We are in uncharted territory, then I am reminded we’ve been here a few times before.

“I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10 NIV). Fear can overtake us, but God is all-powerful and will offer us all the strength we need.

It seems to me we are being betrayed by the people whose job it is to protect us and bring about balance. The media, which is often called the fourth estate, refers to the press and news media both in explicit capacity of advocacy and implicit ability to frame political issues.

To get a better idea of what the media is doing at this point there needs to be an understanding that in generations past there was a term that was used in the media in reporting the news; it was called “rip-and-read,” where you had two machines side-by-side, one was the United Press International (UPI)  and the other was Associated Press (AP). It was that clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, from the machines in most newsrooms throughout the land that moderately paid reporters were filing their stories as they were happening and reporting the NEWS for news editors to edit the copy and publish it in the newspapers or read it on the radio or television broadcast. That’s it. It was just that simple. They reported the news.

Things changed a while back when new editors and reporters started to become stars and instead of reporting the news they started inventing it. They were entertainers. They were no longer newspaper people or media people. I find it interesting at this point that the accepted term “social media” has the name Media in it because now the media is so generalized it no longer is a profession; it is an avocation.

“As he taught, he said, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets!” (Mark 12:38-44 NRSV).

So I mentioned they started inventing the news; they became celebrities. All you have to do is look at the money that they now command to provide their opinions, strictly their opinions and not News.

Top CNN earners include 

Anderson Cooper, $20 million a year

Wolf Blitzer, $15 million

Jake Tapper,  $8.5 million

MSNBC: Rachel Maddow $30 Million

ABC: George Stephanopoulos 

Robin Roberts Both $10-18 million

FOX: Sean Hannity earns $45 million combined income.

Bret Baier – $20 million.

Laura Ingraham – $15 million 

Neil Cavuto – $7 million  

Greg Gutfeld – $7 million 

When people are paid these humongous sums of money it’s not for them to read off a teletype. They’re being paid because they follow either the company line or they’re paid for their opinion that coincides with the company line.

Caveat Emptor; let the buyer beware. And source information that you believe to be news from more than one or two sources.

– Les