OPINION:
On a parallel planet, we would see Fact News on the Trump front, with headlines such as:
President swings sharp ax at budget waste
Trump targets terror with Muslim vetting
Trump tax cuts aimed at growth, keeping companies in America
As Trump wall plans rise, illegal flood recedes
Meanwhile, here on Earth, mainstream websites, newspapers, TV and radio trash President Trump incessantly. Consumer confidence gallops? New jobs bulge? The stock market soars? Immaterial. The president is teetering, according to reports that so many Americans follow. Just stroll through a recent day’s snippet at Yahoo and you see not one positive angle. Only these:
President Trump’s approval rating drops in Fox News poll
The number of people who regret voting for Trump is growing
The Trump administration shot itself in the foot. Again.
Russians invested millions in Trump buildings
That last one was meant as a potshot. My reaction was “Good.” The more we build with Russia, the better, especially when muscling up against ISIS. As for the left’s obsession with painting Vladimir Putin as the second coming of Himmler, it originates from this: The Democrats get a bulk of their money from gays; Mr. Putin quashed a gay parade in 2009; gotta swat Mr. Putin.
Aside from Yahoo, the Trump dumping gallops across the landscape.
At LinkedIn: Trump’s media diet causes global heartburn
At CNN.com: Trump’s immigration ban sends shock waves
At the Los Angeles Times: Trump’s Cabinet picks aren’t standing by some of his controversial opinions
Notice the liberal media’s favorite tag: controversial. It’s so flaccid, The Associated Press Stylebook says avoid it. Yet much of the press pushes it because controversial equals whatever offends the left.
Hence NBC.com: White House rewriting Trump’s controversial travel ban order
And The Washington Post: Trump drags key foreign allies into controversy over unproven wiretap claims
It’s journalism’s way of covertly steering issues leftward. And controversial isn’t the only device. Take this report from London’s Guardian newspaper: “The decision by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to rule out any relaxation of Japan’s strict refugee policy has prompted criticism of Japan’s strict policy on asylum.”
What criticism? The story doesn’t say. It also doesn’t say that maybe the “strict refugee policy” elicits wild applause from Japanese who want to keep Muslims out and the country free of terror.
The same twist followed candidate Trump’s call for a Muslim ban after the Paris terror carnage in the fall of 2015. Republican voters overwhelmingly cheered that right-minded protection of America. Yet did most of the TV morning shows, radio pundits, websites and newspapers recognize that reaction? No. Like a broken record, they stuck on how controversial this sanity was.
You get to thinking: Why the anti-conservative hysteria from most of the press? For the media lineup on the right is slim, even when we count The Washington Times, WorldNetDaily, Breitbart, Fox News and Fox Business Network.
I’ve been in journalism four decades and can attest to that leftward slant in the industry. No matter how conservative the newspaper or website, the newsroom is jammed with liberals.
What is it in our makeup? My theory is this: We’re wordsmiths, not blacksmiths. We hammer away at keyboards, not anvils. The deepest things we dig for are ideas, not pipes. Most of us never wore a uniform — green or blue — and probably most don’t go to church. The result is pack journalism bowing to President Obama, scoffing at American flag pins, pledging allegiance to the weather hoax, attacking tax cuts.
Extol Donald Trump? Not gonna happen among most writers and broadcasters. Just listen to the darts fired at his press secretary, Sean Spicer. During Wednesday’s gaggle, reporters asked ad nauseam about Russian plots, the surveillance saga and whether the Republican health plan was DOA. Not one lonely question about the dramatic slowdown in illegal immigration — the No. 1 issue that vaulted Mr. Trump to the Oval Office.
On network news shows alone, 88 percent of their reports ripped the president in his first month, according to the Media Research Center.
When it comes to nonright outlets, the reaction to him is simply dismissal.
So when the Yahoos scorn Mr. Trump’s great agenda of the next eight years — walling off illegal aliens, banning terrorists, U-turning corporate inversions, plus two more not on any pundit’s radar: uniting Korea and landing men on Mars — remember they’re always dead wrong.
And that Mr. Trump’s backers — the millions who put him in the White House — wave the right headline: America is back.
• Bucky Fox is an author and editor in Southern California.
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