Help me out with something. I’ve been retired for a number of years, but feel I still have the ability to be reasonably objective. Even in the midst of all these new terms like “false equivalency” and “fake news.” It’s easy for the truth to get lost, especially, it seems to me, for those among us who have no memory of the Cronkite era, when the New York Times, was a shining beacon of veracity, and it was so much easier to make personal judgements based upon information that had run its course through what was then our traditional and trusted journalism filter.

So here’s the rub. For me, at least. There is now broad condemnation of MSNBC for being way over on the left and as such, far too liberal. Slanted. It is at least at the opposite end of the spectrum from the people on FOX and the gang of right-wing talkers Rush Limbaugh established. For me though, it appears that the pundits on MSNBC are simply trying to tell the truth, based upon the facts as they are currently known.

Why are media critics so eager to condemn that? Is it because the right is no longer the traditional conservative right, but a gang of lying cultists while mainstream reporters are still trying to cover politics as they always have and can’t adjust to this new normal? Is taking one side over another bad journalism, even if you’re siding with the truth over self aggrandizement and deceit?

I always thought, and still believe, that good journalism is a search for the truth, not denying it because we need to appear to be “balanced” in our coverage of a gang of liars and thieves out to steal our democracy – a thoroughly biased cult of Trump, that is so open about their deceit, that it has been normalized while those on the other side, like MSNBC, have been made to look like they are equally deceitful, because they continue to try and play by the rules in their search for the truth.

It’s so easy to get lost in the rhetorical shuffle, when fake news is real, down is up and night is day. Feels like we are being played by those that Hoover called the “Masters of Deceit.” I’m no huge fan of J. Edgar, but I did read the book and think he may have been right about this one. I think we’re being played, and being played to the max. I think it may be time to back off on Joe and Mika, with a huge assist from Rachel Maddow, for trying to tell the truth. At this point in our nation’s history, I’d consider welcoming Hoover back, tutu and all, to do combat with the demon seed left on our national doorstep by Roy Cohn.