America has long been at war within itself. Leading the divisive assault has been the establishment mainstream media, characterized by its clone-like, group-think mentality, particularly among the so-called “punditry” of self-important, high minded opinion journalists. The mass of everyday Americans are rigorously instructed daily that the press is not like you or me. They are a special class of beings. They are the exalted Fourth Estate, an imaginary extension of the rigid class structure of pre-Revolutionary France from the Estates General. In the Ancien Regime there was the clergy, the nobility, and lastly, the bourgeoisie and commoners. The Fourth Estate sees themselves on an equal par with the first two elevated classes, and above the third. It is the aristocratic notion that gentlemen and ladies of the press serve a vaunted “public interest,” and do not soil themselves with activities of a rank and sordid commercialism. Such endeavors would be a violation of their hoary journalistic ethics. They have a public trust to enlighten the ignorant unwashed masses in their duties to their betters, those who compose the state and their adjunct servitors in the kept press.
As the year 2013 comes to a close, sit back and soberly reflect upon how this agenda-driven media twisted and manipulated the basic facts concerning the important stories surrounding the true legacy of Nelson Mandela, the unrepentant Christian faith of Phil Robertson, the shallow narcissism of Miley Cyrus, the contrasting characters of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, and the heinous sin of being Southern of Paula Deen.
When did America’s Culture War begin? Was it during the “Roaring Twenties?” During the “Red Decade” of the 1930s? During the turbulent 1960s? Or does it reach to the very beginnings of the Republic?
I would appreciate LRC readers’ perceptive thoughts on this question.
11:17 am on December 23, 2013
