The Divisive Media and America

The Divisive Media and America

Much of the conflict and violence we see today has been caused by the media’s tendency to promote its own agenda. When you turn to the divisive media for news, you don’t get a positive image of America; instead, you get a presentation of the particular view of the channel and its representatives. This is more than just promoting a political party. It is also a view that rejects faith in God, biblical teaching, and Christian values.

We received an anonymous written piece that expresses the divisive media issue. It is titled “I once was a normal person” and describes the situation in this way:

“I used to think I was pretty much just a regular person. I was born white into a two-parent household, which now, whether I like it or not, makes me privileged, a racist, and responsible for slavery. I went to school for 19 years and have always held a job. But now I find out that I am not here because I earned it but because I was ‘advantaged.’ I think, and I reason, and I doubt most of what the ‘mainstream’ media tells me, which makes me a right-wing conspiracy nut. I am heterosexual and believe it is the best foundation for raising children and having defined roles in family life, and that makes me homophobic. I follow the biblical teaching about money and morality, and I plan, budget, and support myself, and that makes me a fascist.”

Will America survive as a nation where we can worship God according to the teachings of the Bible, or will we collapse into another civilization with no moral standards and no personal rights, with democracy only a thing of the past? Ancient civilizations collapsed when the people accepted state-run control of right and wrong, and no fixed standard guided the state. Will we learn from history or repeat it?

The message of the divisive media today will only accelerate the demise of this once-great nation. Only if we “normal persons” refuse to listen to the bias of the media will the course of our country be different from nations of the past.

— John N. Clayton © 2024

The Work of Unbiased Journalism

Journalism
We live in a culture that is driven by many forces, and one of the most influential is journalism. Journalism is defined as follows:

Journalism is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information.

The question is whether there are any limits to what can be done to gather, assess, create, and present news and information. In April pro-life journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were charged with 15 felony counts. Their crime was publishing undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing how to “harvest fetal tissue” to preserve organs for sale. One of the charges in this case is that since Daleiden and Merritt used hidden cameras, they violated a state law that forbids recording “confidential” conversations without both participants’ permission.

President Trump has had a major war going on with journalists. No matter whether you love or hate Trump, the media has a very bad track record as far as reporting on him. The problem is that the media often interprets the news instead of reporting the news. The interpretation given by the media for many many years has been anti-Christian and pro-atheism. Studies of the beliefs of journalists at major news centers have shown a vast proportion of them have no religious affiliation. (So-called “nones.”) We have reported many cases in this journal where the bias of the reporter caused a misrepresentation of the facts. This is especially true when they are covering something immoral done by someone claiming to be a Christian.

We can expect intrusions by journalists to increase as they try to find things to denigrate Christians and the work that Christians are involved doing. In our own efforts, we have had some very bad experiences with journalists as well as some very good ones. Journalism is a great profession for a person with integrity and a willingness to report the news without distortion or bias. We desperately need to have journalists who present news and information, not opinions and agendas. Jesus told His followers to “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37)

For more on this see The Week, April 14, 2017, page 16.
The definition of journalism comes from:
https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/
–John N. Clayton © 2017