Rockey's Thoughts

Why do I call the mainstream media “fake news?” To answer that I'll share a few incidents from my life that have shaped my perception. The late sixties were my teenage years. The Vietnam War was raging. Older family friends, neighbors and relatives were drafted to fight that war. War news was in the papers and on the TV every day. However what was reported did not line up with the stories that were brought back by the people who I knew that were in the war. It also didn't agree with what field reporters said in interviews when they returned. I was well aware that there were those who supported our county's objectives and those who were anti-war. I didn't see the news as fake at that time, simply biased in favor of the anti-war movement.

The next incident was centered around Woodstock West. It was the name given to the shanty town built on the green by Denver University students who were protesting the university's decision to remain open after the events that occurred in the spring of 1970. Our sociology teacher decided that we should experience it for ourselves, so he took the class to DU for the day. There was a small shanty town on the green and there were a couple of students on soapboxes broadcasting their views with bullhorns. Mostly we just had a fun day out of class while we toured the DU campus. The news however told the story of a massive protest that threatened to destroy Denver. We, however, couldn't tell that anything was happening a block away from DU.

During my Air Force years I was stationed with my family in Korea from 1979 to 1981. We went through the Assassination of President Park, the subsequent coup when the interim president was implicated in the assassination, the Cheongju riots and the yearly springtime university protests. Each time we would see the media reporting in Time and Newsweek. When our stateside families received the sensationalized news we would get worried communication from home asking if we were alright. Let me just say that what we experienced in the midst of the events and what we saw reported in the news didn't really match very well. I happened to be an intelligence analyst. While in Korea I worked in the J2 (joint US forces intelligence) and with the C2 (combined US/ROK intelligence) at the HQ in Seoul. We were the people who knew what was going on if anybody did.

By the mid 1980s I had determined that the mainstream media was little more than the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. I kept up with the headlines and major stories so I would be informed. I believed that breaking news could be trusted for the first 24 hours when the facts were being reported, before the spin began.

Skip forward to 1993. My son and I were shopping for ski equipment at a used sporting goods store in Colorado Springs. Into the store comes a perky TV news reporter who encourages us to come outside and support some wonderful people who are protesting the furrier located next door. There was no protest going on when we arrived. We proceeded to watch paid actors show up with theatrical costumes and props. They performed a skit for the news team and left when the crew was done filming. That night the local station reported that large numbers of animal rights activists had braved the cold and snow to spend the day protesting the human use of animal fur. Did that station do it on their own or were they paid to do it? I don't know. Either way they did not report the news, they made up the news. I call that fake news.

It has only become worse with time. Today I see no pretense of factual or unbiased reporting by the mainstream media. Almost all of the mainstream media is owned by a few globalists. The daily talking points are delivered at 4:00 am eastern so the same script is shared on every outlet. Anyone who doesn't agree with the left's propaganda is shouted down. I no longer read the headlines or listen to breaking news. I get all of my news from alternative sources because the generic spin has been predetermined and is applied whatever the news event might be. I see the mainstream media today to be nothing more than the propaganda of the globalists who want to destroy my country so they can enslave me in their socialist utopia. That description is much too long for common use, so I'm fine with just calling it fake news.