The people who have made an industry out of destroying lives over old social media posts and misconstrued comments are upset that it is now happening to them. The New York Times, clearly worried by the very public exposure of blatantly anti-semitic tweets posted by one of its editors, and clearly worried that even more embarassing material is in reserve, tried to stop all the hemorrhaging with a rambling article demonizing the independent journalists who uncovered the tweets.

Much of the liberal media went into panic mode, declaring that this particular exercise of the First Amendment is actually an attack on the First Amendment. The reason why liberal editors are so distraught that independent conservative journalists are publishing evidence of the racist, anti-semitic, and otherwise vile sentiments expressed by their “objective” employees comes down, as it usually does, to power.

There are many journalists in the profession not to inform the public, but to gain the power to destroy people who question them, and they dislike when those tactics are being turned against them. “Using journalistic techniques to target journalists and news organizations” is “fundamentally different from the well established role of the news media in scrutinizing people in positions of power,” the New York Times wrote in its article.

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New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger added, “The political operatives behind this campaign will argue that they are ‘reporting’ on news organizations in the same way that news organizations report on elected officials and other public figures,” but he rejected that claim, insisting the antagonists digging up dirt against the employees of his company are trying to “manipulate the facts for political gain.”

To their credit, not everyone in the elite mainstream media world is buying it. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post and Jack Shafer of Politico both wrote scathing rebukes of the indignation of the New York Times. As Wemple put it, “For decades now, representatives of the mainstream media have answered conservative critiques by imploring, judge us by the work we produce, not by the fact that more than 90 percent of us are liberal or Democratic. Mainstreamers cannot have it both ways.”

Considering that the New York Times recently held a staff meeting to strategize how best to undermine President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE, Sulzberger really does not have much standing to complain about media bias. He clearly thinks that his journalists deserve special privileges and protections since the government and political targets of their attacks are so important.

Yet, the media outlets the New York Times is painting as victims used out of context video clips to claim that a group of teenagers from a Catholic high school in Kentucky engaged in a racist attack on a Native American Vietnam veteran. The story was a false narrative that was fabricated by left wing activists and circulated by some of the most respected newspapers in the country. They did it because those teenagers wore “Make America Great Again” hats, and in the twisted minds of liberal journalists today, that makes them and their families legitimate targets of their reporting.

CNN has gone after an obscure social media user for making a meme of the president wrestling a figure with its logo. The Daily Beast, another liberal outlet, once doxxed a black forklift driver because he posted a meme about “drunk Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiDemocratic senator to party: 'A little message discipline wouldn't kill us' Overnight Health Care: New wave of COVID-19 cases builds in US | Florida to lift all coronavirus restrictions on restaurants, bars | Trump stirs questions with 0 drug coupon plan Overnight Defense: Appeals court revives House lawsuit against military funding for border wall | Dems push for limits on transferring military gear to police | Lawmakers ask for IG probe into Pentagon's use of COVID-19 funds MORE.” Most hypocritical of all, however, is HuffPost editor in chief and New York Times alumna Lydia Polgreen. She called the prospect of journalists being held to the same standards as their targets “extremely alarming,” arguing that this “should worry anyone who cares about independent journalism,” even as people now attacked by the establishment media are also acting as independent journalists.

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In the mind of liberal journalists, destroying lives counts as “speaking truth to power” and “independent journalism.” It is not. It is shameless abuse of power by those who have it against those who do not. It is a deliberate exploitation of the far left hate mobs that Big Tech allows to organize on social media, even as the internet giants ban conservative users for “harassment” when they choose to criticize any journalists.

The New York Times recently complained to the employer of a professor about a tweet referring to one of its high profile columnists as a “bedbug.” The liberal media have made an art form out of digging up controversial tweets to attack ordinary Americans who support President Trump, and now that they are being given a dose of their own medicine, they have discovered that they do not like the taste. But what goes around comes around, and those playing the social media “gotcha” game should not be surprised if their eventual undoing comes about by the same means.

Madison Gesiotto is an attorney and a commentator who serves with the advisory board of the Donald Trump campaign. She was an inauguration spokesperson and former Miss Ohio. She is on Twitter @MadisonGesiotto.