Remember when talk of Barack Obama’s academic genius would happily light up the mainstream media’s day? And do you remember skeptics calling for the release of Barack’s college transcripts as proof of this brilliance? Despite Obama attending 3 institutions of higher learning, and years of countless calls for transparency regarding his grades; they remain a mystery still.
Meanwhile, since Donald Trump’s November 8th election, the media is awash with stories referencing various pieces of highly sensitive information being made public by “anonymous sources”. There was a specific recounting of phone conversations between General Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador. Worse and more importantly, details of personal, private calls from President Trump to Vladimir Putin, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and the leaders of both Mexico and France flooded news outlets.
This week, one of President Trump’s tax returns was, with panting fanfare, presented by MSNBC. That it helped him more than his perpetually breathless critics on that struggling network ignores the point that someone, even in a failed attempt to embarrass our Chief Executive, committed a felony.
So the question of the day is simple. How is it that something as bland as an office seeker’s academic records can remain inaccessible for almost a decade, but critical U.S. state secrets, and President Trump’s tax return can be made available within months of his election?
It must be that Barack Obama’s ideological soul mates, rather than risk embarrassing him with the kinds of academic revelations they’d routinely dug up on previous presidential candidates, chose to ignore any inclination towards investigative journalism. Apparently they’ve saved the latter mentioned, pent up “journalistic curiosity”, for their arch adversary, Donald J. Trump.
In other words, while violating the sanctity of Mr. Obama’s college transcripts was forbidden, exposing state secrets and a sitting president’s tax return is just dandy. And it is that kind of ironic hypocrisy that is dangerous, very frightening, and a major reason the media is held in historically low esteem.
Socialism is not the Answer 