Journalist, Not Biased Hack

“Objectivity is dead, and I’m okay with it.” – Lewis Wallace, former “Marketplace” reporter

The above is the title of his essay published on the website, Medium. As this attitude negates Wallace's “impartial” role as a journalist, he was ultimately terminated by his employer.

Recall, the purpose of journalism is to convey current events impartially with facts. Any unbound person—unwilling to exercise fact-based dispassion—can't be a legitimate journalist. Instead, that's a de facto activist: a propagandist with a press pass.

Facts are essential, intractable things. They remain elemental to authentic journalism. Specifically, facts anchor news stories to reality. When correctly utilized, they greatly aid journalistic truth-telling. 'Just the facts, ma'am'—for good reason.

Journalism's traditional tenets don't impede anyone with skill from getting their writerly point across. Wallace finds himself in the unemployment line solely for willfully violating a professional taboo. Demonstrating the rank intolerance he rails against, he writes:

“We need to admit that those who oppose free speech, diversity and kindergarten level fairness are our enemies”.

How is it not fascism to demonize others simply for holding a different political perspective? Is it not hypocritical, and childish, to condemn another in the name of Wallace's militant “fairness”? To paraphrase Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, a bad judge to the law is equivalent to the journalist disregarding objectivity. They are incongruent and cannot coexist in the same sphere.

Without facts, journalism rapidly degrades into valueless, gelatinous goo. Reporting becomes untrustworthy and indistinguishable from fiction. Hence, the Orwellian specter of today's “fake news”. The false is peddled as true: witness the absurd claim of Trump's “threat to invade Mexico”. (He didn't, per CNN he actually offered help.) This Associated Press narrative was mindlessly disseminated far and wide as truth. Is this American journalism or an old fashioned telephone game from Mr. Wallace's kindergarten class?

Beyond the editorial page, neutrality remains a job requirement. Lewis Wallace confused a First Amendment right of self-expression with his professional duty. His employer acted appropriately because he wouldn't (read: another pesky fact for this “victim” to misconstrue and grouse about).

As with everything he advocates, Wallace only has himself to blame. This is the fallout of competing interests—and the healthy expression of a difference of opinion.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

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Motorist 'Miracle' Saves Cop

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11); “Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word” (Psalm 103:20)

In the January 12^th predawn desert, on a remote stretch of Arizona's Interstate-10, a lone state trooper found himself in a life and death struggle. Horror worthy of Stephen King's fiction, only real.

The officer was following up on a motorist's bizarre report. The caller heard a loud bang. His vehicle was shot. He saw a “man in the roadway with a handgun”. Although his own vehicle had lost power, wisely he did not stop. Instead, he immediately contacted authorities and kept going.

Much remains unclear. The gun-totting menace was likely the reckless driver who rolled the vehicle he came in. Swerving tire marks indicate high speed. Tragically, his girlfriend, 23-year-old Vanessa Monique Lopez-Ruiz of Phoenix, was ejected during the crash. Other vehicular passersby described the man dragging the woman from the highway. (She later succumbed in the hospital from blunt force trauma injures.)

Arriving at the scene, Officer Edward Andersson saw the man crouched over the woman to the roadway's right shoulder. Exiting his cruiser, he set out road flares and approached to offer assistance. The belligerent man uttered something unintelligible to him in Spanish. Then, like the darkness before the dawn, things went rapidly from bad—to as bad as they could be. Suddenly, the suspect shot Andersson once with a 9mm pistol. The bullet pierced his upper right shoulder, exiting through his right torso. The trooper's arm went numb: his firing hand rendered useless.

Ambushing a person sent to help! It's inexcusable to vent obvious self-hatred upon an innocent in a blue uniform. The attacker's barbaric behavior epitomizes the murderous go-to reaction of too many as of late. Specifically, his actions eerily echo the toxicity of Barack Obama's disrespectful anti-cop rhetoric and Black Lives Matter's demonstrated anarchy. Indeed, the former lit the fuse by making blaming cops “chic” in 2009. In tandem, the other publicly targeted them, making their assassinations appear “normal”.

But, it turns out that nothing that happened that night was the norm. A physical fight ensued with the maimed officer being straddled and beaten “in a savage way”. Then, out of nowhere, the divine intervention of a good Samaritan: an Arizona resident, Thomas Yoxall, 43. He and his fiancée pulled over and interceded. While she phoned police, he tried to ward off the unrelenting attacker. Finally, retrieving his own 9mm from a glove box, Yoxall ended the threat. Two bullets to the assailant's body and a third, later, to his head. Yoxall also managed to flag down a second motorist, Brian Schober, 44: a former paramedic who gave treatment and radioed for emergency evacuation helicopters. The cop's life was spared. A miracle in the desert.

Later, still shaken by events, Mr. Yoxall said, “I firmly believe I was put there—by God.” That's the right person, at the right place, at the right time. As this incident occurred a little more than a week before Trump's inauguration, might it portend good tidings for our country's future? Given Mr. Trump's similarly unexpected and fortuitous 'appearance on the scene of the car wreck that was Obama's America'—and his swift actions as president to rescue her—the synchronicity is noteworthy.

In any case, the aggressor was later identified as Leonard Pennelas-Escobar, 37. Interestingly, besides methamphetamine use, authorities could find no criminal history. Yet, ironically, this cop-attacking thug might have been a Mexican federal police officer in 2007. Given his appalling assault upon an American counterpart, clearly Mr. Pennelas-Escobar was no respecter of life—or our laws. This was further proven by his illegal status.

Preventing similar tragedies is the reason for Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall. Whether it's paid for in pesos or dollars, it's a roadblock for criminal aliens that makes sense. Let the Pennelas-Escobars of the world stay where they originate. These border jumping troublemakers have no place in our most civilized, open and tolerant society.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog

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Pope Francis: more politician than pontiff

In traditional Catholic parlance, the Latin monogram IHS means Iesus Hominum Salvator or “Jesus Savior of Mankind.” But in the 21 century pop culture world—where empty-headed Kim Kardashian is inexplicably famous (“The pope is dope”) and an aloof, talk show-junkie U.S. president is “too cool” to respect Constitutional limits—to this oddball triumvirate we add pope-turned-politician Francis. As with Mr. Obama's ever-intrusive interference, likewise for Francis, apparently focus on religion and spiritual matters are not enough. For him, IHS translates into: 'I'm Hypocritical, Seriously.' Indeed, has any pope in modern times been so agenda-driven or inserted himself so readily into the election of a future American president?

Hours after praying for Mexican migrants who died trying to reach the United States illegally, the pope took the opportunity to bring attention to his pro-illegal alien stance in violation of U.S. secular law by answering a question related to Donald Trump's promised U.S. border wall (paid for by Mexico). His response:

“A person who thinks only about building walls — wherever they may be — and not building bridges, is not Christian.” Francis added, “I’d just say that this man is not Christian if he said it this way.”

That's quite an interesting position. So anybody who wants to build border walls “is not Christian,” is that it? How about someone already living safely ensconced behind them? Naturally, I refer to the 39-foot walled city, the Vatican. Granted the fortifications were there well before March 13, 2013 when this 266 pope of the Roman Catholic Church came to power. However, if he's serious on this subject why hasn't he already done a Reaganesque “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”?

Living in Europe, surely this “intercessor for God” is well aware of the 60 million displaced migrants literally flooding into Europe from the war-torn Middle East. Of course, I jest about the need to remove walls (or prevent them like “bridge-building” Pope Francis). Yet, as he is the Holy Father, what's to stop him from dismissing the Swiss guard and throwing open the gates to the downtrodden? (Imagine how many thousands the thick, protective walls of the Vatican could accommodate!)

My point: he's not serious, beyond the lip service of saying and doing the things that cast the Catholic Church in a positive light. Living in a palatial fortress that is literally its own country, he's a limousine liberal chauffeured instead in a Fiat 500L. A superficial demonstration of his “regular guy” status. Importantly, recognize the equivalent Obama-like hypocrisy, Francis's version of “teachable moment” political optics: publicly scolding another with migrant advice he is loath to personally practice. Specifically, Pope Francis's outspoken MSM-reported condemnation of the l'enfant terrible political phenomenon that is Donald Trump is intended (as everything he does) to constantly burnish the Church's historically dubious reputation in the wider court of public opinion. To reference Scripture, Mark 12:17: “And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” Simply put, too much politician's gamesmanship—not enough pope.

Up until this latest dust-up, crossing swords with Republican front-runner Donald Trump, Pope Francis had been coasting with Obama 2008-like popularity and “newness.” To relate his position to Obama's in today's America, the honeymoon is officially over. All thanks to the uncensored buzz saw who may very well be the next president of the United States.

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WaPo: Never met a criminal-alien they didn't like

Heaven forbid The Washington Post show a smidgen of the same bleeding-heart compassion to the victims of convicted felons instead of criminal perpetrators.

Profiled subject Rodolfo Padilla's first lawlessness from age 10 permitted him the enjoyment of the stolen hospitality of the United States. In the ensuing 37 years, in gratitude, Mr. Padilla chose to become a cocaine-peddling scourge, no doubt ruining countless lives.  One again, our society has generously granted him the boon of an early release from prison after a 7 year stint.  Apparently, America, "the land of opportunity," was not sufficient for this economic parasite to make a positive contribution.

Why this uninvited squatter living in the shadows should suddenly be thrust from obscurity into the pages of The Washington Post is no mystery.  It seems their reporters have never met anyone truly worthy of being deported.

Where is the journalistic balance of the truly victimized?  Ignored, the nameless sufferers of Mr. Padilla's actions don't even warrant a mention, let alone receive this criminal-alien's gentle and sympathetic treatment in the press.

Now, because Mr. Padilla is not an American citizen, he faces the fate of possible deportation to his birth country, Mexico, where he has no familial ties. And unlike The Washington Post's frankly tenuous connection with the truth on these matters, Mr. Padilla has a moment of clarity before bemoaning the reality of his circumstances: “I know I messed up. I know I have to face facts.” In this, he could teach the powers-that-be in the MSM a thing or two.

As Miss Manners would agree: no matter how well behaved, any guest overstaying his welcome ultimately becomes a pest to his hosts. (With the holidays upon us, observant Democrats should litmus test their in-laws.)  In any case, it is the height of hypocrisy that illegal alien “advocates” would be quoted hollering about the rights of people who, by definition, don't respect American laws in the first place. This is doubly true of Mr. Padilla who is both an illegal alien (none of this vague politically correct “undocumented migrant” nonsense) and a convicted jailbird.

It's long overdue for this birdy, like his 43,479 incarcerated fellows, to fly south (of the border) for winter. Per U.S. Sentencing Commission data, men of Mr. Padilla's caliber make up 3.5 percent of the U.S. population, but account for 16.8 percent of drug trafficking cases and 36.7 percent of all federal sentences for criminal convictions in FY 2014. And the damage this group has done to society at large is unknown. 

What is clear is that The Washington Post promotes the false and irresponsible notion that this country should be left wide open to persons impossible to track in the case of illegals; impossible to vet, as in the Syrians; and anyone else with the desire and the gumption to make the trip. To these dystopian ideologues, Mr. Padilla's newly found clean living, high school equivalency and mastery of the guitar are more than sufficient reasons to allow any perpetual law-breaker second chances to remain.

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