The Past Has Passed

When a jury is being selected, the trial judge often asks potential jurors whether they can set aside their personal experiences and attitudes – along with anything they have heard previously – so as to render a verdict in the case based solely on the evidence and law presented in the courtroom. The judge really is asking the ultimate question: “Can you be unbiased?” Our system of trial by jury depends on unbiased jurors to evaluate the guilt, innocence, and (or) liability of the defendant.

So, too, does our political system depend on an unbiased press to evaluate and communicate about political leaders and the policies they advance.

The framers of our federal government created a constitutional system featuring a democratic republic, with a free press being another essential element. Whether they had twenty-first-century bloggers and podcasters in mind when they passed the First Amendment, I can’t be sure. But I do know there is a dire need for objective, nonpartisan analysis and fact conveying from our media today.

Part of this observation is self-serving, as I want to be perceived and respected as impartial. My rationale is that, in the long run, if I am just another political hack with a keyboard, nobody will believe what I tell them – that is, unless they already believed what I tell them before I even tell it.

With respect to President Trump in particular, I also don’t want to repeat the leftist media’s prior mistake of going crazy about each and every comment he makes. I never want to be a boy who cries wolf or a little chicken clucking that the sky is falling. That conduct reduces one’s credibility, as we learned again in the 2024 election, when nobody paid any attention to the so-called “news” presented by the traditional media.

Like integrity, my credibility is very important to me.

Moreover, as I will explain below, I truly want President Trump to “Make America Great Again” (in any way it is not great already). If I am predisposed to criticize everything he says and does, just because it was him who said or did it, I will not be doing my part to further the interest of our country and our citizens.