Before I start I would like to apologize to my subscribers. My original intention when I started writing this column(or Blog) was to keep the three threads completely separate but apparently I have been doing the opposite. My Monday column should just be about business, markets, trends in the economy. You know, things I know something about. Wednesday’s column was supposed to be about politics, which I know little about. However, the last few weeks they have turned into a blended thread that maybe interesting but not really what I intended to do at the outset. I will keep that in mind going forward but in this day and age, economics and politics do bleed into each other and I think that some of my arguments are better supported with some economic component so it will be a challenge.
A lot of what I have written over the past year or so has been fairly negative. I guess I am following the mood of the country to some extent and I won’t apologize for that. There are problems (as there always have been) and like every American, I expect our politicians to work to fix those problems. I know, that is naive, especially since those very same politicians have caused most of the problems. Why on Earth do I believe that they can help fix them? Hope springs eternal I suppose.
While the core of what I am going to write about is such a human Wednesday’s, there is something positive coming from all of this.
We have seen something we haven’t seen in decades from our government and from the media, fair and unbiased coverage of an event.
Yes. I said it. CNN, The New York Times and pretty much all of the other media outlets are reporting on something with such a keen eye on the truth. How refreshing is that?
Let’s be honest here though. There really isn’t any other way to report the War in Ukraine. It is shaping up to be more horrific than anything we have seen since World War II and the parallels to that conflict are astounding. Every talking head is pretty much reporting things as they happen. The villains and heros are all pretty much the same on any network or newspaper. The media is united and telling a story and I am in shock.
Politicians are all speaking the same language as far as this war is concerned and apparently, they are united with regard to the American response to this war. I like to torch politicians every chance I get but when they actually stand united and agree I think we should take notice as well.
Going back to the media, there are a couple of things I want to point out.
I watched CNN for an hour and seven minutes before Donald Trumps name was mentioned. It might be a post Trump record. I will have to talk to my staff, they keep track of these things.
MSNBC has gone down a rabbit hole that even it’s own fans want to get out of. Look, I get liberal ideologies and as I have said numerous times, I respect the right to have those ideologies but I don’t necessarily have to agree with many of them, but, they are allowed to share them. Why am I even bringing this up? Well, I decided to watch what Joy Reid had said about the war in Ukraine. To cut what she said down to one sentence is pretty easy. She believes that the only reason that there is vast media coverage of the war is because it is a White Christian country and we could care less what is going on in Yemen. Again, she is free to voice her opinion and I give her credit for showing how myopic she can be at times. With regards to what she said, look at the facts. Yemen is considered a base for terrorism in the Middle East. The Saudis aren’t particularly fond of having the Yemeni’s next door and would like to keep the Middle East in relative peace. The Yemeni’s won’t have it. (You can stop right there, I do know it’s more complicated than that). There are other distinctions that warrant concern in the US and Europe that have been driving the coverage. Russia invaded a sovereign country. That should be enough. Russian has intimated that a nuclear option is on the table. That, again will perk up many ears. World War II killed over 60 million people and there are parallels here. Enough said. One other thing that Joy Behar, oops I mean Joy Reid, should really think about, the bulk of all this coverage is by those bastions of the liberal world, CNN, NBC,CBS, ABC, The New York Times, The Washington Post. However, I will give her credit for calling out her peers in her editorial. Her own little clique has spent millions covering this war so once again she preaches some racially motivated rhetoric where race has nothing to do with it. It’s more important in ways she obviously can not understand.
There are a couple points that I am trying to get at. One being the fact that the more liberals speak and try and press for what they want, the more Americans seem to be pushing back. Yes, there are things in those liberal policies that can be accepted and the World won’t turn on its head but the left is losing America overall and people like Joy Reid aren’t helping their cause. The other thing is that when there is a common enemy not named Donald Trump, the media in this country can actually do a really good job.
As a note. I feel pretty confident in my assessment about how the liberal media is covering events because what I do everyday is go on the BBC’s website and watch BBC World news and take in what they are reporting. I know some people feel that is one sided in it’s own way but what I have discovered is that the BBC’s reporting is pretty much the same as the reporting from other Western outlets so I am very comfortable in my views that we are getting the truth, for now.
Thank You for your explanation that I do agree with. But, and I say this tongue in cheek, Your "hope springs eternal" line.....Since politics and investing are bedfellows, would your investing plan include the word "hope" as our political direction always uses;) I "hope" not;)