Trump has called the media the “enemy of the people,” but he is only half correct. The media is most certainly the enemy of those people who support freedom and liberty, but it remains a close ally of those who advocate socialism and the tyranny of big government.
In recent weeks, there has been much debate in Idaho regarding the initiative process and the efforts by some conservative lawmakers to increase the thresholds for an initiative to make it to the ballot. Some typically pro-freedom individuals have opposed this effort, however, suggesting that the initiative could be a useful tool for pro-liberty advocates to advance their own agendas.
While I can appreciate their optimism, the sad fact is that they are wrong. Any progressive initiative will be bolstered by the media. We saw this extensively during the dark-money funded campaign by “Reclaim Idaho” to expand Medicaid in Idaho. Hardly a day passed, either during the signature-gathering phase or during election season, without some sympathetic media report either indirectly or explicitly endorsing the progressive agenda of Medicaid expansion.
Even with all the out-of-state money funneled into the campaign by “The Fairness Project,” those contributions were dwarfed by the value of the incessant drumbeat of media support. It is not at all unreasonable to conclude that the media contributed millions of dollars’ worth of free advertising to this socialist cause.
Would a pro-liberty ballot initiative receive similar coverage? Of course not. Quite the opposite, in fact. Imagine an initiative to advance gun rights, for example. Not only would the media provide no positive coverage of this attempt; it would come out in force for the opposition, and provide millions of dollars’ worth of negative advertising to kill the proposal.
Conservatives and libertarians do not get to campaign—either for candidates or ballot initiatives—on an equal footing with their progressive counterparts. The media files no sunshine reports and is not required to document or reveal their political efforts, yet they are free to produce one-sided stories and even to publish front-page endorsements and editorials supporting candidates and ballot measures.
Is it any wonder that we are seeing the states fall like dominos in the face of the progressive onslaught? California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado… One by one, they have been taken over by the gun grabbers and the socialists. Will Idaho be next? The trajectory is already set and will be all but impossible to reverse, especially with the ongoing collusion between the liberal media and the militant progressives.
Some Republicans and even some conservatives still seem to believe that if they play nice with the media, they might get a fair shake, but nothing could be further from the truth. The media is not fair or unbiased. There are essentially no remaining impartial journalists dedicated to just reporting the facts.
The sad truth is that the media has become the propaganda arm of the progressive movement, and nothing we say or do is going to change this reality. The media has set itself up as the enemy of liberty, self-reliance, and property rights. It has declared war on our heritage and traditions. It has made clear its alliance with the radical progressive left. The media is working to extinguish our freedoms and to trample our inalienable rights into the ground. If we fail to recognize these facts and respond appropriately, Idaho will be the next domino. I only hope it’s not already too late.
