Legacy Media Displays Anti-Christian Bias
The Associated Press, which has completely abandoned any pretense of journalist objectivity, recently produced a hit piece on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. His transgression: publicly and repeatedly professing his Christian faith.
It is important to understand that the legacy news media has become blatantly anti-Christian. It defends radical Islam, but tolerates – even excuses – antisemitism, and portrays Christians as a threat to democracy. (Anything departing from Left wing ideology is a threat to democracy.)
The theme of the AP article is that Secretary Hegseth’s frequent invocation of his Christian faith and values somehow impact the current military operation against Iran. This is ominous, according to the article, because Iran is an Islamic theocracy – thus implying that the offensive against Iran is somewhat of a holy war.
This of course is not true. The Trump Administration has been crystal clear from day one about the reasons for and goals of the military action: destruction of Iran’s capacity to build nuclear weapons, elimination of its ability to threaten neighboring states with offensive weapons, and creation of a climate in which Iranians can bring about regime change.
AP posits Hegseth’s Christian faith and public utterances thereof, has come under “renewed scrutiny” because of the current military action. However, the “renewed scrutiny” has come from Associated Press itself which reached out to several anti-Christian Leftwing groups for comment. The author of the article even admitted that AP could not verify some of the claims made in those comments – but saw fit to include them in the piece.
Were the Associated Press practicing actual journalism the assertions of those groups would have been balanced by quotes from those who understand that action against Iran is not an assault on Islam, but neutering of a brutal regime that has killed hundreds of Americans, suborned terrorism throughout the region, and as recently as last week hung in the public square a teenaged wrestler who did not toe the party line.
None of this should be surprising. The American Left, of which Associated Press and the rapidly declining legacy news media are a part – has been engaged in an all-out assault on Christians and Jews for decades. The reason is straight out of the communist playbook: replace the worship of God with worship of the state.
Since Christian values are antithetical to the policy goals of the Left it seeks to erase Christian influence in public policy. Thus, they frequently wield the phrase “separation of church and state” against any public official who dares to bring religion into the public square.
The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution demands no such separation. The clause is not a separation clause rather it is an establishment clause. The government is prohibited from establishing a state religion such as that which existed in England during the time of the constitution’s framing. In fact, the amendment provides for just the opposite: saying the government cannot prohibit “the free exercise thereof.”
To the dismay of the Left, Christians have refused to leave the rhetorical playing field nor stop allowing Biblical values to influence public policy. Such values played an important role in the nation’s founding and have guided policy throughout the ensuing generations.
A friend of mine recently posed the question on Facebook: “Is America a Christian nation?” My response was: “Yes, America is a Christian nation that welcomes and supports the inherent rights of all religions.”
Members of the Trump Administration from Vice President Vance on down have been more outspoken about their religious values than previous high-profile officials. That is reflective of the center-right coalition of voters that put President Donald Trump into office. The Left derides this as “Christian nationalism,” but for the vast majority of Americans both faith and patriotism are central to their identity.
The legacy news media has been sliding toward extinction for some time now. From the recent decision by CBS News to shutter its iconic radio network to staff reductions at the Washington Post and other major newspapers, to the pending closure of Pittsburgh’s Post-Gazette the legacy media is operating on an economic business model that no longer works.
That most, if not all, of those platforms have abandoned impartial journalism to become de facto house organs of the Left has only hastened their demise by alienating readers who just want old-fashioned unbiased reporting.
The recent hit piece on Secretary Hegseth and his faith is emblematic of the Left’s bias. Associated Press should be careful lest it follow CBS radio into the dustbin of history.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly American Radio Journal and Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)
Permission to reprint is granted provided author and affiliation are cited.
