I wonder if there is such a thing as a journalist anymore and if there is what kind of education they get? Most news reports seem to be psychological analysis, poll studies, hit pieces and jargon. Propaganda is a word that comes to mind. Fake news rings true.
It appears obvious that journalist don’t study history and if they do it may only come from pop culture blockbusters and TV shows. Had they read any books they might have understood the fact that back channels for all leaders, be they kings or dictators or presidents are important, and legal.
For Presidents back channels are not only frequent and common, they are sometimes essential. When I heard the attack on the new President that back channel talks were off the map, I just about screamed. Not mentioning anyone but the pantheon of Democrat Party god’s there are back channels everywhere and their work was considered heroic.
FDR had Viscount Murray with the British and if journalists only care about movies and media they must remember the back channel FDR set up with Britain and the Soviet Union in “Pug” Henry. The “Winds of War” protagonist is the perfect example of the type of back channel operative presidents look for when they cannot trust their own government, or the press that covers it.
Maybe the back channel champion is JFK whose hagiographers report that his back channel workings were the product, of course, of his being smarter than the rest of us. His “two track approach” was so smart that the rest of us should thank God we had such exceptional leadership, Berlin Wall, Bay of Pigs, Missile Crisis, etc, etc, not withstanding. In fact, a President that got us into so many crisis used back channels to get us out of them and for that he goes down in history as the apotheosis of the cool and the smart; that is until Obama came along.
The press might want to pay attention to movies to learn about back channels. Another hero and denizen of the left is Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks was in a great movie entitled “Bridge of Spies”. This is the story of an insurance lawyer who will ultimately become a back channel to Castro for Kennedy, James Donovan. Of course the use of Donovan was audacious and perspicacious but if Trump has one it must be nefarious and probably stupid.
The biggest back channel of all was Robert Kennedy, the president’s brother who was named as Attorney General, a bit of nepotism that was of course audacious and perspicacious. Robert was up to his eye balls in back channels with the Soviet Union who knew Washington well since FDR had his love affair with them through his administration. They certainly knew the best restaurants in the Capitol and Robert knew where he could find them for those famous martini lunches. The press could have figured it out of course, but we have to remember that the press was aligned with Kennedy to an extent that we may never see again especially with Republican Presidents. In todays world if Trump brings members of his family into the White House with some kind of power position it is nefarious and probably stupid, but I digress.
We are living in a strange time when history is being rewritten and changed for the benefit of something that we do not yet see quite clearly. When a candidate for President remembers Richard Nixon being impeached when he wasn’t, and her husbands entanglements and impeachment are ignored and there is no comment on anything, let alone the irony, we are living in strange times. When everything that we read and hear comes from unnamed sources and even after the story is proven wrong it becomes fact, we have some real issues of trust. When those who reported poll after poll that were so widely wrong it was stunning, continue to use those polls, we are living in a strange land.
What are the back channels that so called journalists use to publish stories that according to the people that were actually there never happened? What are the sources for direct quotations that are not sourced? Why are so many stories simply not reported or under reported? If the press is protecting their back channels, to what end?
