Not a bad week for “fake news.” There were only two major fake news stories that made the rounds last week, and one that started this week.
First, the mainstream media reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to quit over the Comey firing. The story, unsubstantiated of course, ran in the major media. When asked a few days later, Rosenstein said he never threatened to resign.
Another manufactured media story intended to hurt Trump.
Second, a story saying that FBI Director Comey was fired because he requested more money for the Russia/Trump investigation circulated for days, was commented on 24-7 by CNN and other news organizations.
It was later determined to be totally untrue. The FBI does not request money for individual cases, so it was a lie on its surface and easily debunked.
Our government is on a “single payer” system, i.e., our unlimited tax dollars. We watched our FBI director fly in a private Gulfstream 550, which costs us $62 million a year, from a “recruitment meeting” in LA. Maybe that’s the story.
But spending and facts do not serve the media’s agenda — and the media wonder why they are not trusted.
The media slams Trump for his 41 percent approval rating. Yet mainstream media’s approval rating has plummeted to about 12 percent.
The most daunting thing facing the liberal media about Trump, which seems to stump their agenda at every turn, is the truth.
The week before, the media pushed the narrative that the repeal of Obamacare was "racist." They broadcast the celebration of all those white men at the White House signing ceremony. It made me understand why the media hate the Constitution so much. Imagine all the horrifying paintings of nothing but white men signing that thing.
Voters sent Trump to Washington to “drain the swamp.” And there is nothing more swampy than an FBI that is political, distrusted, private-jet-riding, and which too often decides to prosecute based on an agenda.
Democrats called for Comey to be fired for months. But once Trump did it, they were against it and assigned nefarious motives. It never ends.
After he fired Comey, the media started comparing Trump to Nixon. That is unfair. Nixon regularly used the "n-word," was anti-Semitic and made a lot of tapes. It would be more accurate to compare Nixon to a rapper.
Dems dubiously continue to attribute to Russia the hacking of John Podesta's Gmail account. The FBI did say a while back, “Bad actors have repeatedly tried to hack us.” “Bad actors” does not necessarily mean Russia; they could be Iran, China, Nicholas Cage, Barbra Streisand in “Little Fockers” or Miley Cyrus in any of her performances on “Hannah Montana.” I guess what I am saying is there are a lot of bad actors out there, not just Russia.
Dems have now spun this "Russia collusion" story into a tale of its own. With no evidence, they continue to want to try to rewrite history: Hillary lost because of Russia colluding with the Trump campaign.
It is simply untrue, but the truth has never stopped them.
Even the allegation that Trump supposedly told Russia our intel secrets (which the Washington Post again anonymously sourced), speaks more to the “deep state” undermining Trump than to anything meaningful with national security.
Trump wants to expedite this Russia witch-hunt, and he should. Dems count on the ADD of Americans and that all we will remember is that the feds went after Trump. That is their end game, just to discredit their political opponents. Since they have few workable policies, it is the only tool left in their toolbox.
Comey said he didn’t indict Hillary, et. al. because he saw no “intent.” Setting up an illegal server apparently was not “intent.”
Prosecutors can do what they please. So many layers of laws upon laws make citizens confused and vulnerable to prosecutorial agendas. For example, in America, if your teacher sleeps with you, it is punishable by 10 years in prison, but in France, it gets you elected president.
Ron Hart, a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, is a frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: If at first you don't succeed, lie, lie again