Amanpour Gets a Failing Grade

Good Morning, Breakfastpoppers. Today is Tuesday, December 6, 2016. Our creative friend, Spider Harlotte, is at the breakfast table this morning. She has been spinning like mad ever since she heard CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour express her concerns for journalism in the United States under a Trump presidency. Please join Harlotte and me at the table this morning. Harlotte will be serving scrambled eggs and sausage. I will round out the meal with Bloody Marys. I hope to see you soon. The eggs are in the pan.

Thank you all for joining me this morning. I had the extreme displeasure of listening to Christiane Amanpour's views about journalism in the coming Trump era. She threw president-elect Trump into the frying pan and turned on the burners. Amanpour is the British-Iranian international correspondent and anchor for CNN. She delivered a speech recently in New York calling for freedom of the press in the United States. Perhaps Amanpour has spent too much time abroad covering international affairs to fairly judge the state of journalism in our country. The CNN anchor expressed outrageous concern for the safety of journalism and journalists once Donald Trump takes office. She went on to state that Trumps's rhetoric against the press was despicable and dishonest. What Amanpour fails to understand is that Donald Trump is spot on. Journalism in America has declined so rapidly, that getting the truth is now an impossible task. Her own network, CNN, is guilty of distorting, misreporting, omitting and skewing the news. Americans have been besieged by biased reporting at levels that are unheard of and unimaginable. Her concern for the state of journalism in a Trump America is just as distorted as what comes out of the MSM. Polls show quite emphatically that most Americans do not trust the press. There is no reason to trust the press. The state of journalism has eroded so dramatically, that I don't think their efforts should be characterized as journalism. They should fall under the category of propaganda, because that is exactly what it is. The MSM decides what they want Americans to know. The MSM reports only the news that bolsters their twisted view of the nation. Ms. Amanpour has it all wrong. She has invented a false narrative about the state of journalism under Trump. She has equated the fate of American journalists with those working in war torn areas where their lives are,in fact, endangered. Ms. Amanpour, this is America. We don't shoot journalists or imprison them for their words. Frankly, there are times I wish we could, because the damage they cause is despicable.

This tug of war with our beliefs, loyalties and emotions has to be resolved. The left has to come to terms with the results of this election. Donald Trump will be our president. His description of the media is accurate. We have a lot of work to do to fix the way Americans get the news. The MSM owes Americans a huge apology for the harm they have caused. When the New York Times wrote a letter of apology, I saw it as a sign that things might get better. Now I am not so sure. Ms. Amanpour's suggestion that she fears that reporters in America will end up in jails is insane and irresponsible. If the left wing media doesn't change their ways, it is my hope that their readerships will dwindle and their ratings will plummet. That's the way we do things in our country, Ms. Amanpour.

Harlotte's Song

Oh, what a tangled web we weave

When first we practice to deceive.

Sir Walter Scott