As I have familiarised myself with what is going on in America, I am progressively aware of deeper issues that do not make it into everyday news coverage. This may be in part because of limitations on time and space, audience appetite, and editorial bias – but it is increasingly hard not to feel that President Trump’s threats against those who oppose him do not play a sighnificant part in this.  (Mind you, when he says that those who are reporting on his war with Iran must follow his line, one is tempted to say, ‘Which one of the dozen you have outlined, do you mean?!)

Concerned that I might appear to be favouring left-of-centre arguments, a friend cautioned me the other for referring people so regularly in our send outs to articles in The Guardian. I have three reasons for doing so, however. Firstly, availability. The Guardian is one of the few ‘dailies’ that still permit you to read their articles for free!

Secondly, articles that I recommend have to be sufficiently relevant, factual or insightful for us to be able to extract suitable points for prayer.

Thirdly, the all-out onslaught that Trump has been directing against the press and media is seriously limiting the willingness of those who hold differing views to report as candidly as they would like to do. And because the President has swung the needle so far to the right, those who are seeking a more balanced approach need to adjust the position of the ‘fulcrum’ accordingly.

Fact and media checkers provide a useful starting point here. All we have to do is to type the name of a journal or broadcaster into a browser and ask to know its media bias. In the days before search engines, I used to encourage student groups to read the news widely, but to be prepared to allow a certain percentage of room for The Guardian’s left-leaning bias, and to do likewise with The Telegraph, but in the opposite direction! I say this to reassure you that, if I recommend an article, it usually means that I think it includes points worth taking seriously, even if there is a percentage of bias present.

Take the warnings that Substacker Heather Delayney Reese shares with many as a case in point. Is she writing from a dedicated anti-Trump line? Very much so. Does that stance invalidate all her observations? Not necessarily. Have a read of a number of her posts here and judge for yourself whether they are fair or in need of further balancing. They are certainly revealing, and many would say convincing. They certainly present an entirely different outlook on the way things are proceeding to the spin that Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman, presents on a daily basis.

For example, Trump doesn’t want people to know that America is by no means enjoying all its own way in this war. While he furiously berates NATO countries, and especially Britain, for not rushing to send naval resources to join in the exceedingly difficult task of protecting tankers in the Gulf, Heather Delayne Reece describes this as a seminal moment for America, even without touching on the substantial losses its armed forces have incurred in the war, almost certainly as the result of advanced information supplied by Russia,. These include a billion dollar radar, refuelling plane(s), a top F35 fighter and even an advanced surveillance plane blown apart in two in Saudi Arabia amongst other key and expensive items. All of these are clear evidence of highly precise and successful missile strikes, totally belying the idea that Iran no longer has any missile capacity left,. as numerous sources report. 

Instead, she focuses on what she describes as Trump’s latest plan to win the midterms, by accusing American media companies of working “in close co-ordination” with Iran – that is, that they are effectively collaborating with the enenmy. In fact, he is framing journalism, the act of reporting on a war, as an act of war against the United States, and even of treason. He’s not accusing Iran of treason, but  American reporters, American editors, American news organizations – of committing the most serious crime in the Constitution.

Trump’s decline is a threat to the world 

“Authoritarian leaders don’t just lie. They create an alternative moral universe where they are always the hero of the story, always on the side of justice, regardless of what they are actually doing. That is exactly what we watched today . . . And while Trump pretended to be on the right side of history, he was accelerating the systematic destabilization of the entire world.”

https://heatherdelaneyreese.substack.com/p/trump-doesnt-want-us-to-know-how?utmsource=share&utmmedium=android&r=2upj2x&triedRedirect=true

Donald Trump has lost touch with reality

The President is threatening to commit a war crime 

Heather herself is insistent that she is not writing these posts to mock or to spite, but to alert people to what is really going on, and to warn that America is on a very dangerous course – and one made infinitely the worse by handing so much power to a far from well or balanced man. With that I heartily concur.

All these things are all the more pressing because Trump is now saying that he no longer feels obligated to protect NATO, and will not come to either Britain or NATO’s aid because we were not willing to support him in his war. He accuses his allies of cowardice, but it is actually more to do with a lack of suitable resources, plus the the fact that Europe regards the whole initiative as being based on faulty intelligence: Iran was not on the point of attacking America. In effect, President Trump was requesting his allies to come to sort out the mess that he had himself made. One hears echoes of the great fallacy that took the nations to war with Iraq. Tragically, a very deep rift has now opened up between Washington and its top allies.

So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter. (Is. 59:14)

So often in recent years we have grieved the reality of these words. I thought that nothing could rival Trump’s comment that he thought that Iran had bombed the school that killed all the school children. But it continues day by day. As we send this out, I have just heard that the new president of Iran (a very ‘reasonable man!’) has asked for a ceasefire with the US. But I don’t think there is a new president is there? Is this not more like the fog of war combining with the fog inside Trump’s thinking processes as he casts around for a way to present his actions in Iran as a victory.

In the new six part BBC series Everything is fake – and nobody cares, Jamie Bartlett examines why deceit is everywhere nowadays in politics – but instead of being exposed and punished it tends to be rewarded! He notes that “truth is replaced by emotion, narrative, and performance.” Noting that US politics is jampacked with ‘grifters’, he traces this back to the fake reality of pro-wrestling that was so popular in the 1980s. Donald Trump himself hosted matches at that time, and even took part in one himself in 2007. He loved the ‘faux outrage, pretend machismo and the adrenaline of a huge crowd.’ These are precisely the sort of things that continue to appeal to him to this day. I believe this explains so much. But what begins in politics has every chance of expanding to every area of life. Lord preserve us. May truth not collapse but somehow experience a revival.

Photo by xavier xanders on Unsplash