The Priesthood of the Media

A priest is a mediator between mortals and a god. 

The priests of the Roman Catholic Church served as the mediators between God and the people of Christendom for centuries.  The Church guarded and interpreted the scriptures.  The priests  instructed them about proper worship.  Reformers of the 1500s challenged the role of priests, asserting that people needed no intermediary to communicate with God.  Many paid dearly for daring to translate the Bible into contemporary languages, providing for the masses unfiltered access to the word of God.

Today the media serve as the priests of the political progressive movement. 

Seeking to honor their deity and further the cause, the media control the flow of information.  They create news by polling the public and reporting only the “helpful” results.  Scandals are dismissed.  Hard questions are never asked.  They worship the political machine with its good intentions, as it advances the progressive political agenda.  The media dutifully report this large, growing government’s version of the truth.  Even as the government oversteps its Constitutional limits, the media believe that the honorable agenda is being served.

But the story changes.  The government is caught deceiving the media.  Journalists’ phone records are subpoenaed.  The attorney general offers to speak to the press “off the record.”  Reports show that telephone companies have been forced to provide information about all their customers’ phone calls for at least seven years.  The IRS  hinders the work of the government’s political opponents.  The overreaching government begins to impinge on the freedom of its priests. 

The god has betrayed the priests.  The priests are dumbfounded.  This good, progressive government now seems to be less than holy.  The priesthood has lost its leader, and no longer knows how to spin the news.

The media now understand the painful truth that the Founders knew all too well:  Power corrupts.  It corrupts even those with good intentions.  It corrupts progressives and conservatives alike.  Power weaves corruption into the culture of countless government agencies. 

The deeper the corruption, the more difficult it is to expose.

A system of checks and balances can help keep people honest.  Government is not divine.  It always tends toward corruption.  The media-priests only awoke when they themselves were burned.  May the media learn to hold the government accountable.  And may we the people hold one another accountable.