Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BizPac Review.

Horror stories about the dramatic fall of the mainstream media’s credibility and influence with the American public are becoming commonplace. The 2016 presidential campaign allowed the media a chance to redeem themselves with the American public, but they only accelerated the erosion of their power and authority. The American public saw, in spades, the egregious failures of the MSM to report the news truthfully. Most traditional news outlets in 2016 showed downright dishonesty and scorn in their treatment of most conservative political figures. As an example of media bias, the National Center for Public Policy Research reported that “the editorial boards of 57 out of 59 newspapers, all told the public to avoid Donald Trump.” Little wonder that Trump is irate with the media in his recent news conference.

Since liberals have voiced complaints about “fake news” concocted by Russia, it’s timely to look at the whole sorry state of the U.S. mainstream media’s conduct and dishonesty.

Starting with the Russia stories, is there anything the Russians are accused of doing more unethical than the inaccurate information, especially that which was deliberately intended to deceive, that was dished out by the New York Times, MSNBC, the Washington Post, CNN and the Palm Beach Post? Their dishonesty mixes smoothly with their hypocrisy, as they ignored the actual information that was exposed by the alleged hacking by Moscow and Vladimir Putin. The content and substance of some of those emails of Clinton campaign officials were both damning and incendiary, insulting to Catholics, conservatives, evangelicals, regular Americans, and even to Clinton. Clinton was being terribly disparaged by her own campaign team, yet this news was largely ignored or downplayed by a biased MSM.

The media’s hypocrisy is highlighted by its completely unbalanced reporting about Russia meddling in America’s election. Where was the media criticism of Obama’s meddling in Israeli elections when he sent five Obama campaign operatives “to Israel to lead a campaign to defeat the Israeli Prime Minister” Netanyahu, and spent $350,000 of taxpayer’s money to do it? Just after that, Obama sent his campaign team to Canada to guide the Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau to victory over the Conservatives.

For months prior to the British Brexit vote to leave the European Union, Obama urged the Brits to vote against leaving, campaigning in person in the U.K., and threatening to move Britain “to the back of the queue” for trade deals if they voted to leave. Or when Gordon Brown of Britain’s far left Labor Party met with Obama twice just prior to Brown’s election? Or when Obama met with his liberal ally, German Chancellor Merkel just before the German elections? America’s MSM babied Obama no matter how much he meddled in elections in other countries, but they throw a hissy fit when Russia does the same thing.

On a larger scale, looking back, both Mitt Romney and John McCain in their campaigns were hit with far more negative media coverage than Barack Obama.

What does the public do when the noise coming from a biased media is so one-sided? Well, they can vote with their wallets and their feet, which is what we have been seeing for several years. In November it was reported that the New York Times had an 18.5 percent drop in print ad revenue. The New York Post reported in April that the Times would be cutting several hundred more jobs later in 2016. The Times’ stock, which has been as high as 53, closed at $15.45 on Friday.

For quite some time, both MSNBC and CNN have been beaten by Fox News in primetime and total viewers. In mid-year 2016, Fox beat CNN and MSNBC combined in primetime viewers. Perhaps it’s payback by the public.

With Trump’s victory, it’s time for MSM to stop with the manufactured news and to give unbiased treatment to the conservative view. If they do, the traditional media might see a dramatic turnaround in their declining readership and dying industry. But don’t hold your breath.

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John R. Smith

John R. Smith is chairman of BIZPAC, the Business Political Action Committee of Palm Beach County, and owner of a financial services company. He is a frequent columnist for BizPac Review.

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