The Patriot Post® · WaPo Puts Finger to the Wind in Headlining Trump's SOTU
Journalists should be impartial, which means telling something like it is. In Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, he intoned a yearning to purge from Congress partisan jabbering that has resulted in an absolutely despicable display of obstruction and mudslinging. For example, consider his use of the word “together”:
“It is not enough to come together only in times of tragedy.”
“Let’s begin tonight by recognizing that the state of our Union is strong because our people are strong. And together, we are building a safe, strong, and proud America.”
“If you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in America, then you can dream anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve absolutely anything.”
“All of us, together, as one team, one people, and one American family can do anything.”
“Together, we are rediscovering the American way.”
“I am asking both parties to come together to give us safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure that our economy needs and our people deserve. ”
“Together, we can reclaim our great building heritage.”
“Let’s come together, set politics aside, and finally get the job done.”
Initially, The Washington Post recognized Trump’s oft-repeated sentiment for what it was — both an olive branch and a longing for needed change and working together on Capitol Hill. So late on Tuesday evening, the newspaper tweeted a preview of Wednesday’s front page, which it accurately captioned, “A call for bipartisanship.” Unfortunately, the leftist Social Media Police were none too pleased with such nuanced language and vented frustration with the Post’s overtone. One of them was former Obama advisor Dan Pfeiffer, who exclaimed, “What in the he—?”
In response, within a few hours the Post tweeted, “This [front] page was updated after the first edition.” Gone was “A call for bipartisanship” in lieu of “A ‘new American moment’” — a reference to when Trump declared in his speech, “This, in fact, is our new American moment.”
Alex Griswold in The Washington Free Beacon responded best: “Democracy dies when the #Resistance says it does, apparently.” And make no mistake: The Post would gladly have used “A call for bipartisanship” after every single one of Obama’s SOTU addresses if not for the ubiquity of it. After all, how many articles and editorials did it devote to reprimanding Republicans for obstructing Obama?
Americans don’t have much faith in government institutions, but they also will continue to not have faith in American media as long as it keeps putting politics above impartiality and levelheadedness. On Tuesday night, The Washington Post showed us once again who really controls it.