The Great Media Flip-flop

We truly are living in a post-truth world. In a speech on July 16, President Donald Trump revealed that “the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million [United States] voter files.” He also disclosed that the stolen data “includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities.”

And he said that the same U.S. intelligence agencies that are entrusted with our national security deliberately kept him, the sitting president, in the dark about the scope of China’s activities.

How did the corporate media respond to these bombshells?

For one thing, abc, nbc and cnn declined to broadcast the speech live, and cbs only aired portions. Then these channels and others immediately began insisting that Chinese interference in American elections was a preposterous claim.

The same media outlets that spent years declaring Donald Trump an illegitimate president because Russia hacked the 2016 election now claim there is no way a foreign power like China would try to steal votes. The hypocrisy is blatant, yet they expect you to take them seriously!

Journalism is nothing but trust. Literally the only thing journalists provide is trustworthiness. Anybody can provide information. Journalists’ one and only job is to provide accurate information.

So when they lie to you, do not forget about that and do not naively trust what they say in the future!

The type of information China obtained in its 2020 data breach was the same type Russia obtained in its 2016 operation. And it seems what Russia did in 2016 was on a much smaller scale compared to China in 2020. Yet the media’s response to the two hacks could not have been more different.

Ten years ago, USA Today reported that a Russian hacking campaign was a multipronged effort to disrupt the U.S. presidential election and assist Donald Trump’s candidacy. Today, USA Today is saying that China primarily sought to predict election outcomes and influence voters to be more pro-China, as opposed to changing anyone’s vote or somehow using their voter data to fraudulently vote for them.

Other major media outlets applied the same double standard. The New York Times treated the Russian data hack as a major threat to democracy, then claimed the Chinese hack was “hardly news.” cnn ran wall-to-wall coverage on the Russia hack, then emphasized intelligence community assessments saying China had no influence on the 2020 election. The Washington Post warned relentlessly about Russian interference undermining American democracy, yet reported that Trump “stopped short of offering evidence of vote tampering” in the China case and that the documents restated known vulnerabilities.

The intentional hypocrisy within America’s news corporations is an even bigger threat than either of the hacks.

They implied that the Russian meddling—which they “verified” using lies, implications and smears—did change the result of the election, that President Trump was an imposter to the throne, that it was right and good and even patriotic to oppose him by all means, legal and illegal.

They intentionally undermined the presidency of a man duly elected by the people of the United States of America! Remember?

It is undeniable that both Russia and China are cyber, psychological, economic and military threats to the U.S. It is also evident that neither Russia nor China have yet succeeded in outright changing the results of a U.S. election.

The only reason for the corporate media to make Russian hacking out to be an existential threat and Chinese hacking to be a non-story is bias against Mr. Trump and the people who support him.

In his book, America Under Attack, my father shows how the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign worked together to use the Russia hack story to destroy Donald Trump’s presidency. But now that President Trump is citing a similar Chinese hack in attempts to urge Congress to pass a law mandating proof of citizenship and photo identification to vote, the same media outlets that overhyped the Russian hack are trying to underhype the Chinese hack.

Such reporting has nothing to do with evidence, and everything to do with will worship. These journalists and news executives are acting like they do not need to rely on intelligence, reason, reality or truth and that facts are subservient to their agenda and reporting—not the other way around.

Donald Trump is an illegitimate president because they said so, and Chinese interference is a nonstory for the same reason.

The Apostle Paul wrote: “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, …. Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship …” (Colossians 2:18, 23).

This is a sobering warning about how ignoring facts and worshipping your own opinions can even lead to worshipping fallen angels. That may sound extreme, yet one of the most annotated books in Adolf Hitler’s personal library was a volume called Magic: History, Theory and Practice, which says that “quite a lot is gained with [magic]: namely the possibility to intervene in this structure, that is to say change the world according to our will. But this is magic, and on this basis we are able to create reality where no reality is.”

In other words, the notion that you can “create reality where no reality is” is the basic essence of both will worship and sorcery. This is what makes our current post-truth world so dangerous. When even the journalists and news executives—whose only purpose is to find and relay factual information—are worshipping their own will, our entire nation is in a vulnerable position.

In our post-truth world, the greatest threat to election integrity is no longer foreign hackers. It is a media and political class that has chosen to create its own reality.