To the Editor:
Publisher Art Hall’s recent editorials stating “they” must come together, indicating each side as a warring camp seeking a win, demonstrates the total lack of the fourth estate of informing the people. Far too many meaningful issues are never presented to the people objectively by the media.
What is evident in recent years can be summed up by President Donald Trump’s references to fake news. Having stated that lightning rod, I suspect many on either political spectrum cannot accurately explain the applied meaning of the fourth estate.
Our Bill of Rights’ First Amendment provides a guarantee of protection for the press. Over the past decade, the media appears to have a predominated opinion, not verifying or challenging with informative, detailed questions.
The politically anointed need to provide information or a position on all matters and be tasked to explain their position, regardless of party. The public has their jobs and responsibilities and depends on the media to identify and provide current and underlying issues.
The media accepts the guaranteed protections, but lacks objective information for the public, which is their unquestioned fiduciary responsibility. Conversely, the return of the citizens’ views (letters and interviews) to their political representatives.
An example that consistently lacked the purview of the media interest: The Affordable Care Act (ACA). One of the architects of the ACA is Jonathon Gruber, an American professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Several years later, Gruber acknowledged on video the reason the ACA passed is that the American voter is stupid. Somehow, none of the media thought that statement was misstated, never asking Gruber to explain any detail of that statement.
I find an issue with Gov. Phil Murphy’s decision to mandate the state energy master plan. I am sure the New Jersey media is aware the Atlantic Ocean fisherman could never validate their economic/output efficiency.
The state Board of Public Utilities evaluated accordingly, denying the application. New Jersey never made detailed accounting for wind subsidies that began in 2010, including $47 million in loans.
In 2020, our governor signed a $1.5 billion contract with Orsted, a Danish company, and guaranteed them a profit. The only announced effect on ratepayers came from the director of the agency, who stated an estimated rate increase of 33%. There was nothing about a guaranteed energy supply or economic benefit.
My point is the revered media, by their perception, never doggedly pursues political powers outside of their political beliefs.
By contrast, the Trump administration was attacked and repeatedly savaged as colluding with Russia, investigated by the highest level of federal law enforcement agencies and congressional investigations for 3.5 years.
It was an oversight by the complicit media reporting that when the law enforcement hierarchy, DOJ, FBI, CIA, and DIA was put under oath by congressional hearings, every one of them denied having specific facts or violations.
The Washington Post published that “we must begin impeachment” the day after Trump was elected, and it never stopped. The media never thoughtfully questioned or investigated the facts.
Three preposterous years of collusion allegations, false impeachment charges, four illegal FISA warrants from the DOJ, and an FBI lawyer convicted. That never interested the media?
The media and tech giants will continue their systemic biased ideology, creating a division for the near future.
There is a real challenge by both parties to consider our nation’s wellbeing. Unfortunately, the media doesn’t get it. Those majority opinionated media will continue their biased, not honest, reporting.
