Justice Alioto through the looking glass

There was a marvelous example of the current status of "news" reporting in the US this morning. The Orange County Register had an article in the news section regarding Supreme Court Justice Alito’s recent speech to the Federalist Society. I can’t remember the headline but it was something about "unusually political comments" for a Supreme Court Justice. I read through the article to find out what it was that he’d said that was inappropriate, and all I could find were excerpted quotes from various commentators regarding their concerns regarding a Supreme Court justice overstepping his bounds, indicating the worrisome rightward tilt of the Supreme Court and how it’s an ominous indication for the future, etc. etc.

So, what the hell did he actually say? That’s why I read the article because that’s what the head line indicated it was about. There was nothing regarding what was said, merely commentary from individuals whom I'm presumably supposed to assume represent mainstream political/constitutional thought. So, I’m expected to draw some conclusions from this flimsiness? I checked to who wrote the article and - to my utter shock and amazement - it had been lifted from the New York Times. A source that purports to be the arbiter of current events but now leans so far to the left that it's almost horizontal. There’s another 5 minutes - probably about as much time as it took to research the article - I’ll never get back.

Then I turned to the Wall Street Journal and there in the opinion section they had a piece on the very same topic. Predictably, the slant was in the opposite direction, pointing out the validity of Alito’s concerns. They actually quoted him - weird, huh? - and it turns out he’s concerned about Congress trying to unduly influence the Court’s decisions and the increasing impingement on First Amendment rights of free speech. Pretty wild stuff there, eh? The Journal entry was likewise delivered with an ideological slant, but there were two important differences between it and the NYT's. The Journal actually included some quotes so that you could evaluate for yourself what was said, and ……. it was duly designated as an opinion piece unlike the NYT opinion piece that was presented as "news".

Whatever the ultimate legacy of President Trump turns out to be, I’ll always be grateful to him for several things. Perhaps most importantly being opening my eyes (and many others’) to the extent of the hypocrisy and deception in what passes for news coverage in our era. One of my friends from college eventually became a prominent national commentator. I remember reading one of his articles years ago about how he was so embarrassed about the bias and deception of media reporting that he no longer admitted to strangers he was himself a journalist. At the time I thought he may have been overstating the case. No more…………………………….Luca