Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor
December 29, 2017
Do Americans really believe politics is being poisoned by some form of conservative “manipulation” or “influencing” of the mind, perhaps a Jedi mind trick?
Laughably, if conservatives had that ability, we would certainly use “the force” to rehabilitate liberals.
But rest assured, it’s only liberals and the complicit mainstream media with the necessary presence to impact a nation’s sentiment to the degree some would suggest. If not for conservative Christians, Donald Trump would never have been elected president of the United States. Christians are the one demographic liberals will never capture in their exploited net.
Allow me to expound.
Have you ever noticed in multiple liberal news outlets you often hear similar terminology, phrases or “talking points”? This is often a result of shared information in a process called “collective intelligence.”
Collective intelligence, as described in the Financial Times lexicon, is a social media term used to describe a “shared” intelligence or viewpoint that “emerges from collaboration and competition of many individuals” which appears on social networks designed to “solve a problem.” In this case, the problem is conservatism.
In fairness, not all similar stories in the mainstream media are the result of “collaboration” but are simply the result of a shared ideology. Sadly, since the 2016 presidential election, some media outlets even seem willing to bypass certain standards of journalism just to be able to report a “hit piece” on our president or his supporters, only to have to retract the report.
Unfortunately, some retractions are severely “underreported” compared to the original piece.
Please understand, there are some terrific news outlets with some accurate reporting. But the unprincipled ones impact our ability to know who to believe – which is poisoning politics far greater than any “conservative collusion.”
A study by Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy looked at the media coverage of President Trump, and the results were very telling.
Now, Harvard is certainly not a conservative institution. But the study found that in Trump’s first 100 days in office, the tone of the news coverage of the president was a whopping 80 percent negative compared with 20 percent positive. That, my friend, is truly an attempt to “influence.”
CNN and NBC struck a 93 percent negative tone on their Trump stories, with only 7 percent positive. CBS was third in the anti-Trump race, with a 91 to 9 ratio, per the study. The same study showed Fox News was 52 percent negative to 48 percent positive.
Here’s what to expect in 2018 and beyond:
As the disconnect continues to grow between liberal assertions of Trump’s failures and the reality of his successes for the American people, there will be a huge decline in voters’ perception of the integrity of the mainstream media. The most obvious and embarrassing reporting, to date, was the liberal media’s assertion that Hillary Clinton was a lock for president.
Talk about a liberal media “air ball.”
So, be vigilant and responsive to tactics designed to deceive you.
And understand, conservatives aren’t the ones using smoke and mirrors.
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
Free State Patriot 
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