The connection almost hit me yesterday. While working on the sweet backyard deck I am building for myself, I was outside listening to Rush Limbaugh when he played an audio montage of CNN in the immediate aftermath of last week’s House vote to (kind of) repeal ObamaCare. What was so revealing is that Limbaugh did not use Democrats to make his point, but rather so-called reporters like Jake Tapper and Nia-Malika Henderson.
Yep, there they were, right on message; bitter, angry, and pretending to be journalists as they all dutifully shared the exact same talking point informing Democrats on how to save ObamaCare and destroy the GOP. (Here’s the Limbaugh transcript).
Something about this struck me as awfully familiar, and I set down my 40 of Olde English 800 (I was on a break) to ponder just what that might be. Unable to grasp the connection, I returned to the hard work at hand.
Then, early this morning, before the sun had even shown itself, I came across this story of MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough confidently predicting that if the Republican Senate dares support this ObamaCare (kind of) repeal, “they are making a mistake that will crush them in 2018. Mark it down, Republicans. Just mark it down.”
So that is exactly what I did. I set down my 40 (I swear I was still working on the same one) and marked it down.
And then, like a ton of bricks, it hit me. Not the beer. The connection and the beer. Yeppers, this is the exact same failed, partisan, dishonest, propaganda campaign our MSM (especially Joe Scarborough) used in 2013 to terrify Republicans into voting in favor of more federal gun-grabbing laws.
If you recall, in the wake of those horrific 2012 murders at Sandy Hook Elementary, our heartless media joined heartless Democrats and a heartless president (Barry) to exploit this unspeakable carnage as a means to erode our Second Amendment civil rights. And this was almost accomplished courtesy of a full-fledged campaign executed by the entire MSM.
Phase One involved 24/7 emotional blackmail. You either agreed with Piers Morgan, Scarborough and the usual-usual gang of “journalists,” or you were a monster who wanted children murdered with guns.
Phase Two was the fabricating of a Reality that did not exist, one in which gun control was the tippy-top issue on the minds of voters (it was more like number 39). Phony polls (that intentionally ignored the public’s overwhelming desire for a focus on economic and jobs growth) were relentlessly heralded and the media’s 24/7 focus was almost exclusively on an issue no one cared about. The idea, of course, was to fool those who refused to care about gun-grabbing into believing there was something wrong with them, which in turn would pressure them into caring.
Other than Scarborough and Piers, this Fabricated Reality Campaign was led primarily by NBC’s Chuck Todd and CNN. To no one’s surprise, in the lead-up to a close and crucial Senate vote on the matter, and thanks to a leaked document, we learned CNN would spend two full days openly advocating for gun control. (Wanna know who else pushed gun control? Yep.)
This is propaganda by means of narrow-casting, meaning that the entire infrastructure of our political media coordinates across all platforms (web, TV, newspapers, etc) to weaponize their focus as a means to terrify a few lawmakers into voting a certain way, to manipulate them into believing what is not true about public opinion.
Ultimately, thankfully, it failed. We kept our firearms. Our civil rights were preserved.
Oh, and despite all those DickMorrisian predictions, Republicans not only dominated the 2014 mid-terms with RECORD gains, but based in no small part on the gun issue, the GOP won back the presidency.
Hopefully, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the other Senate Republicans will remember this, will see that our media has launched the exact same dishonest partisan campaign to save ObamaCare:
- CNN and MSNBC again going 24/7 to aid and abet Democrats – check!
- Joe Scarborough and so-called journalists again promising midterm doom – check!
- The dishonest emotional blackmail of PEOPLE WILL DIE! – check!
- Activist (and probably paid for) Democrats creating phony intensity – check!
- The media giving these activist (and probably paid for) Democrats disproportionate coverage – check!
- Phony polls manipulated to pretend the 92% of Americans not on ObamaCare care about ObamaCare – check!
- Glaring lies of omission — like, say, the media refusing to focus on the fact that ObamaCare is, as I write these very words, completely falling apart — check!
Our media does not care that ObamaCare is failing.
Our media does not care that absurdly high deductibles makes ObamaCare useless to almost everyone forced to purchase it.
Our media does not care that absurdly expensive premiums are bleeding families dry.
All our heartless MSM cares about is chalking up a win (after a long dry spell), humiliating Trump and preserving their Precious Barry’s destructive legacy.
And so the national media, with the goal of picking off the handful of Republican Senators they need to achieve their cynical and unAmerican political agenda, have all organized to focus all of their corrupt propaganda in order to fabricate a reality that does not exist.
Don’t fall for it, GOP.
Second verse, same as the first.
Smoke and lies.
Smoke and lies.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.