Discerning the News Narrative

Discerning the News Narrative by Bill Wilson

The news narrative has shifted since Friday, December 7 when Federal prosecutors released information about the Mueller Special Counsel investigation on whether President Donald Trump and Russia conspired to influence the 2016 Presidential election. The old narrative of Russian-Trump collusion has all but disappeared. The new narrative that has the news media and Democrats calling for impeachment of Trump is about Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen paying two women in the porn business hush money to prevent blackmail. Cohen admitted that he made the payments at Trump's instruction so that the campaign would not be damaged. The Feds say this is an illegal campaign contribution, a felony.

The news media and the Democrats are now in full impeachment mode, but not over the Russian investigation that cost Americans some $20 million and found nothing of Trump-Russia collusion. All plea deals to date have had nothing to do with Russian collusion, but rather illegalities in business deals by the people involved that were exposed during the investigation. The media and its talking-head experts, who are largely biased Democrats, now want Trump impeached for paying hush money to women in the porn business. They say that prosecutors have now implicated Trump because his former lawyer pleaded guilty. This constitutes, however, a political, not a legal, indictment.

There are a few things to discern here. One is that there really is nothing on Russian-Trump collusion. Another is that though Cohen admitted to a federal crime of campaign finance violations, doesn't mean he is actually guilty of them. There was no trial, the prosecutors cut a deal for a lesser prison term on greater crimes. Further, it is a stretch to say that these were illegal campaign contributions because they did not directly come from the campaign. Let us remember 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee John Edwards who had others pay money to hide an affair and a love child from his wife during his campaign. The media and a jury acquitted Edwards-"nothing to see here."

It is not illegal to use one's money to pay for someone's silence. It is illegal to use campaign funds for that purpose. But Trump's own money was used. The news media and Democrats, however, say Trump is a felon because of what his lawyer did. So that now becomes the narrative and the impeachment battle cry. Never mind that this is the same media and Democrats that upheld John Edwards AND characterized the many sexual harassment and rape charges of Bill Clinton as "right-wing conspiracies." Trump's severe lapses in morality aside, the media is once again judging guilty until being proven innocent. Job 34:3-4 says, "For the ear tries words, as the mouth tastes meat. Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good." Discern it for yourself because you won't hear it in the media.