The Pence Diversion

Recently the liberal media made a point that Vice president Mike Pence’s leaving early from a Colts’ game when about 20 players knelt for the national anthem was a political stunt. But if it was a political stunt then what was the players’ kneeling? If Pence’s action was premeditated then how was the player’s action? The liberal media frames the stories in a such a way in order to manipulate the masses. The same type of premeditated action is framed, in case of NFL players, as something great and honorable, standing up for what they believe (well, in this case for standing down for what they don’t believe in). As Peter Heck points out, the liberal sports writers “have fallen all over themselves applauding the publicity stunt of players taking a knee during the anthem for weeks now.” But when it’s not in their favor it’s framed in a negative light as a “political stunt.” This way the masses’ attention will be distracted from the fact that, if the NFL players have the right to stand down for our country’s flag then Pence (as well as anybody else) has even more right to not want to see an NFL game where the country’s flag is dishonored. But the media’s pointing to a “political stunt” is a diversion. It’s political manipulation and it’s so Orwellian and so typical of liberals.

Pence said that he left the game “because President Trump and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our flag, or our national anthem.” Well, that sounds too good to give it to the conservatives, let’s make it be about being a political stunt. I’m pretty sure that Pence realized that it will draw the public’s attention but his office said that the ticket was bought well in advance because “former Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning was set to be honored at the game.” But regardless when the ticket was bought, the kneeling NFL players also realized very well that their action will draw the public’s attention. Most likely that’s the main reason that they did it in the first place. They didn’t do that before the Kaepernick’s first public display of kneeling down for the anthem. They didn’t do it before this was publicized as an act of protest against the country’s leadership. It’s not that their beliefs changed. It’s just that they found a venue to advertise what they believed—a way which was deeply offensive to Trump’s administration and many Americans. They wanted to make a point—which makes it a political stunt. Therefore, if Pence’s action was a political stunt, the NFL players’ was even more so. If Pence’s action was premeditated, the NFL player’s was even more so. But to the liberal media the former is a disgraceful premeditated political stunt and the latter is a right and an action worthy of praise. Each event in a different light in order to influence the public’s beliefs and views.

Another response to Pence’s action is claiming that it cost taxpayers reportedly $250,000. Sports writer Zac Keefer made the same point. One could easily point out, based on data the Business Insider acknowledges that, considering that $45,000 trip that Pence had to make anyway, and the fact that Republican National Committee will reimburse anyway a part of the trip, the cost becomes much smaller. But the issue is not the cost. If they cared so much about the tax payer’s money they could have also questioned many of Obama’s trips, such as his golf trips. But they didn’t. The whole point is to create a diversion, to distract the public’s attention from the meaning Pence himself claimed for his action (as to not dignify the disrespect for our country’s soldiers, flag and anthem). Such a meaning, in the public’s minds, is damaging to the liberals marketing (the use of NFL player’s kneeling for their advertising) and they employ diversion as a means of damage control. It’s sand thrown in public’s eyes so that they can’t see what the liberal media doesn’t want them to see.

But the most impressive fact is how blind some liberals are. Stephen Holder who called Pence’s action “pre-planned outrage” and “fake outrage,” and “total publicity stunt,” was asked “to clarify whether it qualifies as a publicity stunt when players kneel.” His response was: “Probably to you, because you either aren’t listening to them or don’t care. Good day.” The irony is that in the midst of being blind to his own bias, Holder accuses Tony Katz (who asked the question) of being biased and insensitive. As Peter Heck puts it:

Sorry, but that’s just too funny. I’m guessing Holder doesn’t even realize that the exact same thing can be said about his response to Pence: Holder either isn’t listening to Pence when he explains why he left, or he doesn’t care. The vice president stayed, stood, and honored the flag and anthem while it was performed. He chose not to stay and honor the players who disrespected that flag with his presence at their game – like countless other fans have done as well. This isn’t that difficult to understand.

Keefer, Doyel, and Holder don’t want anyone telling players they have to stand for the anthem. But they’re totally fine with telling the vice president he has to stay for the game. This might be why they write about balls for a living.

The Pence incident is just an example but it is so typical of how liberal media deals with the events they report. I’m not saying that the conservative media doesn’t have bias. More or less, everybody does. I do. You do. But the hypocrisy of the liberal media, their self-righteousness (or, in their language, self-political-correctness), their reframing of the data in such away to manipulate the public opinion needs to be pointed out. (And yes, political correctness is another reframing of terms but that’s for another post.)

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PS To the liberal readers: While this is about the media bias (and some are so blind that they don’t even realize how they manipulate the public because they deceived themselves to believe what they are saying before selling it to the public which is worse than marketers which at least are aware of what they are doing) this is also an opportunity to find out your political bias level. This is for liberal readers not because the conservative ones don’t have any bias to test but just that this happens to be a good test for ones and not for the others.

For a liberal reader, there are two elements involved here. One has to do with truth and the other with liberalism.

An unbiased liberal reader will care about truth before about caring about taking sides. It’s sad situation when people’s ability to look at the truth is impeded and their beliefs are manipulated. An unbiased reader will welcome when such manipulation is pointed out and will be glad that it was caught. On the other hand, a biased liberal reader will be upset with the whole blog—after all, it reflects negatively on liberals. He will care more about one’s side than about truth. It’s simply because, to him, it’s about pushing liberalism forward more than pushing the truth forward. Regardless if you like it or not, that’s the difference between the attitude of a biased and unbiased liberal (well, more exactly, between a mostly unbiased and mostly biased liberal). The same difference applies to conservatives to any other kind of bias for that matter.

They say that love is blind. Not only that bias leads to cognitive blindness but also that “love” will be easily saddened and offended and will make the topic a “hot topic.” Just try to say something true and negative to a parent about his or her kids. The more negative it is, the more likely the parent will disagree with you and get upset. An impartial judge will not have much emotional involvement nor interest in any side winning and therefore will not get upset if either side looses. An impartial judge will have a “cool” judgment of the facts. This is exactly what we have here. And where you position yourself in the range between “I’m glad I read this and caught this situation. People should know when they are manipulated by the media” and “I’m upset this makes liberals look bad. These are all stinking lies!” will tell you how strong your bias is. The more upset and defensive you got the more biased you are. That’s simply how it works. The more love, interest and emotional involvement you have with a side of a debate the more biased you are and the more upset you will be when your side will be put in a negative light. After all, they are right, love is blind. When you have a side to protect you will get defensive and emotional. But when you have the truth to uphold then sides don’t matter and you will keep your cool.  This test is not about being liberal or conservative. It’s about you being honest to yourself. You’ve got nobody else to fool or honor here.

Of course, here I assume that the data indeed strongly points out that some liberal media outlets are indeed hypocritical and manipulative, at least in this respect. I find the facts just too hard to deny. But if you think I’m wrong in my assessment please comment below and I’ll be willing to reconsider my point.