Media hypocrisy corrupts debate on Ginsburg succession
Politics is politics in America and politicians say one thing and do something else. Both Republicans and Democrats. In the debate over the succession to the vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the US Supreme Court, that hasn’t changed. But what has changed is that the national mainstream news media has become a political lobbying organization suppressing one side to promote another.
By Ray Hanania
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died on Feb. 13, 1916 during President Barack Obama’s final year in office.
Of course, Republicans aggressively challenged Obama’s right to nominate Scalia’s successor arguing it was close to the end of his term and Obama should let “the next president” decide.
At that time, the national mainstream news media backed Obama, with many arguing that calls to delay the process was “racism” against America’s first Black president.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Photo courtesy of WIkipedia
Four years later and one week after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the tables have turned. It’s the Democrats who are now arguing President Trump should let “the next president” decide who should be nominated.
If Trump does nominate someone, the Democrats say they will pass a law adding more seats to the Supreme Court. Aside from one difference – Obama was at the end of two terms and Trump is at the end of his first term.
But in truth, it is all just typical partisan politics on both sides, Democrats and Republicans each taking sides on issues based on what’s good for their party, not what reflects the Constitution or the Rule of Law.
But there is one difference between then and now. The news media is also playing partisan politics, arguing in defense of Obama’s right to appoint a successor and against Trump’s right to appoint a successor.
The mainstream news media which threw away all semblance of professionalism and objectivity long ago are acting as cheerleaders for the radical Left’s assault against Trump. The battle is no longer between political parties. It is being driven by a corrupt national news media.
Ironically, the media bias may help Trump get re-elected, which is why he plays up his own criticism of the media. Media bias and the the crazy leftwing extremist demands to “defund the police” are going to tip the election in Trump’s favor. I was certain Trump would lose, until Black Lives Matter added their reverse racist insanity to the already corrupt news media bias.
The media is rigged against Trump. It’s obvious. CNN’s Jake Tapper, for example, gave a forum to Hillary’s angry husband and former President Bill Clinton to denounce Trump plans to nominate a Ginsburg successor as being “superficially hypocritical.”
The fight between Democrats and Republicans is not a crime. It’s politics. But the national news media’s bias is a crime. It is immoral, unethical and the most destructive aspect of American society today. The media’s failure tod o its job and to convert news reporting into opinion advocacy is not only fueling the violence sweeping across America, they are widening the polarization of the country.
What Tapper, Clinton and other biased news media ignored were President Obama’s own words when he faced the same challenge and criticism.
Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill Scalia’s seat one month after Scalia died. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said he would block that appointment. And he did.
That prompted this from President Obama:
“The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now,” Obama said at a press conference following a summit hosted by the U.S.-Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Rancho Mirage, California.
“When there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court, the president of the United States is to nominate someone, the Senate is to consider that nomination, and either they disapprove of the nominee or that nominee is elevated to the Supreme Court.”
“Historically, this has not been viewed as a question. … There’s no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years, that’s not in the constitutional text,” Obama said according to NBC news.
“I’m amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it provisions that are not there.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/obama-scotus-pick-constitution-pretty-clear-n519686
Is Obama still amused that his own party is now doing just that?
Garland’s nomination stalled and a year later newly elected President Donald Trump named Neil Gorsuch to succeed Scalia. A party-line vote on April 7, 2017 confirmed Trump’s choice.
The news media accused McConnell and Trump of distorting the political system, even though it is the responsibility of the Senate to decide who gets approved. The political party that controls the Senate makes that decision because it is politics.
What should not be politics, though, is how the news media reports on the issues. Unfortunately, in today’s divisive, media-corrupt world, every day Americans can’t get the facts anymore because the mainstream national news media won’t give it to them.
The mainstream news media is distorting and corrupting the political system through their bias. They are at fault in all of this.
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A critic of mainstream news media bias, Hanania advocates for peace & justice for Israel & Palestine, & the empowerment of Arabs in America.
Click here to listen to Ray's Political Podcast.
Hanania's columns are archived on his personal website at RayHanania.com. Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Hanania is President/CEO of Urban Strategies Group which provides communications services to governments and private businesses, and hosts writing training workshops, and publishes books.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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