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Recently, a free-lance journalist formerly employed by an area media outlet took exception to my comparing most American journalists to criminals. 

Never wishing to pass on an opportunity to expose their rascally ways, I thought I’d double down on my original assertion and add a list of reasons I’m regrettably correct...

  “We do not have investigative journalism in Asheville. We do have a variety of mostly slanted media outlets who dependably emphasize and side with the liberal view. In truth, no one should get a pass on truth. Report it fairly from all reasoned angles of view or don’t report it at all. Asheville’s jounalism pool is filled with some of the most dangerous criminals around – propaganda artists hiding behind a journalism degree coached in liberal sophistry.”

 Conformity journalism — Pick up a coin. Note that it has two sides and an edge. Liberal media – as in most media – is devoted to presenting one side and pretending that’s the whole coin. It’s not honorable or helpful – it’s lazy and shady. Contrary to what you hear, truth is never relative or easily obtained. It takes hard work to explore all angles of view so that you can find the real deal. 

 Unethical investigative journalism — It’s not investigative journalism if you report things after the fact. It’s not ethical journalism if you fixate on low hanging fruit or – in today’s world – one political view. With remarkable consistency, when they bother with fact-finding at all, liberal media outlets do it to validate their preferred priorities, give the left a mulligan, or depreciate conservative views. Read local news archives for clarification on such. Remember Buncombe County Manager Wanda Green? Local media loyally ignored flags that were popping up for years on her criminal coalition of Democrats and even defended her by mocking the one commissioner with the courage to raise questions. A real investigative journalist is a proactive truth-seeker, not a political hitman or coverup artist.

 Source bias — Ethical journalists use multiple information sources from diverse points of view. Unethical journalists use multiple information sources from one point of view. Watch our local TV station or read our daily paper and you will dependably find them fielding the left-leaning point and benching the conservative view – in almost every interview or story.

 Self-celebration — Liberal media outlets have a protected feedback loop that rewards and validates itself. That leads to bias and blindness for the same reason most fentanyl dealers envision they’re doing good work.

 Blindness — Speaking of such, the more you close your eyes to multiple angles of view, the blinder you are to broader realities. What you practice you become and journalists blindly addicted to the left’s point of view are anything but an exception.

 Echo journalism — Ever notice how a story will come out and suddenly every media outlet is repeating it? Claims of Russian election collusion with Trump, followed by more Russian collusion with the Big Guy’s son’s computer, followed by “validation by 50 intelligence agencies” are classic examples of false liberal media echoes marketed as news.

What liberal journalists don’t say — In many ways, what’s not said can be worse that what is said. Case in point? Watch our local TV station talk about drug addicts, criminals, street people, those in poverty, or anyone else having a hard go. They’ll pull every heart string imaginable, legitimize the individual’s victim status, and blame everyone, but the person who walked into the mudhole. At no time will you hear anything about the poor choices, corrupt values, or the lack of personal responsibility that dependably plays a part in most bad-sad realities. 

  Glorified sympathies — Exaggeration is not-so-subtle tool of conformist media – and it can be used both ways. Asheville’s rioters were sympathetically described as peaceful protestors. Marauding street predators get a pity-pass with the descriptor “homeless.” Addicts who made the decision to mess with something everyone knows is dangerous, are unleashed in their self and other destruction via a cloak of victimhood and institutional indifference to personal responsibility. Conversely, show me a principle driven Christian conservative, and I will show you a media-described “right-wing extremist zealot.”

 The list is endless — One of my favorite media moments occurred recently when the local daily reached out to our watchdog group for initiating a federal racism lawsuit against Asheville’s school system. We answered their questions, but they apparently didn’t like the responses and didn’t publish the story. The city surrendered, and they still didn’t publish the story. We took a similar complaint out last month, and they repeated their selectivity. Why? Was it because it didn’t suit their specious position that racism is OK as long as it fits their color narrative?

 The gentleman who challenged me on my comments is a pleasant person. 

I also imagine him as a discouraged person.