by Phil Erwin

If you have any doubts whether Trump’s politically-charged characterization of the “Mainstream” Media – “Fake News” – is accurate, you need wonder no more.

This week’s loudest controversy concerned whether Attorney General William Barr’s 4-page memo highlighting key conclusions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 400+ page report had accurately reflected the findings of that report.

This concern was raised by a story published in the Washington Post, headlined: Mueller complained that Barr’s letter did not capture ‘context’ of Trump probe.

Sounds like a pretty definite disagreement about the investigation’s conclusions, doesn’t it?

But buried in the 13th paragraph is the real truth: Mueller was concerned that the Press coverage was “misinterpreting the investigation,” creating confusion that was undermining public confidence in the investigation.

I repeat: Mueller’s concern was that the Press coverage was misleading the public!

That doesn’t sound much like a disagreement with Barr about conclusions, does it?

Sounds like precisely what it was: Concern that the Press coverage was purposely misleading the public’s perceptions of the truth.

In other words: The News was… fake.

And the Post’s headline about its own article was seriously, deliberately misleading.

Fake News!

This entire controversy was absolutely a fake controversy – drummed up deliberately on the eve of Barr’s scheduled testimony before the Senate’s Judiciary Committee in order to create the impression that Barr was being evasive-to-untruthful.

Any wonder, then, that the Democrat Senators jumped on the chance to interrupt and shame Barr as a “liar” on-camera?

As Newt Gingrich points out: That was the whole point of the exercise.

But if you’re not yet ready to buy the notion that the Press, the Democrats and the Progressive Left are “in cahoots,” plotting collectively to misinform you, the Public, at least consider this simple truth: If you start a conversation with the presumption that you’re going to hear only lies, you won’t be a very receptive listener.

And the Democrats clearly weren’t ready to actually listen to AG Barr. (Just consider Kamala Harris’ snarky interruptions of Barr’s attempts to answer her questions.)

The Left doesn’t listen. And they don’t want you listening, either. To anyone but them.

So what’s the real truth about this very fake controversy?

Mueller asked Barr to release the executive summaries of the report in order to address the Press’ misleading coverage. Barr declined, because he didn’t want to release the report in piecemeal fashion – and he knew he’d be releasing the entire report within just a couple of weeks!

This whole thing might seem like nothing more than a disagreement over timing, but for the fact that the Post didn’t report on the disagreement until precisely the eve of Barr’s Senate testimony – and then they misreported it!

Get it? Mueller’s letter somehow made its way (likely via illegal leak) to the Post; but the article, which deliberately mischaracterized Mueller’s actual concerns, did not appear until the very eve of Barr’s testimony!

The whole point was to make you believe that Barr was somehow covering up for Trump. And – surprise, surprise – that’s precisely what the Democrat Senators worked to prove, on camera, over and over.

Barr’s carrying Trump’s water!! He’s protecting the President!!

Barr’s a liar! He can’t be trusted!!

Barr’s derelict in his duty! He must resign!!

You know… Barr, the guy who’s occupied the top law-enforcement office in the land, not once but twice. Barr, who said he would release the entire Mueller report to the public (with only legally required redactions), and then – released the entire report, with less than 10% percent redacted.

Yeah. That guy.

Like Trump: Another guy who keeps his word.

If you have any doubts whatsoever about the connection between the Post’s mistakenly titled article and the Democrats’ ambush of Barr the next day, just check Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s interactions with Barr in the hearing. Feinstein followed precisely the article’s misinformation ruse, challenging Barr to explain why he had so mischaracterized Mueller’s report in his “summary” to Congress. Feinstein all but quoted the article’s title-implied charge to Barr: How dare you mislead the American public!

And in his response, Barr relayed precisely the same information you can find in the lower paragraphs of the article. It was almost as though the authors had traveled into the future and recorded Barr’s testimony.

Truth, after all, is Truth. It doesn’t change from day to day, or from mouth to mouth.

So. The Post’s editor published an informative article, but tailored the headline to give you a very damning suspicion of what’s going on, even though the full text of the article clearly, unequivocally delivers a very different view.

Think that was just a careless mistake? Not likely. Titles are the purview of editors, who choose the articles and set the tone. Writers can suggest titles, but don’t get to decide.

The title was the Fake News. And most people rarely get past the headlines.

What the confluence of the Mueller Report, Barr’s memo, Mueller’s reaction to the Media coverage, and the Democrat Senators’ behavior during the Barr’s hearing clearly, unavoidably demonstrates is this: There is a concerted effort between the mainstream Press and the Democrat Party to mislead you about Trump! They don’t want you to know the Truth; they want to to believe what they tell you about Trump.

It’s all about fooling you so you’ll vote their way.

If you want to understand what’s really going on in politics, well enough to feel confident you’re making good judgements about whom to vote for, and why, you simply cannot trust what you hear from the mainstream Media or the Democrat Party. You have to do your own, careful, comprehensive research.

You can’t afford to waste your time and attentions on utterly biased, completely untrustworthy outlets like CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC or CBS.

You need to Watch FOX and Fox Business, and One America News Network, and visit Web sites such as The Hill – outlets that deliberately strive to present all sides of the news.

Sure, you’ll be exposed to Conservative viewpoints. But you’ll get balance in your information. (An example:  FOX Business’ legal expert, Judge Andrew Napolitano – a Libertarian – is adamant on camera that Barr arrived at the wrong conclusions about Trump’s possible “obstruction.”)

Balance beats biased BS any day. So choose your news sources carefully, and wisely.

You’ll be a better citizen for it.

Phil Erwin is an author, IT administrator and registered Independent living in Newbury Park. He would like to support some Democrat ideals, but he has a visceral hatred for Lies and Damn Lies (and is highly suspicious of Statistics.) That pretty much eliminates supporting most Democrats, and a bunch of Republicans to boot.