The Media in the United States is among the freest in the world. Constitutionally protected, it can say and do almost anything. It has long been regarded as a watchdog against a runaway government.
But what happens when the media starts to work against you?
No, this isn’t some paranoid conspiracy paper. There is no Illuminate, no New World Order, and the Stonecutters don’t really exist. Likewise, ABC, The Los Angeles Times, and MSNCB are not meeting in a dark room plotting on how to burn the Constitution and install Hillary Clinton as Empress of America.
But as the media exercises its right to express itself, it is being watched. Closely.
North Korea, probably the most closed-off country in the world, spends an inordinate amount of time keeping a close eye on the United States. Not surprising, given the hostilities that exist between the two countries. North Korean spies are everywhere, and allied countries such as China and Russia help filter information to North Korea as well.
But North Korea has another ally in the game. An unwitting ally, but an ally nonetheless.
The advantage of a free country is also one of its detriments. You can learn a lot about what is going on by following the media. It’s their job to learn what “they” don’t want you to know — “they” being whomever wants to keep something from you.
If it wasn’t for the media, we wouldn’t know about Watergate, the Clinton uranium deal, or the E-mail scandal.
Another advantage of the United States is also another of its problems: Freedom of media speech also allows the media to take sides. In theory, this shouldn’t happen. How can you be a watchdog when you’re only watching part of the yard? In practice, however, one would have to be clinically ignorant to not see how the media in the United States has not just taken a side, but sold its soul to that side. It is so bad that Pew Research recently found media coverage of the U.S. President to be a whopping 62% unfavourable to a measily 5% favourable.
If one were to read most media reports, a person could easily conclude that the United States is on the cusp of a civil war; that the current U.S. President is hated by the public, other countries, and probably his dog; and that the military is ready for open revolt.
Of course, none of that has any basis in fact. But it makes for some good headlines. And it supports a political position that the media has.
The dangerous thing it that it also supports the belief that North Korea has about the United States. And human nature is such that we will willingly believe what supports our position, while it takes a great deal of data and convincing to get us to accept a position that we have held tightly to for a long time.
In short, the media is telling North Korea exactly what it wants to hear. And in turn, that bolsters North Korea’s confidence against the United States.
North Korea believes that it can win the current conflict against the United States in part because the U.S. media is telling North Korea it can.
Believe what we want about the media. Believe that they are factually reporting things as they are. Or believe that they are so totally biased that they could claim the sky is blue and the truth would be that the sky somehow must have turned plaid.
It doesn’t matter.
North Korea is looking at the U.S. media and sees a country ripe for defeat. China and Russia won’t be able to convince them otherwise.
If things don’t change, if North Korea doesn’t quickly get a different picture of the United States, war may be inevitable.
