Forty Years Ago

It was with the ultimate sense of irony that the Washington Post sold this week for a fire sale price. The paper is a far cry from what it was back in the early 1970’s. In the 1970’s the newspaper served as an anti-corruption instrument of the people. The Post backed the investigative reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as these men relentlessly worked to uncover a series of power hungry scandals and cover-ups spawned by the Nixon administration.

Ironically it was almost exactly forty years ago when America was also plagued by an Attorney General and President who found lying to the nation repeatedly to be an easy thing to do. Most of the mainstream media ignored all the telltale signs that the Nixon administration was corrupt to the core back in the 1970’s. The Washington Post was the great exception. No more. Fast forward forty years. The Post has managed to squander a great legacy. In the early 1970’s it exposed disturbing corruption including illegal money transfers, dirty tricks, and an insatiable thirst for more power in the White House. The facts related to the day-to-day activities of the Obama administration (also in its 5th year) are very similar and even more disturbing than those of Richard Nixon. Here is a short list:

1)      Eric Holder’s DOJ botched a gunrunning scheme that was designed to assist the political efforts to restrict 2^nd Amendment rights. The results were dead U.S. agents who were killed by the weapons the DOJ turned over to drug cartels. Congress tried to investigate and the Obama administration began playing coverup games. His A.G. Eric Holder lied before Congress (just as Nixon's A.G. John Mitchell did forty years ago). However, unlike the Nixon perps (who did not get away with lying thanks to the Washington Post) Obama seems to have successfully blocked the trail leading to the truth. Obama claimed the facts related to murdered U.S. agents can be protected by…….get this........ Nixon's old standby.......“executive privilege.”

2)      The facts regarding the murders of diplomats in Benghazi are painfully simple. Everyone at the White House lied to the public about the reasons behind those murders. Curiously they blamed an American and his video instead of the actual terrorists. In a double irony, just this week the White House closed embassies all over the Middle East because apparently radical Islam is not quite as on the run as they were during election season. All investigations are being impeded by the White House.

3)      The confiscation of A.P. reporters phone records and emails in the name of "national security" by the White House would have set Woodward, Bernstein, and Ben Bradley’s hair on fire at the old Post. However, the 21^st Century Washington Post journalist teams could hardly manufacture a collective fake yawn over this blatant assault on freedom of the press. Astonishing. Simply astonishing. 

4)  The IRS and Federal Election Commission’s shameless attacks on the 1^st Amendment rights of Tea Parties, Patriots, and other pro-constitution opponent groups to Democrats, while providing red carpet treatment to the likes of the Moveon.org  has been dismissed as a “phony” scandal by the White House. Despite several administration people involved in these crimes actually taking the 5^th Amendment rather than being truthful, there has been no further inquiry by the Washington Post on this troubling corruption.

To be fair the Post is not the only media outlet giving the power hungry fascists in the White House a free pass. Even when their own freedoms are at stake the once Watergate-proud U.S. press corps has become an instrument of the state. The funny thing is the free markets are still pretty smart about how much value an entity like the Washington Post is providing for its readers these days. Long ago (five years) the Post forgot the duty of its Watergate legacy. Now the Post will be unable to capture the customer support it needs to be profitable for as far as the eye can see....hence the fire sale disposal price earlier this week. History will now treat the Post as a footnote instead of a pillar of freedom. On the other hand Nixon and Obama will be categorized as eerily similar. The primary difference being that the Nixon administration’s transgressions led to burglaries, illegal transactions, and dirty tricks. The Obama administration’s transgressions have led to murders, blockades of murder investigations, and an end to constitutional protections for the press and the people.