Let’s assume the terrible rumors are true, that an unsuspecting Jamal Khashoggi walked into a Saudi consulate in Istanbul only to be tortured and killed.

While there is no question that is an awful thing and we should all feel terrible for him and his family, in the overall, existential scheme of things, it is time to turn off CNN and stop playing pretend.

These things happen pretty much every day in that part of the world, and now we are being conned… Conned by the establishment media with a shiny piece of fake news.

According to the media, over the likely death of Khashoggi, we are now supposed to get twisted into all sorts of knots and drop our support of Donald Trump and want to blow up America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia (our most important ally in the fight against Iran) and give up a $100 billion arms sale that will benefit America and Americans because … a non-American was killed not on American soil.

Again, I am not trying to downplay the horror of what probably happened to Khashoggi. But this is life in the modern Middle East. What’s more, Khashoggi knew the stakes and still he played with fire with his support of the Muslim Brotherhood and other sensitive political activities — not to mention a palsy walsy relationship with Osama bin Laden.

So why are we supposed to care so much about this particular human life that our extreme caring will blow up Trump’s Middle East policy, a policy that actually seems to be working…?

Oooooohhhhh…

I see.

Because Khashoggi was a journalist, a sacred journalist practicing the sacred art of journalism at the sacred left-wing temple of the Washington Post — and this is why his life matters so much more than any other.

Sorry, no.

Call me a monster, but I do not put any additional moral weight on the life of a journalist. Alternately, as much as I despise the media, I do not put any less moral weight on the life of a journalist. When it comes to such things, a life is a life, an individual is an individual, and every human life matters.

And again, I am not here to downplay the terrible and tragic murder of an individual. That is the furthest thing from my point here.

What is flat-out immoral, though, is the establishment media trying to gaslight us into believing a journalist’s life is more sacred than that of a truck driver, construction worker, schoolteacher, or — God forbid — a child.

And yet, in a terrible world where every day in this country innocent children go missing, young black men are gunned down in Chicago, women are raped and murdered, the media demand we pour all of emotional energy and empathy, not to mention our government’s diplomatic resources, into the murder of a journalist because … journalism.

Again — sorry, but no.

I will not be emotionally blackmailed by an arrogant and provincial media abusing its wicked power to place the life of one of their own above the life of all the children who will go missing today, all the women who will be assaulted, all the service men and women currently serving in harm’s way, all the murder victims, all the gunshot victims.

And then there is this simple fact…

Listen close, because this is important…

The media are playing us, are only pretending to care about Khashoggi.

Remember, the establishment media is almost entirely made up of truly awful people who care only about one thing — the left-wing cause. They do not care about you or me, they do not even care about one another, and they sure as hell don’t care about Khashoggi. To them his life is a tool, a prop, a means to a political end.

While I do not doubt that the journalists who actually knew Khashoggi are truly concerned, almost all the hand-wringing you are seeing in the news media over the life of a journalist is fake news.

These people don’t care…

You want proof.

Here are Exhibits 1 – 30…

Outside of Breitbart News, have you heard a single squeak of outrage from a CNN or NBC or Washington Post over the 30-plus Mexican journalists murdered since 2016?

Of course you haven’t!

Because outrage over that particular horror show only works against the media’s left-wing cause of portraying Mexico as an idyllic nation sending us their best and brightest.

This entire Khashoggi narrative is a con, a hustle, a ploy, a cynical tactical maneuver to attack Trump and to undermine his successful (so far) Middle East policy… The media are exploiting this man, using him, weaponizing his death because that death is useful to these monsters.

While I do not put the life of a journalist above that of a waitress or mechanic or coal miner or taxi driver, I can guarantee I care a whole lot more about Khashoggi than those in the media who appear to be absolutely delighted by the fact that his likely murder allows them to fabricate yet another reason to attack Drumpf.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.