Americans who want answers and guidance on how to stop the political dysfunction in our lives need to be focusing on the dangers of the media's false equivalency. Not buying into this false equivalency should be a major building block to fixing the current disaster we call our government. If the U.S. electorate continues to swallow the lies of the media's false equivalency our government's ability to function will continue to deteriorate. Of course politics will always have players in the front and back lines who are driven by their own egotistic exaggerated selfish desires. The media's priority is supposed to be to warn us and hopefully protect us from the unscrupulous. However, the biggest players in the media look to be focusing on their own selfish desires to such an extent that they are harming us, not protecting us. Ratings gives power, prestige and money. False equivalency came into vogue because deceitful politicians screamed the media had a liberal bias, which if it did is now ancient history.
Perhaps back in the day, those in the media based on the immediacy of their contact felt the politicians that leaned left were more trustworthy. These liberals typically focused on helping everyone. The big players on the right have always been about taking care of those that had money and power and letting the little people fend for themselves. After Watergate, the news media became a big money maker. This meant the bottom line ultimately pushed aside what should be first priority, protecting the public. False equivalency has been their ticket to the seven figure salaries that the big media players earn. However, up until recently the media was covering for politicians who even though they could be ruthless and greedy at least were not delusional, crazy reckless and irresponsible possibly to the point of treason. These purveyors of false equivalency are as responsible as the politicians for our political dysfunction just like an enabler is responsible for the continued addiction of an addict.
An overwhelming use of false equivalency by the media has been going on at least going back to the Reagan era. False equivalency is the media's way of criticizing both political parties by exaggerating the mistakes and flaws of one party so when they have to criticize the obvious sins of the other party, they can do it without appearing to have a bias for one side or the other.
A prime example of false equivalency is part of the shutdown debate. The Tea Party reason's for the shutdown is they wanted to delay and or cripple the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Their method was to treat the ACA like it is a bill when in fact it is a law. The Supreme Court confirmed the validity of this law. These Tea Party pols are also lying that the Dems have not done any compromising in regards to the ACA. The enablers in the media have buried the fact the ACA itself was a major compromise because it did not give our nation single payer insurance. The ACA will enable about 30MM who do not have health insurance to have it. This still leaves around 20MM without it. So the Dems compromised to not give 20MM insurance so another 30 MM will get it. Of more immediate importance, the bill the Senate passed to continue to fund the government that the House refused to take a vote on, was also a big compromise by the Dems because it included the sequestration cuts. However, in the media frenzy surrounding the shutdown the big players of the media did their best to ignore all of this or down play it.
The latest cost of false equivalency is 24 billion dollars. This is the estimated cost of the government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis. A few other examples of the cost of false equivalency include enabling Bush to blow through about a trillion on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The reason to start a war on Iraq was based on a lie. False equivalency also enabled Wall St. to have free reign to nearly destroy our economy. God forbid the big players in the media should push on the selfish desires of Wall St. somebody might lose a job or two. A few years ago, the very greedy Wolves of Wall St. made tons of money on their deception of the solvency of numerous sub-prime loans which led to the near collapse of our economy. Now they are making even more while most of the rest of us suffer the indignation of a lower standard of living. All the while the big shots of our media danced their false equivalency dance while Rome burned and burned some more. If they had done their job righteously, perhaps the Glass-Steagall Act would not have been wiped out and big banks would not have been allowed to use the middle classes checking and saving money to lie cheat and steal their way to millions of dollars. If the media had done their job maybe some of these scoundrels would be in jail, and this kind of blowback could actually protect us from future swindles.
What is the silver lining of a 24 billion dollar that was just lost from this latest debacle? The ray of sunshine from our very recent darkness is that it has taken the political center out of their comfort zone, and they want some real answers. The truth can be a bitter pill but swallowing, it is better than for example enduring another financial disaster.
The self-evident truth of the Tea Party's fight to destroy Obamacare is that the Tea Party wants power at any cost even if it means greatly damaging our country let alone the world. This is not something that even the most politically apathetic will soon forget. The Tea Party delusionals have been completely exposed to those who take their politics from the center as reckless, irresponsible, apparently delusional, and extremely dangerous. This is the only rational conclusion to be drawn from this insane Shutdown Debt Ceiling Debacle.
The good news is Americans will do the right thing if the truth is made clear to them. The bad news is they hate to admit they are wrong about a politician once they have voted for them. Now that the latest possible financial disaster has opened many eyes, its time for the blogosphere, the anti-enablers of the media, activists, and anyone who cares about righting the good ship USA to use this crystallizing moment to let the world know that the media's use of false equivalency has played a key role in systematically dismantling what was once a functioning democracy. Of course if you are a voter how about when the media is trying to blame both sides for a problem, don't assume they know what they are talking about. How about being on the alert for fairly obvious fabrications by the media like blaming the killings in Benghazi on Obama and his people. In this case, by digging a little beneath the surface, anyone could have found out that the Republicans are the ones who held back money for increasing security to foreign embassies. The tragedy in Behghazi is a prime example of the media twisting an event around to do their false equivalency dance. Yes, the Dems make their share of mistakes such as the Obamacare rollout. However, try to also keep in mind that what could be a political misdemeanor is not a political felony just because the media says it is.