Free speech and Fake News

Our Constitution is unlike any other. It guarantees American citizens rights and freedoms that were not seen anywhere in the civilized world when it was established. Freedom of the press was guaranteed, as was free speech. In protecting both free speech and freedom of the press, I doubt our Founders could have imagined the state we find ourselves in today with our media.

For three years now major media outlets have complained about how President Donald Trump calls them "fake news." Yet they follow up by constantly speaking and printing "fake news," totally failing to see why the public perception of the media is falling into the toilet. Let me give you just one recent example, as space does not allow me to detail the fake news stories from just this month alone.

Monday saw thousands of Second Amendment supporters (approximately 20,000) gather around the Virginia State Capital. The governor, based on "intelligence" (apparently not his), declared a state of emergency due to the threat of violence. As it turns out, there was no violence, but regular folks, including minorities, showed up to express their concern about the proposed gun laws being considered by Virginia legislators. Police were present but not in huge numbers that I could see on TV.

If you watched CNN, CBS, or MSNBC that day, you would have thought, at any minute, there would be violence, bloodshed, and a mass KKK white supremacist riot. According to these pundits, heavily equipped and armed riot police were tensely waiting for the violence to break out. CBS reported there had been violence all week in advance of the rally. There was not!

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell fretted about the mob of white supremacists that would show up, resulting in another Charlottesville racist riot. I could go on, but you see where I'm going with this. How can citizens know when they're being told fact and not hyperbole or outright lies? We need freedom of the press to have a free society. But what happens when the media abuses that power?

Free speech also needs to be truthful and factual. False reporting and deliberate lying regarding facts will only cause our country to be more divided. Maybe that's why they're doing it.

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