.