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Democrats this cycle have made a big deal of saying the system is rigged. It’s insane and damaging, which is typical for progressives. But it’s also the core of the collectivist mindset.

To be fair, the system is rigged … just not in the way Democrats say it is.

President Barack Obama and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., both from relatively modest means, now have fortunes not through creating businesses or jobs but by driving home this “rigged” idea. They claim people were able to take risks and build businesses solely because someone else paved the roads.

These self-righteous multi-millionaires discount the fact that those roads are paid for by everyone who uses them. They won’t acknowledge some use them to better the lives of themselves and fellow citizens, but others use them to go to the bar – and this is a reflection of choices they made, not some societal flaw.

But that’s not the rigging I’m talking about. Democrats’ “big lie” is to talk about how earnings inequality is somehow existential and has nothing to do with personal choices and risk taking. They know the system is not rigged; it’s more of an excuse progressives use to absolve those who fail of their own accord. It justifies everything. I didn’t get the job? It’s not that I blew the interview or someone was more qualified … it’s because the system is rigged.

It’s insidious, and evil, to do that to people. But it works, and individuals are disposable to progressives, so they do it.

Still, not “rigging.”

What’s being rigged now is the election.

I’ve been unambiguous in my criticism of Donald Trump, but he is absolutely correct the electoral system is rigged. He narrows it to being against him, but it would be rigged against any Republican who ran this year. It’s that rigged.

I’m not talking about voter fraud, though we’ll likely see plenty of that. I’m talking about the media.

If there’s one thing this election cycle has exposed it’s just how symbiotic the relationship between the Democratic Party and the media is. Newspapers might as well run Democratic press releases with reporters’ bylines at this point. Television journalists should just attach a GoPro camera to the hand of whichever DNC official happens to be operating their mouth at any given time. Might as well get a colonoscopy while they’re up there.

And “up there” is where journalistic standards are, along with many of their heads.

Journalism has been a joke for a long time, but 2016 made it the punch line as well.

As reporters fall over each other to report the latest allegation against or gaffe by Trump, they actively ignore everything negative about Clinton.

Wikileaks has exposed the inner workings of the Clinton campaign – the bigotry, the knowing lies, the attempted cover-ups, the horse-trading, the corrupt in-breeding with journalists – but you’d never know it watching network news. They’ve barely mentioned it.

It’s not surprising. Journalists and contributors from just about every major media outlet have been exposed by Wikileaks of doing one or more of the following:

--Run stories past Clinton campaign officials for their approval.

--Offer help in framing stories to aid Clinton.

--Give Clinton advice and even a town hall question ahead of time.

--Actively root for Hillary.

--Attend dinner parties for campaign insiders and even throw them.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg in the cozy, even incestuous relationships Wikileaks exposed.

Add to that the FBI report of a “quid pro quo” offer to change classified material to unclassified by a State Department official on behalf of the Clinton campaign as well as the unrivaled corruption of liberal groups coordinating with the Clinton campaign to incite violence and commit voter fraud exposed by Project Veritas and, well…nothing.

These revelations have come to light only because people outside the media sought them out. Aside from casual mentions and quick dismissals, the mainstream media has mostly ignored them.

In the case of Wikileaks, the journalistic malpractice is self-preservation. Journalists are hesitant to report on the behind-the-scenes partisanship of fellow journalists because they’re friends, and it’s possible whoever reported it will have a similar email from them released next.

On the FBI, the media simply doesn’t care. The perfect illustration of how this was covered is in this exchange between Howard Dean and Thomas Roberts of MSNBC. Neither has even a basic understanding of the issue at hand, or even a clue. Yet there they were, on national television, declaring something they obviously had no knowledge of to be irrelevant. It’d be laughable were it not so sad.

As for the Project Veritas findings, even after one fraudster was fired and another resigned, the media ignored it. There is video of two Democratic operatives discussing how to commit voter fraud and confessing to paying people to incite violence at Trump rallies – staged events the media covered ad nauseam – and they don’t rate a mention let alone a correction. A search of the Washington Post and New York Times websites Tuesday night return zero results on the topic. (The Post wrote a story Wednesday as this was being submitted.)

Yes, the system is rigged. Not by the rich against the poor, but by those with press passes against those who expect them to provide honest information.

Media bias isn’t just how they cover what they cover; it’s what they choose to ignore. The profession that congratulates itself with more awards and honors than any other and prides itself for “speaking truth to power” has been fully exposed as the shield and the sword for the powerful. That is a rigged system.