Coup by Media

by Phil Erwin

Greg Gutfield

On FOX’s afternoon roundtable show, “The Five,” political humorist Greg Gutfeld expressed disapproval

for the WikiLeaks release of “hacked” e-mails. Gutfeld feels we should not condone the theft of personal property, no matter what public value ensues.

I’m not unsympathetic to Gutfeld’s concerns. But copies of at least some of those documents were probably also part of the 33,000 e-mails “scrubbed” from Hillary’s “private” server – and all those documents were in fact the property of the U.S. Government, which means our property. In deleting them, Hillary stole them from us.

Elsewhere, Stuart Varney, anchor of the morning economic news program “Varney & Co.”, expressed concern that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a foreign national, is attempting to influence our election process. (Varney is a naturalized American citizen; he takes the rights and responsibilities of citizenship very seriously.)

Both Varney and Gutfeld make valid points: The WikiLeaks revelations are, in fact, a distribution of materials – no doubt obtained by theft, probably by a foreign entity – released to the purview of American voters by another foreign entity.

So what?

I often agree with these gentlemen on issues, but I vehemently disagree on this one. WikiLeaks is providing the United States citizenry a valuable service, and is almost theonly serious counterbalance to the blatant, unprecedented, willfully biased and arguably unethical influence the “elite” Media are having on the election process.

The Media are supposed to be independent of all political influences. That is precisely why they were accorded the freedom listed in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. “Freedom of the Press” is designed to render the Press untouchable by those in political power, so that the Press can function effectively as a watchdog on the actions of the political class.

When the Press instead acts on behalf of a chosen candidate, they are misusing their Constitutional privilege, abusing the public’s trust, and warping the election process itself – the very bedrock on which the nation’s freedoms are founded.

That the Media are biased in favor of Liberal/Democrat views is a well-known fact. FOX News was founded to counter that bias on-air. (Conservative talk-radio had been the only other counterbalancing force.)

But what has never before been so blatant is the elite Media abandoning all pretense of impartiality and fairness. They are now openly advocating for Hillary, and against Trump.

Witness the extremely one-sided approach the chosen commentators take in moderating debates – interrupting Trump twice as often as Hillary; and actually contradictingTrump’s points on-camera (which is the job of the opponent, not the moderator!) And Univision’s anchor, Jorge Ramos, is among several news personalities who have stated outright that they consider it their responsibility to help Hillary defeat Trump. As citizens, they have that right; as protected members of the Press, they absolutely do not.

Equally outrageous: Haim Saban, co-owner/chairman of Univision and a huge Clinton donor, is seen in leaked e-mails actually collaborating with Hillary’s campaign staff, advising them to hammer Trump as anti-immigration, anti-Hispanic.

This new Media activism represents a malicious and insidious influence on our election process, and thereby on the very government that is charged with protecting our freedoms. In effect, this represents coup-by-media – a deliberate effort to subvert the electoral process to guarantee a specific outcome by means of a disinformation campaign. And it is beyond our control as citizens, since the Media enjoy Constitutional protections, and their efforts to help “rig” the election for Hillary, while unethical and reprehensible, are likely not illegal.

So the reality is that Assange’s WikiLeaks is serving to protect the American voter from a deliberate campaign of misinformation being waged by most of America’s elite Media in order to ensure that Hillary is elected. In providing access to behind-the-scenes conversations of Hillary’s political operatives and supporters, Assange lets us judge their actions and intentions. Those conversations (e-mails) may have been private, but their content is relevant to the public, and the intentions revealed are in fact the verybusiness of the Media, the reason the Press enjoys Constitutional protection.

You can’t kill a wolf if you can’t see through it’s sheep’s clothing.

So Varney needs to reconsider: WikiLeaks may be a foreign entity, but it is acting in a way that is a positive influence on this election cycle, and one which counterbalances a threat to the integrity of the process from domestic entities. Assange gets a vote of approval from me.

As for Gutfeld’s concern that this is stolen material being released, the correct view of Assange is: Whistle-blower.

Assange is providing access to information that voters need and deserve. That the information was obtained by theft doesn’t invalidate its value to voters. Assange didn’t steal it himself. But his distributing it is a public service, no different from those who obtained information about corporations hiding the damaging effects of nicotine, or hexavalent chromium (the danger dramatized in Julia Roberts’ brilliant portrayal of muckraker Erin Brockovich.) Virtually all the information eventually revealed about these dangers, and to the public’s benefit, came from materials obtained by means that were not sanctioned by the owners of said materials.

We’ve enacted legislation designed to protect so-called “whistle-blowers” specifically because their actions may be illegal, but both their intentions and the results of their actions are to the public’s benefit, and the resulting protections accorded the public may not be available by any other, more legitimate/legal means. Whistle-blowers deserve our protection because they are trying to protect us.

And that is precisely how we should see WikiLeaks. Doesn’t matter (Mr. Varney) that it’s a foreign organization. Doesn’t matter (Mr. Gutfeld) that they received the e-mails from someone who stole it.

We need the Truth, and WikiLeaks has it.

Let’s see it.

Phil Erwin is an author, IT administrator and registered Independent living in Newbury Park. He would like to support some Democrat ideals, but he has a visceral hatred for Lies and Damn Lies (and is highly suspicious of Statistics.) That pretty much eliminates supporting most Democrats, and a bunch of Republicans to boot.

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