Lost Truth
Back in the old days three TV networks – ABC, NBC, CBS – ruled the news; since all three tilted left, a lot of people often wondered, Is that the truth?
Tom Ellis saw a cure. A conservative network. So, forty years ago, he, Jesse Helms, and I sent 900,000 people letters asking them to buy CBS stock – to takeover CBS and ‘fire Dan Rather.’
CBS sued us. A New York tycoon – marching arm-in-arm with CBS – bought so much stock he stopped us dead in our tracks.
Time rolled by, cable TV boomed, suddenly you could watch Fox, CNN, MSNBC, or CNBC – three networks no longer ruled. But that didn’t work out either – people switched to watching the news channel that told them what they liked to hear, stopped asking themselves whether what they were seeing was true.
More years rolled by, social media took off, the problem compounded: On social media following politicians, pundits, they like, people seldom scratch their heads wondering, Who here’s telling me the truth?
Since Trump lost in 2020 most of my Republican friends have been telling me without a shadow of doubt Biden stole the election. Now stolen votes aren’t hard to prove – if, say, ‘Harry’ doesn’t live where he’s registered to vote that’s easy to prove. I asked one friend, Give me the proof – he laughed, Do I think Democrats would steal election – you bet I do.
Before January 6, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Senator Lindsey Graham he had rock-solid absolute proof thousands of people voted illegally in Georgia and Arizona. Graham asked Giuliani to send him the proof – never got it.
Listening to Trump lawyers in courtrooms, needing proof and not getting it, Republican judges turned thumbs down on Trump lawsuits. On January 6, not having proof, Republican Senators and Congressmen – like Lindsey Graham – voted to confirm Biden won the election.
But Trumpsters watching Fox or Newsmax, following Trump on social media, sure the election was stolen, seldom ask: Where’s the proof?
There’s an old saying that’s still true – ‘A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.’ But in the end everything, understanding your wife, children, survival, salvation, comes down to knowing the truth. Blind eyes leave us drifting, untethered, but one thing is bound to happen: We’ll face a day of reckoning.
*******
Telling stories, in his memoir Carter Wrenn follows The Trail of the Serpent twisting and turning through politics from Reagan to Trump. Order his book from Amazon.
Lost Truth
Back in the old days three TV networks – ABC, NBC, CBS – ruled the news; since all three tilted left, a lot of people often wondered, Is that the truth?
Tom Ellis saw a cure. A conservative network. So, forty years ago, he, Jesse Helms, and I sent 900,000 people letters asking them to buy CBS stock – to takeover CBS and ‘fire Dan Rather.’
CBS sued us. A New York tycoon – marching arm-in-arm with CBS – bought so much stock he stopped us dead in our tracks.
Time rolled by, cable TV boomed, suddenly you could watch Fox, CNN, MSNBC, or CNBC – three networks no longer ruled. But that didn’t work out either – people switched to watching the news channel that told them what they liked to hear, stopped asking themselves whether what they were seeing was true.
More years rolled by, social media took off, the problem compounded: On social media following politicians, pundits, they like, people seldom scratch their heads wondering, Who here’s telling me the truth?
Since Trump lost in 2020 most of my Republican friends have been telling me without a shadow of doubt Biden stole the election. Now stolen votes aren’t hard to prove – if, say, ‘Harry’ doesn’t live where he’s registered to vote that’s easy to prove. I asked one friend, Give me the proof – he laughed, Do I think Democrats would steal election – you bet I do.
Before January 6, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Senator Lindsey Graham he had rock-solid absolute proof thousands of people voted illegally in Georgia and Arizona. Graham asked Giuliani to send him the proof – never got it.
Listening to Trump lawyers in courtrooms, needing proof and not getting it, Republican judges turned thumbs down on Trump lawsuits. On January 6, not having proof, Republican Senators and Congressmen – like Lindsey Graham – voted to confirm Biden won the election.
But Trumpsters watching Fox or Newsmax, following Trump on social media, sure the election was stolen, seldom ask: Where’s the proof?
There’s an old saying that’s still true – ‘A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.’ But in the end everything, understanding your wife, children, survival, salvation, comes down to knowing the truth. Blind eyes leave us drifting, untethered, but one thing is bound to happen: We’ll face a day of reckoning.
*******
Telling stories, in his memoir Carter Wrenn follows The Trail of the Serpent twisting and turning through politics from Reagan to Trump. Order his book from Amazon.