In September we discussed a Gallup survey that showed Americans’ lack of faith in the media soaring to new heights. “Americans’ distrust in the media hit a new high this year, with 60% saying they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly,” Gallup’s Lymari Morales said.
This topic came to mind again a couple of weeks ago when the Associated Press, the world’s largest news gathering company, announced they would no longer be using the term “illegal immigrant” or “illegal” to describe a person who has, ummm, illegally immigrated to the United States.
This of course is not the first time the media has selectively tweaked their terminology. Illegal immigrants have been “undocumented workers” for some time now. Tax hikes are “revenue enhancements.” …you get the idea.
But the usual left-leaning media bias occasionally turns into journalistic malpractice.
Enter Birmingham News editorialist Joey Kennedy.
Kennedy despises anyone who stands for the rule of law when it comes to illegal immigration. “HB 56 is evil,” he wrote in an article earlier this month.
Evil?
Kennedy then went on to personally attack Senator Jeff Sessions, who he insists is standing in the way of immigration reform.
“If Sessions knows how to do one thing really well, it’s to do nothing,” Kennedy wrote.
I reject the idea that people I disagree with are evil, good-for-nothing, scumbags — even Joey Kennedy. But for someone who spends so much of his time lecturing everyone else on the value of civility, Mr. Kennedy should consider adding a dose of humility and tolerance to his incessant attacks on Senator Sessions and other conservatives.
Talk radio, anonymous blog postings, have destroyed civil discourse in America.
— Joey Kennedy (@joeykennedy) April 14, 2013
Rick Warren said it best:
“Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.”
Today, Kennedy followed up his first attack on Senator Sessions with a new hit piece. In today’s article, Kennedy continues to label Sessions a “do nothing” Senator who only knows how to say “no.”
Here are a few sentences from today’s piece:
“Sessions voted against stimulus packages that would have helped workers during the Great Recession. He votes against organized labor, which, by the way, support this immigration reform. He opposes progressive taxation.”
Ok, so he’s a conservative? I’ve got bad news, Joey… So is half of the country.
Disagreeing with someone’s point of view is one thing. Clearly Joey Kennedy has some philosophical disagreements with Senator Sessions and pretty much the entire state of Alabama. But I don’t know how you can act like you have one shred of journalistic integrity and continue to write the kind of vindictive nonsense that Joey Kennedy spews in almost every column he posts.
Jeff Sessions is a do-nothing senator?
Actually, “nothing” is the exact opposite of what Senator Sessions is doing. He is drawing support from other senators. He is attracting attention to what he views as a thoroughly flawed bill. He is analyzing the cost of amnesty, supporting law enforcement, and protecting American workers and taxpayers from an influx of 30 million new foreign workers and trillions of dollars in new unfunded liabilities for Medicare and Social Security.
Jeff Sessions is hardly doing “nothing.” It’s just that Mr. Kennedy happens to disagree with the “something” Senator Sessions is doing.
Our legal immigration system is screwed up. It needs to be reformed. Senator Sessions’ ideas on how that should be done differ from those of Mr. Kennedy.
May the best ideas win.
But Joey Kennedy will never see this article once it’s posted on Twitter. He blocked Yellowhammer for calling him out last year in our article, “Joey Kennedy and the Death Spiral of American Journalism.”
.@joeykennedy you blocked YH because I called you out ONE time. Thin skin for such a big mouth.
— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) April 14, 2013
And this precisely illustrates the point.
Joey Kennedy and his ilk have no interest in the “diversity” for which they claim to champion — not when it comes to diversity of opinions and ideas. Kennedy would rather block Yellowhammer on Twitter, and attack Senator Sessions, than actually consider for a moment that maybe, just maybe, someone else’s opinion may have some value.
So for now… while the media systematically cleanses the American lexicon of any adjective-noun combinations that isn’t advantageous to a liberal position, and Joey Kennedy complains that America can’t be more like his beloved Cuba, I’ll continue supporting Senator Sessions’ efforts.
I’d encourage you to do the same.
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