It’s beyond lamentable that we have reached this point where over 90% of Republicans and nearly 80% of Independents find the mainstream media in this country to be untrustworthy.  The media has a vital role in a free republic such as ours.  It is far healthier for the security of individual freedom and personal liberty if citizens remain overly skeptical of the claims, designs, and actions of their government.

It was the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson himself, who cautioned, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”  This is one of the reasons Jefferson and the boys were so intent on protecting the rights of a free press to hold the government accountable to the citizens.

But we now live in an era where citizens are more likely to trust the government over the press.  That isn’t healthy, but it’s sadly understandable given the chosen behavior and proven conduct of those entrusted with the solemn responsibility of being media watchdogs.  For generations they have willfully chosen to turn themselves into advocates for partisan causes, and they are now reaping the whirlwind.  We all are.

Citizens now see the media as every big as dangerous to their freedoms and well-being as the government.  And why wouldn’t they? 

For instance, when a media conglomerate of CNN, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Politico, New York Times, NBC, and the Associated Press seeks to reveal personal names, addresses and contact information, of jurors presiding over a case that those media entities have already foolishly adjudicated for their audiences, how do they expect normal people to trust them?

When Time Magazine intentionally uses a fake image of a crying child to make a political statement about their view of the country’s deportation practices, how can they sincerely expect those who don’t agree with their view to trust their honesty and forthrightness?

And now the most recent example.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents properly detained the husband of a pregnant woman who was reportedly driving his pregnant wife to the hospital to give birth.  There was much work for a responsible media to do before publicizing this story.  They needed to verify what he was being detained for, whether the detention was appropriate and legal, whether the pregnant wife was also an illegal immigrant, how ICE knew the man was illegal and how they properly identified him, and whether there were any extenuating circumstances to his detention.

But our media is not responsible.  They are partisan advocates who have already determined their policy preference on all issues involving illegal immigration.  They are opposed to the conservative position on strengthening our country’s border control, and the principle that strong borders is the most humane act for both citizens here and those attempting to dangerously immigrate illegally.  And so instead of doing any of the hard work journalism requires, here’s what they ran with:

The Hill: WATCH: ICE agents detain husband who was driving pregnant wife to hospital to give birth.

CBS News: ICE arrested a man who was driving his pregnant wife to deliver their baby, leaving her to drive herself to the hospital.

ABC News: Surveillance footage shows ICE agents detaining a man in California stopped at a gas station who was bringing his pregnant wife to the hospital for the delivery of their baby.

Slate: ICE Officers Arrest Man Who Was Driving Pregnant Wife to Hospital for C-Section

MSNBC Producer Kyle Griffin: ICE detained a man while he was driving his pregnant wife to the hospital. He was taken when they stopped for gas. “My husband needs to be here,” Maria del Carmen Venegas said. “He had to wait for his son for so long, and someone just took him away.”

Most are now aware what later emerged: that this detained man was wanted in Mexico on murder charges.  None of this was reported by these media sources because they didn’t know about it at the time they reported it.  But they could have.  They didn’t because they didn’t do their work. 

That’s why I say it doesn’t have to be this way.  What they’re doing isn’t reporting.  They are advocating first, looking for facts second.  And rather than eat crow, these same media sources are blaming ICE for not stating from the beginning that the man was wanted for murder.  Think about that – the media is chastising ICE (whose responsibility is to enforce immigration law) for not doing the job of the media (to research and uncover truth in order to report to citizens what has happened).  Amazing.

Even if it were later to turn out that this man was not wanted for murder, this entire fiasco has offered to citizens already rightly disgusted by the laziness and irresponsibility of the media yet another reason why they’re better off ignoring what the “news” tells them.

I don’t know how this terrible trend of media recklessness and public distrust can be reversed.  Maybe a total purge of newsrooms and media boardrooms is all that will do it.  But those that have let it get this bad should be utterly ashamed of themselves.  We’re all worse off because of the mockery they’ve made of their work.