A Tragic Suicide

By John Stallings

I’ve conducted a few funerals of suicide victims & nothing is quite so sad. A minister has a hard time saying the right thing at such times.

But this latest case of suicide has got to be one of the most appalling I’ve ever witnessed. The victim was the liberal media & of course their demise was hastened by the election of 2008.

If you, like me have been observing the press for the last number of years, this death wasn’t a big surprise to you. We’ve been talking about their illness with acute bias for years. What was shocking was to see these people finally put the proverbial gun to their head & pull the trigger.

What makes it even more dramatic is that this years fawning over Barack Obama has finally caught the attention of a large percentage of Americans, who are usually slow catching up on things like this.

Last July in a Rasmussen poll 49% of Americans said they believed the media would be slanted for Obama & only 14% said they thought the media would benefit John McCain. They were right.

We were proud that one of the biggest stories of the campaign came out of our town, when Barbara West of WFTV in Orlando “socked it to” Joe Biden.

Maybe some of you are old enough to remember Harry Truman who became president in the mid-1940’s. He was rather plain-spoken & one day a man hollered out at one of his speeches-“give em hell Harry.” Truman answered back, “thanks- I will.” In later years Mr. Truman opined that he never actually gave anybody hell, he just told them the truth & they thought it was hell. [I trust you’ll forgive me for the use of the word hell here because to say-“the hot place below” just wouldn’t suffice.]

Anyway, Barbara West asked Biden some pointed questions & he acted as though the earth had fallen through & he’d landed in the flames of perdition.

It was obvious from watching the interview that Mr. Biden expected to be asked the puffball questions he’d become accustomed to & when Ms. West referenced the Karl Marx quote: “from each according to his ability to each according to his needs,” then asked if Senator Obama’s comment about “spreading the wealth around” was a socialist mechanism, Mr. Biden asked, “is this a joke? Are you joking? Is this a real question?”

Told by West it was a real question, the Senator laughed & then proceeded to deny that Sen.Obama’s plan is “spreading the wealth around.” Very funny!!

But Ms. West wasn’t through with Biden & continued in her “brazen act of responsible journalism.” She slapped the poor guy around until he practically had a “snit-fit,” afterward cutting WFTV off from any further interviews during the campaign, the first of which was the cancellation of a scheduled interview with Sen. Biden’s wife Jill.

I don’t know about you but this to me reflects a very troubling attitude & pulls back the shades to let us see what kind of place the White House will likely be in a few short weeks.

It was obvious when the lovely & gracious Gov. Palin appeared on the scene, the immature & petulant media didn’t know how to act or to respond to her except to resort to spending time & ink on allegations against her husband & children, her newborn Down syndrome baby boy & accusing her of being an “unacceptably fundamentalist Christian.” What does this reaction portend for the future of Christians in the days, months & years ahead?

And, this isn’t even mentioning the ridicule heaped on Palin & McCain by the so-called humorists, especially on the late night shows. What a sad commentary on our nation that people would think this kind of thing funny, & allow it to affect their political opinions- but then that’s the post-Christian world we live in now.

Joy Behar of “The View” who’s reputed to be a comedienne herself told Larry King speaking of Obama, “He’s not funny Larry. He’s not a joke.” Maybe it all depends on your perspective Ms. Behar.

The U.S Constitution protects free speech, & the framers were wise to give the press the freedom to keep the American people informed in an unbiased & objective way & provide them the information to make sensible, informed decisions in life & in elections.

But this disgraceful abandonment of its duty to the American people by the media has been its own undoing & carries within it the seeds of its own destruction.

If the definition of “life” for the media is- to be trusted, & believed, -then they’re dead because their credibility is nil after this election.

2008 will be remembered as the year the American media died by its own hand.

Blessings,

John