It used to be that even the most partisan organs of the American press gave lip service to the idea of open debate, neutral reporting and the airing of differing views. However, ostensible journalists are aggressively arguing against the First Amendment and, like Soviet press of old, demanding to both define CorrectThink and be gatekeepers of information.

1984-ism: New Truth

Reporters from several outlets supported calls to end “both-siderism” in media with even harsher treatment of Republicans after another columnist decried covering Democrats too critically.

Los Angeles Times writer, Jackie Calmes is shameless in her call to shutdown and shutout any dissent to her Owellian-coined “new truth”.

I started to chafe at false equivalence a quarter-century ago, as a congressional reporter amid Newt Gingrich’s Republican revolution. One party — his — was demonstrably more responsible for the nasty divisiveness, government gridlock and norm-busting, yet journalistic pressure to produce seemingly “balanced” stories — pressure both ingrained and imposed by editors — prevented reporters from sufficiently reflecting the new truth.

Ms. Jackie’s polemic is a tedious exercise vomiting forth stereotypes, lies and unsubstantiated claims we’ve heard before. It can be boiled down to Democrats-All-Good, Republicans-All-Bad. What makes this even more troubling than previous such ventures is the outright rejection that journalism should present differing views and let readers come to their own conclusions — and hers is not the only voice within the Media profession demanding that heterodox views be ignored and people who engage in WrongThought be silenced.

Blue-check Media Members agree

Heaven forbid that Ms. Jackie receive even one peer’s caution on what her pro-Pravda argument portends —

Every political journalist should read this and the book “How Democracies Die.” https://t.co/mvEcYz5gIs

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) October 16, 2021

"American politics has changed dramatically since my post-Watergate generation of journalists began covering the story. Political journalism hasn’t kept up."

I have been waiting for this column — by a former political reporter — for a very long time. https://t.co/HA24FXcWaR

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) October 16, 2021

The New Soviet Man is now an American journalist, happy to promote only the most loyal of Left cult members and eager to crush all dissent. Let’s remember NBC anchor Lester Holt’s pernicious proclamation that “fairness is overrated” and “providing an open platform for misinformation, for anyone to come say whatever they want … can be quite dangerous”.

These are the same people who say the Cancel Culture doesn’t exist while promoting the shutdown of any dissent to the orthodoxy by any means necessary.

American Media’s Attempt at Soviet One-Party Orthodoxy

Writer Matt Taibbi, a liberal journalist who became alarmed at the direction of American journalism several years ago wrote earlier this year

Instead of appearing as props in a phony rendering of objectivity, Republicans in basically all non-Fox media have been moved off the legitimacy spectrum, and appear as foils only. Allowable opinion is now depicted stretching all the way from one brand of “moderate” Democrat to another. (snip)

Where it gets weird is that the move to turn the bulk of the corporate press in the “moral clarity” era into a single party organ has come accompanied by purges of the politically unfit. In the seemingly endless parade of in-house investigations of journalists, paper after paper has borrowed from the Soviet style of printing judgments and self-denunciations, without explaining the actual crimes.

Taibbi, like Glenn Greenwald and Bari Weiss — all liberals who ran afoul of Jackie Calmes’ New Truth — have moved to Substack as independent writers. Of course, that meant the Substack platform itself was ripe for attack …

Journalists Start Demanding Substack Censor its Writers: to Bar Critiques of Journalistshttps://t.co/9UuceYD2Xj

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 11, 2021

Because when you go all Soviet, dissent is not allowed in any form. This is the media equivalent of Obama’s Operation Chokepoint where the Feds pressured financial institutions to kick out and close their doors to legal businesses that Obama and Democrats didn’t like (e.g. firearm retailers).

We discussed before how corporate media gets a case of the ickies when dealing with citizens outside the urban coastal areas. However, this push to isolate and silence The Otherside in any policy or political debate is worse. It is about treating people as unPersons. It is Orwell’s Ministry of Truth operating in newsrooms, editorial boards and in BigTech boardrooms across the country.

This cannot be allowed to stand.

UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers!

featured image composite for Victory Girls by Darleen Click