The post-September 11th sentiment that obliterated partisanship and promoted nationalism has all but disappeared, hidden in the shadow cast by political agendas and vicious motives.

Americans are finding out, some with a slow and building awareness, others with a quick and realistic blow, that we face a deranged, out of control enemy that threatens patriotism, the forward-thinking mentality of truth and the overall safety of our country and its citizens.

In this instance, the enemy isn’t extreme Islam.

This enemy lives among us and is our most formidable and unnerving. It is the most difficult to defeat.

It is the media.

We rely on the media to report to us in a truthful and unbiased fashion. But with the exception of a few news sources, they consistently integrate deceit, bias, extremism and sensationalism into the news, turning the front pages of newspapers into opinion columns and the nightly news into semblances of daytime talk shows.

For some time, the media have been ruled by the left wing of America and use their perch atop the hierarchy of communication to their best advantage. The monopoly on news dispersion is an incredibly powerful position that is all too frequently the catalyst in conflicts, both domestic and foreign. Some feel the purpose of the media is to investigate and bring to the forefront the facts that are not being disclosed, without the interjection of their own political leanings and “personal” beliefs.

The liberal left and the media have a highly efficient partnership whose goal is to paint a tyrannical, imperialistic and occupational picture of the United States. Read what are undoubtedly all “stories” in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times or The Washington Post and you will receive much of the same propaganda that is reflective of the highly prevalent anti-U.S., anti-military sentiment in most of the media.

Tragically, most local newspapers use wire services and their stories of twisted “facts” as front page news, which perpetuates the misinformation being spewed by the more prevalent news sources.

This is a typical tactic used to slant, brainwash and generally confuse the mass public. It succeeds because of the trust that used to be synonymous with journalism. In the event that local papers contribute stories of substance to join the wire articles they run, they are usually loaded with underlying negativity and cynicism toward the Bush administration or any one of its policies, just like the wire articles.

This accusation of liberalism in the media comes with actual substance and evidence in support of the argument. Even more so than the liberal argument, the irresponsibility of the media is absolutely reprehensible. Perhaps it is this irresponsibility which allows the liberal bias to be projected to the forefront.

If Newsweek had thoroughly investigated the source that accused our troops of flushing the Quran down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay they could have averted disaster, instead of desecrating both the reputations of the United States and its Armed Forces, as well as their own reputation as a publication.

It’s fairly obvious that the media are determined to attack everything concerning the Bush administration and the military, but not as vehemently as they were before the election. This, in itself, exemplifies the bias.

I found it interesting that the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, a story which reflected so poorly on our troops, garnered fifty three front page stories at the New York Times and similar numbers at the L.A. Times, while stories about savagely beheaded Americans received far fewer front page stories.

They are still talking about Abu Ghraib, and naked Iraqi bodies in a pile, but does anyone remember the sounds of Nick Berg screaming in agony and terror as Abu Musab Al Zarqawi sawed his head off? Why does our media glorify our enemy and degrade our heroes?

Is it really so difficult to admit that our military is doing good things in Iraq? For the media, it obviously is.

To hear a positive (translation: true) story about the real Iraq, it is necessary to go to a military source. To the media, a military source reporting positive events is a biased source.

There are some who feel it’s acceptable that Newsweek and others use anonymous and questionable sources to further an agenda — which resulted in lost lives. These days, deaths can be routinely attributed to careless reporting. More appalling is the idea that our troops are now being tried for “crimes” that, while reporting, the media are witnessing. This can only create an atmosphere of hesitance on the battlefield for the troops if they know the media are present.

Of course, if the media are there, I would also like to raise the question as to why they can film insurgents and car bombs being detonated but then not disclose to the military the necessary elements to track down the perpetrators.

When dealing with the enemy, every written and spoken word can mean danger for those implicated in a story, especially our troops. Every word counts, truth and discretion are vital; lives and the interests of people must be considered above “getting a story” and furthering political interests.

Send comments to Danielle at [email protected].