By Steve Hunley

There is a new phrase to summarize where many Americans find themselves currently in the age of “fake news.”  It’s called “cord cutting”, meaning folks who have cut the cord to cable television and/or land line telephones.  It is also indicative of how many people are cutting the cord to news media and fewer and fewer people bother to read.

The mainstream media can huff and puff, but they can’t blow the house down.  That is one of the more interesting aspects of the Trump phenomena.  Despite hurling every possible accusation, printing or televising every rumor daily for almost four years, it hasn’t had the effect the media has hoped for with President Trump.  It is readily apparent to at least half of our country’s voters the media is not objective, nor is it reporting the news, but trying to drive from office a man it collectively hates.  The media in many instances has blatantly reported outright lies and untruths and as the Russian collusion “story” – – – and that’s just what it was, a fable concocted by people inside our own intelligence agencies – – – unravels and reveals a dark underbelly of abuse of power by non-elected officials inside our government to depose a president of the United States.  People are beginning to cut the cord and ignore the news.

Yet many of these same sources, as well as politicians, do not admit they were wrong, but insist upon doubling down on what is clearly not true.

In an age where there are more opportunities to watch or read the news, Americans are avoiding it in greater numbers than ever before.  The mainstream media seems not to realize it, nor do they seem to realize their influence in shaping the opinions of Americans continues to decline.

To understand just why this is the case, one only has to consider how often the “experts” paraded out by various news outlets are just completely and utterly wrong.  A good example is Paul Krugman, an alleged economist who at least doesn’t hide his leftist beliefs.  Krugman has been frequently and egregiously wrong and never more so about the economy after the election of Donald Trump.  Krugman hollered the end was nigh.  Krugman was one of several leftist economists who persistently and adamantly insisted the election of Trump would lead to an economic crash of titanic proportions.  The chief economist for the New York Times, who has managed to report the news under the Trump administration by contorting or altogether ignoring facts like a prized circus contortionist, predicted “a global recession, with no end in sight.”

To show just how wrong Paul Krugman was, the value of Apple has increased by 80% during Trump’s presidency.  Apple was already one of the most valuable companies in the world when it experienced that astonishing growth.  Amazon, the online behemoth, just announced it has posted record holiday sales.  Microsoft has grown 55% in 2019 and Facebook even slightly more.  Minorities, an interest group supposedly of special concern to leftists and Democrats, have seen the lowest unemployment numbers in America’s history.  That’s not through welfare or give-away programs, that’s from actual, real JOBS.  Wages are going up, too.  The average increase in wages during the Trump presidency is 3.1% annually.  Take home pay has gone up as well.

Clearly, that means working people, the laboring class are faring far better than they ever did under Obama.  Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both millionaires by the way (and Sanders owns three homes) are simply lying when they say only the 1% are benefitting from the economy.  These are the “crumbs” Nancy Pelosi, yet another millionaire, disdained when Donald Trump cut taxes.

Obama told us manufacturing jobs would NEVER come back to America; perhaps he meant while he was president.  Under Trump, at least 500,000 new manufacturing jobs and trade deals that actually benefit Americans have occurred.  The Ford Motor Company announced it was investing almost 1.5 billion dollars in Detroit and hiring more people.

The same people, like Paul Krugman, told us Hillary Clinton would be president and warned the election of Donald Trump would crush the economy.  Perhaps they hope your attention span is as fleeting as a gnat’s, so you won’t remember how very wrong they are, but it’s clear enough people have tuned them out and turned them off.  Is it any wonder?