ANALYSIS/OPINION:

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

What we are in the midst of witnessing right now is a complete, Fukushima-style meltdown of the mainstream media.

Without these slobbering lap dogs, President Obama never would have been elected in the first place. And now they are his only hope for staying in office amid all the global violence, a morbidly paralyzed economy and a national crisis of confidence so profound that the American Dream has become nothing more than quaint fiction for millions.

Nearly four years after President Obama promised to ease Arab hatred of America, the Middle East burns hotter than ever. Polls show America has never been more deeply despised.

Respected newspapers around the world report that the Obama administration was explicitly warned days before the attack on the American Consulate in Libya in which our ambassador was brutally killed. But officials did nothing to stop the worst terrorist attack on the U.S. since 9/11.

Four years after promising to cut the deficit in half, President Obama has exploded the debt to a record $16 trillion. Welfare rolls have ballooned to levels once unimaginable in America and you are actually paying for campaigns to recruit more people onto welfare.

Then last week, the Obama administration finally acknowledged that the $50 billion in defense cuts it prefers over trimming back welfare programs and cutting wasteful government spending will be “deeply destructive to national security, domestic investments and core government functions.”

Oh, and then our credit rating got downgraded. Again. Both humiliating firsts.

So, what flings our national newshounds into a full-blown choking frenzy? An apparent cover-up over the terrorist attack in Libya? The nationwide squalor under the Obama economy? Exposes into all the wasteful spending that should be cut before we junk our national defense?

Nope. Some stupid comment Mitt Romney made four months ago at a fundraiser lamenting that a record-low number of Americans are making enough money anymore to actually pay income taxes.

Is it really a news flash to these people that Mr. Romney can say incredibly idiotic things in the goofiest of ways? Even Mr. Romney himself would probably concede that he doesn’t quite have the silver tongue of President Obama. But, hopefully, it is not forked, either.

How such a minor and long-ago statement could blot out coverage of a disastrous foreign policy, crushing debt and total economic malaise is more than most rational people can comprehend. Which is why most rational people do not become national political reporters.

Making the whole mess even more odious is that the secret, potentially illegal recording of Mr. Romney was unearthed by a relative of Obama mentor Jimmy Carter and quickly peddled to the press by openly avowedly liberal activists.

But there is hope. Earlier this week, a White House spokesman and an Obama campaign official answered questions from reporters during a flight on Air Force One. A reporter grilled the White House — and I am not making this up — about what the president thought of the impersonation of him on the previous “Saturday Night Live” episode.

Upon the conclusion of the reporters’ questions, according to the pool report, the campaign official rewarded the drooling lap dogs by offering them “home-baked cookies.”

But, standing tall, uncompromising and fearless, the press declined the campaign’s sweets.

• Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com.

Sign up for Charles Hurt's Newsletter Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.