G.K. Chesterton once remarked that the task of the yellow journalist is to shout “ADMIRAL BANGS IS DEAD!” to a public that never knew Admiral Bangs had been born. A good journalistic liar has a knack for getting his audience ginned up about the end of a story of which his audience has no notion of a beginning, in order to get the audience stampeded in the direction he wishes. This is illustrated by one of the greatest yellow journalists of them all, Charles Foster Kane William Randolph Hearst:
Though the Cuban insurrection against their Spanish rulers was stagnating, Hearst continued to send many of his high-profile writers and illustrators to the Cuba in hopes of capturing a great story. Among Hearst’s employees was the famed illustrator Frederic Remington. In 1897, Remington became very bored by the lack of anything newsworthy in Cuba and cabled to Hearst, “Everything quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. Wish to return.” In response to Remington’s message, Hearst reportedly replied, “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
These days, there is no greater heir to the 19th century tradition of yellow journalism than “prolife” media. I am not exaggerating. Nobody takes the National Enquirer or the various tabloid featuring Batboy or stories on “Bigfoot was my baby’s father!” seriously. People who buy them know the stories are phony. But prolife media from FOX to Lifesite News to Lifenews is seriously read as real and reliable information by the most consistently misinformed demographic in American civil life: the very Trump supporters who constantly shriek about “fake news” while consuming more of it than anybody else.
And with so, with the reliable unreliability for which “prolife” media in the service of the Cult of Trump is now famous, Life News blares this headline to the gullible:
Democrats Pass First Bill After Taking Over the House: Forcing Americans to Fund Planned Parenthood
“Is outrage! This is what happens when the Dems take power!” cries the gullible “prolife” sucker–or perhaps the cynical “prolife” liar. It’s hard to tell them apart these days.
Here’s reality: Funding for Planned Parenthood, like the deficit, suddenly becomes a huge issue for the Cult the instant the GOP is out of power. But the truth is, the Cult of Trump GOP re-funded PP eight times since Trump was inaugurated. Eight times. Funding for PP goes on consistently every time the budget is up for renewal whether the GOP or the Dems are in power. But while Trump and the GOP Cult did it,m this lying organ of Right Wing Christianists Propaganda, like the rest of the Right Wing Lie Machine, said not a peep, Because they don’t care about the unborn. What they care about is using the unborn as human shields for the GOP and manipulating people horrified by abortion with lies like this.
Get it: The GOP Cult of Trump has been funding PP with Trump’s signature on it since 1/20/17 and the “prolife” Christianist Lie Machine said nothing because you are not supposed to know that. Then when the Dems take over and continue doing *exactly* what the Cult of Trump does, the “prolife” Lie Machine clutches their pearls and try to gin up a freak out from conservative Christians.
The hypocrisy is particularly notable because we are in the middle of a government shutdown (massively supported by Christianist white supremacists). Why? Not because of abortion certainly. Don’t be ridiculous. The Cult of Trump would never think of shuttering the government over abortion. Nope. It’s all about a stupid wasteful Wall. And are Christianists saying, “Waitaminnit! Who cares about the Wall? What about the unborn?”
No. Of course not. They are chanting “Build that Wall!” That’s where their time and energy are truly devoted. That’s what actually matters to them. Just as war in Iraq was what truly mattered to them the last time they owned both Houses and the Executive. The unborn matter only as human shields and as tools for attacking Dems. They are emphatically not a priority to Christianist “prolife” slaves of the GOP. They are used to desecrated altars for stump speeches on behalf of Trump. But no prolife Christianist so much as thinks of shutting down the government on their behalf. Nor of making a peep about funding Planned Parenthood when the GOP does it. The unborn only matter when they are useful.
There is no prolife party. Stop getting played. Stop believing the lie that GOP sees the unborn as anything other than human shields in their grasping lust for power. Start thinking with the Church again, not with FOX or the rest of lying Right Wing Media. Stop comparing the GOP with Dems and start comparing them both with the gospel.