Why I don’t trust the media…and you shouldn’t either

Most Americans are now aware that a lot of what we hear and see on national television news is not true. Most Americans are also aware that our country is facing some tough issues.

But despite being aware that the American press is untruthful and that the country has some very concerning problems, they likely do not realize how closely these two facts are related.

The founders of America gave the press tremendous freedom to say and write what they pleased. Their thought was that if the press were to be the watchdog of the government on behalf of the people the press had to have an unfettered right to criticize even if occasionally the press slanted or exaggerated their stories.

Over the years American courts made the rights of the free press even greater. More than fifty years ago a landmark Supreme Court case, New York Times vs Sullivan, opened the door to more cases and more case law that actually made it nearly impossible for so called “public figures” like myself to win a defamation lawsuit.

As a result the press reached the point of openly defaming “public figure” Americans. Public figure Americans being people well known to the public and not just publicly elected officials.

The free press abuse of the free press privileges our founders and our courts gave them has reached an unprecedented level of abuse. This abuse of free speech rights crossed the line of acceptability in the days leading up to the 2018 West Virginia primary election.