Most people know the old philosophical question: If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? That question has fueled debate for a century. I have an answer, at least when it comes to politics in the Age of Trump.
Picture the forest controlled by the Democratic Party and the far left. Picture the tree as one planted by President Donald Trump, one that grows real, positive news for the country. When it falls, does it make a sound? No. That tree is never allowed to make noise.
The pattern goes back a decade. Time and again, the mainstream news media has ignored Trump's press conferences, Cabinet meetings, policy announcements and court rulings that favored him.
In October 2015, a year before the election, Ballotpedia
published a detailed report on the media's growing disdain for Trump, noting that reporters had reached "an early consensus that Trump should not be elected president."
Less than a month into his first term, in February 2017, media analyst Howard Kurtz aired a Fox News segment asking, "Media ignoring positive stories about Trump administration?" That September, Fox Business ran its own version: "Is the mainstream media ignoring Trump's positive impact on the markets?"
The question has resurfaced, in one form or another, nearly every month since.
ABC, NBC – even CBS. News media ignores Trump's successes.
The most recent snub came on July 16, when Trump tried to deliver a national address on election integrity. ABC News and NBC News ignored it entirely. CBS News aired a few minutes. Why?
Republican Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia called it a purposeful snub and asked the Federal Communications Commission to review the networks’ decisions.
"Broadcasters may criticize, analyze, or fact-check the President's statements," Carter wrote. "Regardless of political affiliation, the American people deserved to hear this information directly from their President and judge it for themselves."
Just recently, more than 500 journalists urged the White House Correspondents' Association to "forcefully stand up" to President Trump ahead of its rescheduled dinner.
Part of their message read, "Our message to the White House Correspondents' Association is now more urgent: forcefully stand up for freedom of the press in front of the President, publicly defend the journalists he attacks, and vow to resist his administration’s concerted effort to undermine the First Amendment."
What? Journalists shouldn't be questioned about their own bias?
It's telling that the message singles out "vow to resist." Practically since the day Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015 to announce his candidacy, a number of journalists have proclaimed themselves members of "the resistance" – the same journalists who originated or repeated some of the most reprehensible, dehumanizing smears aimed at him.
The five megaphones stymie Trump and the GOP
None of this should surprise the Trump White House or the GOP. They've been stymied by a force that has only grown stronger during the Age of Trump, through what I call the "five major megaphones" of our nation: media, academia, entertainment, science and medicine.
For more than 50 years, those five megaphones have fallen under the tightening grip of the Democratic Party and the left. And they accomplish far more through omission – quietly leaving out the news, remarks and facts that damage their preferred narratives – than through anything they actually say.
For years, I've listened to Republicans, conservatives and people of faith whine about this "unfair" and "unethical" advantage. To that I say: boo hoo. Cry me a river.
Instead of whining, follow the example President Theodore Roosevelt set in his 1910 speech "Citizenship in a Republic," better known today as the "Man in the Arena" speech.
Roosevelt put it best: "It is not the critic who counts. ... The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood ... who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
A note to Republicans, conservatives and people of faith: The Democrats and the left have been jumping onto the floor of that arena for decades. Where have you been?
To be sure, the five major megaphones ignore Trump and the GOP whenever it suits the left. So what?
Instead of complaining, those on the right with billions could build their own megaphones. Some already have.
Conservatives have made real inroads building alternative institutions in media (from cable news to podcasts to independent outlets) and in education, with a growing wave of classical schools, homeschool networks and new universities aimed at counterprogramming the left’s dominance on campus. But those efforts remain scattered and underfunded next to the five megaphones the left has controlled for half a century.
The most powerful sword the left wields against Trump and the GOP is omission. Selective silence. Hide the positives, and the American people never hear them.
It doesn't have to be that way. Roosevelt's arena has plenty of room left for wealthy Republicans still hiding in the peanut gallery. Their silence speaks volumes, too.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of "The 56: Liberty Lessons From Those Who Risked All to Sign the Declaration of Independence."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The mainstream media ignores anything that favors Trump | Opinion
