It is no surprise that the media leans far more left than most of the population of the United States. When interviewed by researchers from Arizona State and Texas A&M Universities about their political leanings last year, more than 58 percent of financial journalists employed by such respected media outlets as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post identified as somewhat liberal or very liberal. So is it any wonder they’re not even trying for objectivity any longer?

The researchers found that “financial journalists with liberal political views outnumber those with conservative political views by more than 13-to-1.” If these are financial journalists – reporters that are supposed to deal in economic facts and objective analysis – and most of them are liberal, can you imagine what the rest of the media community looks like?

Enter this goober, who wants us to believe that the reason the release of the redesigned Harriet Tubman $20 bill that was announced in 2016 by Obama’s Treasury Secretary Jack Lew was supposedly being “slow walked” by the current Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is because – of course – Donald Trump is racist.

Yet the design process seems to be stuck; no official designs have been approved by Mnuchin’s office, a necessary step before the currency can go into circulation. I have to ask, if Tubman were a white abolitionist, would things be taking so long?

Now, the author of this tripe, Ben Crump, is a civil rights attorney noted for his work for the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Stephon Clark and Markeis McGlockton, and apparently Crump sees racism everywhere he turns, including – notably, and not surprisingly – in the Trump administration (and probably under his bed and in his shower).

See, ever since Lew announced that the redesigned $20 bill would have Harriet Tubman on it to replace Andrew Jackson, anyone who has done any amount of research knew it would be a while before the new bill would be put into. Money magazine explained at the time that the bill wouldn’t be released until 2026 in part because the bill needs to be difficult to counterfeit – that’s part of protecting the US financial system, which is part of Treasury’s job – and in part because the Treasury made a commitment to make the bill more accessible for the blind. As such, it was being designed differently than its predecessors with Andrew Jackson on them.

The hold-up is in part due to security concerns: The blue anti-counterfeit strip on the $100 bill took 15 years to develop. The Treasury is also committed to making the new bills more accessible for the visually impaired, meaning that they may have to develop new texture details. In true vague government fashion, a Treasury spokesperson said it’s impossible to predict when the new bills will be ready.

It took me exactly three minutes to find this article from 2016 – back when Obama was still in the White House – explaining why there will be a delay in the release. Ben Crump apparently needs to do no such research. All he has to do is find something that will further his narrative that Donald Trump is a racist. Because ORANGEMANBAD.

In order to even begin the process, the redesign has to be approved. Time magazine reported in December 2016 – before Trump even took office – that Treasury didn’t have any current redesign plans.

The Treasury Department has not confirmed that there are any current plans to release early renderings of the design, but officials inside and out of the Obama Administration have said the decision is ultimately up to the Secretary. Officials say that security should be the determining factor in any such plan.

In addition, the design isn’t even slated to be unveiled until next year.

Why?

Because 2020 will be the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

In an open letter, then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew explained that “We anticipate that final concept designs for the new $20, $10, and $5 notes will all be unveiled in 2020 in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.”

Guess Jack Lew was racist too, because he didn’t give Harriet Tubman a special release, but rather opted to unveil changes during a year that actually had meaning for women.

Guess the Trump Administration’s primary mission should be to stroke Ben Crump’s grievance boner, rather than take the time to properly release the new $20 with security measures to stop counterfeiting and accessibility features for the visually impaired.

Guess Trump just didn’t genuflect sufficiently at the altar of political correctness for Crump’s taste.

There is no doubt that Harriet Tubman was a badass. She was an escaped slave who helped other slaves gain their freedom. She was also a nurse, a Union intelligence officer, and a supporter of women’s suffrage. There is no doubt that she deserves the place of honor on the $20 bill, and she will get it.

Meanwhile, NBC News has embarrassed itself by publishing this ridiculous opinion column based on nothing but racist griping by an obviously biased author.

At the very least every media outlet should demand that opinion pieces be based in some kind of fact, but it’s apparently more important to NBC News to publish a story pointing out once again how evil and racist Trump is without doing its due diligence and checking the facts.

Is it any wonder that no one trusts the news media any more?

Featured photo courtesy of The New England Magazine in the public domain.