When I pick up a book, one of my greatest hopes is that it will be memorable. I want something I can lose myself in, something I can come back to later and enjoy as much the second–or tenth–time as I did the first. Finding that in a collection of essays is the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It is also something I’ve come to expect from Thomas Sowell. Today’s Bookshelf selection, “Media Fraud”, is an essay included in Professor Sowell’s “Controversial Essays”. It is a warning each of us should take heed of, especially after the example set by the MSM over the last four-plus years.

According to Professor Sowell, no one should be surprised that media bias exists. Most reporters identify as Democrats and vote that way. But that’s okay as long as they don’t let it interfere with their jobs. The problem arises when “media bias becomes media fraud. Media bias in editorials and columns is one thing. Media fraud in ‘reporting’ facts in news stories is something else.”

Gee, have we seen any of this over the last decade or two–or more? Let me count the examples, starting with Hillary Clinton and her missing emails. Not that there aren’t older examples. But lets face it. The media, especially most of the MSM, went off the rails when Donald Trump announced his first run for the White House and it hasn’t slowed or altered course since then.

How often have you read a news article or listened to a media report and wondered if you were getting the whole story? According to Professor Sowell, it happens more than most of us realize.

[C]rucial facts have been left out of news stories when those facts would have undermined or destroyed a liberal argument. Conversely, false claims have been widely reported as facts in the media when those claims supported the liberal vision of the world.”

An example Professor Sowell gives to illustrate this goes back to the Clinton Administration. In 1996, the media reported on a “wave of arsons directed against black churches by racists”. As with every school shooting today, the media turned it into a circus of demands for action, for new laws to take away more of our civil liberties, of condemnation of conservative politicians.

At the time, Bill Clinton “recalled his own sadness as a child at the burning down of black churches in Arkansas.” Now, this would be understandable if it really happened. According to Professor Sowell, “not a single black church in Arkansas had burned down during Bill Clinton’s childhood.”

Sound familiar? How many times have we seen Joe Biden rewriting his own history and recalling “memories” that oh-so-conveniently fit the narrative he wants to project? How many times has the media taken his story and run with it instead of actually taking a long, hard look at it and reporting the facts? The same media that lets him get away with these slips of the tongue did all it could to tear apart everything Trump’s said since he first announced his run for the presidency. It is the same media that hounded Dan Quayle for misspelling “potato”.

Bias or fraud?

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and is constantly repeated by the media without question, I say fraud.

[T]he issue is the transformation of news reporting into ideological spin, along with self-serving taboos and outright fraud.”

Remember that as you look at what is coming out of NYC right now as the media reacts to the arraignment of Trump and the charges laid out against him. Remember that when you think about how the media soft balled Hillary Clinton or how it has turned a blind eye to Hunter Biden’s China connections or his father’s slips and gaffes and everything else.

This, all of this and so much more, is why I can’t recommend Professor Sowell’s writing and this collection of essays enough. The original edition of Controversial Essays, which also included “Media Fraud” came out in 2002. Professor Sowell’s warnings ring as true today as they did then. Let me correct that. They ring even more true now for this reason:

Democratic nations are especially vulnerable to misinformation . . . in a country where the masses choose their leaders and influence policies, a fraudulent press can mislead the voters into national disaster.”

The liberal media may parrot the cries of their Democratic idols when they talk about misinformation and disinformation, but ask yourself this: who is the one manipulating the news to suit their wants and needs?

This short essay proves once again why Professor Sowell is so important to our nation. The essays in this book are, on the whole, short and without exception, go to the heart of the matter. I highly recommend this book, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum.

Feature Photo Credit: Victory Girls artwork of book cover by VG Darleen Click