Many an elderly former television network broadcaster doubtless engages in ever-recurring conversations while sipping his favorite evening libation.
“Remember how we once ruled the airwaves?” might be one such conversation starter.
“Yeah. In the old days we could say it on the evening news and by noon the next day public opinion would begin to come around,” the commiserating drinking partner might say.
I can imagine a Dan Rather type and some other no longer relevant propagandist lamenting as the tonic and gin or bourbon on the rocks burns a liquid trail down their once golden throats.
“Those were the good, old days,” one of them shakes his head, blinks, and calls to the barmaid for a refill.
“There’s no leadership to ever bring those days back,” I can hear the other irrelevant former anchor saying. “Now they all go their separate ways… There are far too many of them to ever come together.”
“It almost makes you see the need for the power of dictatorship…for the good of the republic,” the Dan Rather-type says, taking the first sip from his newly refreshed adult beverage.
“Yeah. We used to at least have that kind of influence over public opinion… for the good of the republic,” the other, ageing broadcaster puts in.
They must dream happily of when they and their network colleagues had the three network monopoly. Now, it must be a nightmare that they live through daily. Their personal influence is no more—the power of their profession significantly diminished.
That this is the case is plainly presented in polls taken about how America’s people feel about that profession. Always, news media, as being trustworthy in the eyes of the public, ranks very near the bottom of those polls.
If there ever was a question about why that ranking is so low, we need only think on the past three years or so.
It would almost seem that our two, ageing, former anchors need not worry for a second about the ability of the news conglomerate to speak with the power of one. The mainstream news media have coalesced in a way that ABC, CBS, and NBC could have and would have never done when they had, collectively, nearly sole power of the air.
It is true that today’s now fractionalized mainstream news media, as individual news forums, draw infinitesimally small numbers of viewers in comparison to numbers drawn by the big three networks during the good old days. But the power exerted by the new collective –the fractionalized mainstream media— is, I’m convinced, even more powerful than that wielded by the big three those years earlier.
The proof of that is the absolutely fanatical cohesion that this new, media collective has cemented.
Before the months leading up to Donald J. Trump’s election to the presidency the new, collective, news conglomerate, at least presented the pretense of being independent, one from the other. Following Trump’s becoming the Republican candidate and up to the present hour, that agglomeration of news forums has melded as one to destroy this president.
They have, in the process, infected about one-half of the adult citizenry of America with an insane rage that I’ve characterized a number of times as “a reprobate mind.” –The same mind-set described by the Apostle Paul as recorded in Romans 1: 28.
In this sense, the new mainstream news media is far more effective than was that big three conglomerate that pretended to be independent of each other in trying to shape public opinion. They, this media today, are as driven in their insane rage as are the left-wing, anti-God public they possess. And, possession is what it amounts to in my estimation.
I can say this because at the black heart of this propagandist cabal is the chief minion of the underworld. And this is provable, Biblically.
Broadcast –at least as originally conceived and implemented— projected out over the airwaves. They were received by instrumentality antenna of those who tuned in to the messages of news, entertainment programs, and commercial announcements. So, as the broadcast industry was foundational, that method –over the air— was progenitor of this new mainstream media.
This evil cabal which, although fractionalized as being individual entities, is totally conjoined in delivering up messages their master director wants delivered.
That master director is indeed the maestro, who for the time being is allowed to be infernal minister of propaganda to seduce and delude the rebellious among earth’s inhabitants. That he is undertaking to do with massive effort.
Scriptural proof of his temporary right to his position as master of deluding all who will watch and listen is as follows.
“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” (Ephesians 2:2)
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He is using that power in a very literal way to seek out and devour as many as he can delude. He has, during this last three and a half years, managed to seduce and bring into his insane rage nearly half of the adult population of the United States of America, it appears.
But the God of Heaven has not left us without defense against this evil prince and his media minions. God’s word tells of this protection for the Christian—all who believe in Jesus Christ for salvation.
“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)