Biased news outlets forfeit respectability

I read your editorial about a free press and the possible problems caused by tweets and other online comments. It was good, as far as it went, but that was not very far.

The press has one constitutional guarantee that Congress, and by extension the government generally, cannot restrict the freedom of the press. The press also has a very far-reaching court decision that makes the press virtually immune from libel and slander considerations, unless malice can be proved, a very high bar indeed.

The fourth and fifth estates have taken this freedom and run with it, but they have run for the boundaries. There appear to be more extremists on the left than on the right, but both extremes are well populated. It is the reasoned middle that

has disappeared under a torrent of opinion and commentary presented as news. The people who live in the media bubbles judge their leaders, and their opinion shapers, by their words.

The people who live in the middle and, usually, more in the real world than the bubble dwellers, judge the leaders and opinion shapers by their actions and the results. Separating children from illegal or detained immigrant parents is bad, no question.

But so is a border that has no meaning or a policy of allowing as many as wish to enter our country. Tax cuts that benefit the wealth the most are bad, but the creation of jobs, increase in take home pay, and resurrection of dying industries is good.

To the extent that the fourth and fifth estates slant their presentation to fit a political agenda, they sacrifice the respect and beliefs that are, ultimately, their only protection from the government and from the mob.

Mark Bailey

Round Lake Beach