by Jay DeLancey and Jeff Davidson

The grandest mistake the American populace committed in the last half-century was assuming that our media was even somewhat fair and balanced. Likewise proceeding in the last two decades as if the Internet giants had no dog in the political arena proved to be a mistake of historical proportions.

Today because so many people, still, are conditioned as such, the mere fact that say, a CNN, has a website prompts some people to believe that the network have something of value to offer. Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, whose focus is classics and military history, says that the New York Times is “a shell of what it used to be.”

Nothing Objective to Offer

The paper always leaned to the left, since it’s founding, but it did an intermittently semi-decent job in reporting the facts. The Times sent their reporters out to the streets to do hard-core reporting. The mission was to gather relevant data, identify sources, talk to people, find eye witnesses, speak to bonafide experts, attain corroboration, and then when they were sure of what they had written, submit the story or feature.

Their articles probably never represented a 50-50 balance – perhaps 55-45 or 60-40 in favor of the left. Today, no rational media observer would contend that the balance is 70-30, or even 80-20. Study after study reveals, say, in the case of covering Donald Trump, that 92% of all features are negative, and that is not to say the remaining 8% are positive. Mostly, they’re neutral.

If you are a Trump or DeSantis supporter, or a Republican running for Senate or the House of Representatives, for governor in your state, or for any other position of prominence, you simply cannot expect a fair shake from the press, nationally, and in most cases locally. Indeed, you’re likely to be demonized, endlessly, over issues for which Democrats receive a free pass.

Compromised to the Breaking Point

The Pretense is Gone

With RFK, Jr. already favored by a sizable percentage of Democrats for the 2024 nomination, I recall a visit I made to his mother’s home. In 1988, I was invited by a friend to attend a Democratic fund raising reception for a congressional candidate, running in Northern Virginia. The reception was to be held at the home of Ethel Kennedy in McLean, VA.

I was eager to attend, although skeptical that the reception would actually be held in Mrs. Kennedy’s home. I felt certain it would be held in the back yard, or in a special tent on grounds that were meticulously groomed for the event.

To my surprise, the event was held in her home and the hundreds of people who attended apparently were free to roam about the first floor without restriction. I found this to be totally amazing. Here was a home, that by any measure, contained artifacts which future generations would clamor to see.

A Panoply of Pop Culture and History

Every room contained personal photos of Bobby Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and the entire clan, as well as awards, citations, and personal mementos. Guests could have pocketed their choice of mementos at any time. Apparently none did – at any time. More astounding, Mrs. Kennedy seemed completely unconcerned about the possibility.

As I meandered about the grounds, I made my way to the pool house. Between a couch and a chair, on a phone stand, along with the phone, was a roster of phone numbers typed and inserted in a plastic sleeve. I looked at the list. Ted Kennedy’s congressional phone number and his private number in Hyannis were listed. Jackie Kennedy’s personal phone number in New York was listed. Other family members, celebrities’ and luminaries’ personal phone numbers were listed.

Any reporter or paparazzi could have cashed in simply by copying the numbers on the list and selling them to the tabloids. This backyard, this yard, this house, on a typical street in McLean, VA had no fences, no guard dogs, none of what I would have expected the widow of a historical figure – a millionairess – to have.

People-oriented to the Max

I thought about all the time and energy that I, and most of the people I know, spend to safeguard our privacy, to ensure no one is looking over our shoulder when we’re doing something as simple as reading a newspaper on an airplane. Ethel Kennedy, however, was a public person, circa 1988.

It seemed inconceivable that an Ethel Kennedy could be so open and people-oriented, and not need the barriers and protectors that most of us believe we need.

As that night’s affair ended, I marveled when Ethel Kennedy stood at the door and bade all guests a fond farewell. She shook my hand and thanked me for coming as if I had been one of the Democratic Party’s most staunch supporters and honored guests in her home.

Accessible and Not-off-the-Wall

I was not a Democrat and never seek to be one, but this I know: by today’s standards JFK would be considered a conservative, or certainly  someone ‘unworthy’ of the Democrat nomination. RFK senior likely would be in the same category.

Sure, many of their views and policies would be appear to be be left of center or at the center, but perhaps no more so than John McCain or George W. Bush. In any case, any Kennedy would be preferable to the tyrannical Leftist monsters currently in power, seeking to destroy America.

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