by Al Benson Jr.
Member, Board of Directors, Confederate Society of America
Thoughts about journalists in our day tend to be somewhat tainted and jaded--and for that you have to blame the journalists themselves. Let's face it, bastions of truth and accuracy the journalists have not been. I, with others, have labeled them as "the prostitute press" and in the main, I don't think that's too far off.
In my library I have some books for enjoyable reading. One of those is one called The Red Fox, written by Anthony Hyde. It's fiction, but in it Mr. Hyde makes several observations that are worth some reflection. For instance, on page 53, one of the characters in the story asks the question "Who rules the rulers?" That's something many of us have asked for a long time, and in some instances where we could, tried to answer it. It's a question worth considering, although most people won't.
On page 233 he discusses Soviet "journalists" and seeks to compare them to western journalists to point out the differences. I don't doubt, when he got this book published (1985) he thought it was an honest question. Today I'm not so sure. The Red Fox is an excellent story and it does hold your interest. You can tell that Mr. Hyde did a lot of research to come up with all the detail in the book. I have heard that this is the way he usually writes, though I have not ever been able to come up with any of his other books, and I have looked. To me that means that people hang onto them like I do and they seldom make their way into used book stores. This is the mark of an entertaining and engaging writer. I've read my copy of The Red Fox fully half a dozen times over the years.
Having said that, I'm not sure Mr. Hyde recognized how similar Soviet and American "journalists" really are. In the Soviet Union the "journalists" were expected to hew the Party line, and if they didn't, in short order, they were no longer journalists. Sad to say it has not been much different here. Many of the journalists or reporters I have run across in this country do exactly the same thing. I did an article before the last election about how the media was nothing more than Hillary's water carrier. And everything I have seen since the last election has only reinforced that view, except they don't only carry water for Hillary, they also carry it for what we call "The Deep State" or the Establishment, or whatever you want to call those that really "rule the rulers."
The idea that the "news media" exists to give the public the unbiased, objective truth about what really goes on has long since gone by the boards. It disappeared with the Tooth Fairy and the Man in the Moon, at least for most normal people. Nowadays the media gives us what "those who rule the rulers" think is pertinent for their well-being, not ours. True, there are exceptions. The alternative media, The Drudge Report, InfoWars, LewRockwell, World Net Daily and a handful of others out there are able to give concerned people enough truth that they are beginning to have some idea of what really goes down. That hasn't always been the case. If you want real news, these are the sources you have to turn to turn to because what we refer to as the "Main Stream Media" has dissolved into nothing more than "fake news" and pure propaganda--Soviet style! If you follow only them you will have a completely skewed view of world events, and particularly what goes on in the White House during the Trump administration. The regular media gets it wrong so much of the time that you have to realize they are doing it on purpose. Were it only accidental, they would err on the side of accuracy now and again, but this never happens.
Sadly, this is not an especially new development. It has gone on for many years, though sometimes a little less spectacularly than at present. Back before the War of Northern Aggression the "journalists" in the North were making such an icon out of John Brown, the abolitionist/terrorist, that he was literally being compared to Jesus Christ and the gallows he hung on was being compared to Jesus' cross. Talk about an exercise in blasphemy! This, and the propaganda being dished out by writers of the ilk of Harriet Beecher Stowe, helped to fuel the fires of war in the late 1850s and painted the entire South with a wholly unrealistic brush.
So let us not kid ourselves--"journalists" in America, at least in the last 150 years, have not stood for "truth, justice, and the American way." They have stood for pushing the agenda, whatever it may have been at the time, of those that "rule the rulers" and the real truth be hanged!
If you want to find out who "rules the rulers" than I suggest you do a little homework. (About 7% of those that read this will follow through). Get on the internet and check out the Council on Foreign Relations, The Trilateral Commission, The Bilderberg Group, Skull and Bones, and while you are at it check out the Clinton Foundation. If you are willing to do at least this much then you will come away with a whole different concept of who really runs things in this country and the world. And then you can ask the other question one of Mr. Hyde's characters in his book puts forth; "What the hell will they do to us next?"