CONSTITUTION MYTHBUSTERS

How can you say, “We are wise, And the law of Yahweh¹ is with us”? [B]ehold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. (Jeremiah 8:8)

No one except the Pharisees were as maligned by Christ as much as were the scribes (who in some instances were also Pharisees). In Matthew 23 alone, Jesus scathed the scribes and Pharisees seven times with the following reprimand: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” The following rebuke is the most relevant to this article:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28)

The media business

The media is a business, which like all businesses is driven by the bottom line: it must make a profit to stay in business. Its reporters must, therefore, write articles that motivate readers to come back for more, making them loyal customers.

This requires sensationalism. Because sensationalism doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the truth, no one should expect truth to be of paramount importance to the media, especially since the Author of truth is of little significance to them:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

Howard Beal in the 1976 film Network described the media:

If you want truth, don’t come to us. We will tell you anything but the truth. Go to God.… Go to your gurus, go to yourselves. But, don’t come to us.… Your lives are real, we are an illusion.²

That is what an idol³ is: an illusion. Thomas Jefferson recognized the media for what it is:

The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.⁴

Many Americans have an undying faith in the media and thus revere this man-made entity without realizing they are doing so. These people usually consider anything printed or spoken by the media as gospel, which is precisely how these opinion-shapers would have it.

People who idolize the media are, at the best, naïve:

The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. (Proverbs 14:15)

Deuteronomy 8:3 charges us to live “by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.” The word of everyone else should only be accepted based upon the criterion of “two or three witnesses,” per 2 Corinthians 13:1.⁵ Seldom is this statute observed by the media. Instead, they find their own preferred sources, which contribute to their desired sensationalism (e.g., the Southern Poverty Law Center), citing them as their experts, and then broad-brushing everyone they’ve targeted. Truthful, unbiased testimony is seldom their objective.

This is also why the media is notorious for quoting someone out of context, to back up their distorted impression of the one they’ve interviewed. This is known as libel and/or slander and is a violation of the Ninth Commandment,⁶ not that the media cares. Trust me, I know firsthand. Do not give interviews to prevaricators!

The agenda-driven media

Whereas the bottom line is of paramount necessity, it’s not the media’s paramount objective. The media is not impartial. It has an agenda like everyone else. To know what that agenda is, one needs to ascertain whether the media is known for being conservative or liberal?⁷ Each news service, television and radio network, website, and blog should be evaluated on its own merits. As for the mainline media, it should be self-apparent theirs is not a conservative agenda.

The impression of an independent press in America is part of its illusion. In 1898, at an annual dinner of the American Press Association, John Swinton, the one-time editor-in-chief of the New York Times, was called upon to toast journalism and America’s free press. He was surprisingly candid:

There is no such thing in America as an independent press, unless it is in the country towns.⁸ You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write his honest opinions, and if you did you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid $150.00 a week for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with—others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things—and any of you who would be so foolish as to write his honest opinions would be out on the street looking for another job. The business of the New York journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to revile, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his race and his country for his daily bread. You know this and I know it, and what folly is this to be toasting an “Independent Press.” We are tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping-jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.⁹

Mr. Swinton also identified modern journalism as a crime:

Journalism, once a profession, and then a trade, is now a crime.¹⁰

Social change is one of God’s objectives. It is also the aim and design of today’s media. In his book Mind Control in the United States, Steven Jacobson wrote about the media’s ability to program the masses:

It is possible to program an entire population to respond to certain words, images, vocal qualities, body movements, gestures and expressions with certainty. The result of such programming is a population that is highly suggestible, a population that can be manipulated with precision.¹¹

The only means to overcoming mind control is by control of the mind:

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Edward Bernays, assistant to William Paley, founder of CBS, admitted that the media intentionally exploits the masses:

Those who manipulate the organized habits and opinions of the masses constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country…. We are dominated by a relatively small number of persons…. Media corporations, practicing ‘press release’ journalism, have become dependent on established sources of information available through government and corporate channels. These channels sanitize and spin the news to reflect their special interests…. Therefore, stories that run counter to major corporate or governmental messages tend to be ignored or discounted.¹²

Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of The Washington Post, also revealed the media’s real agenda:

To hell with the news. I’m no longer interested in news. I’m interested in causes. We don’t print the truth. We don’t pretend to print the truth.¹³

Although not specifically directed at the scribes of the first century or the media of the twenty-first century, the following warning is nonetheless applicable:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers [and lying scribes] among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord…. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. (2 Peter 2:1-3)

The hate–fomenting media

Because the media is both sensational and agenda-driven, it’s not opposed to fostering division or even hatred. Such makes for more sensational headlines, which seduce more people into their agenda-driven purpose.

Fear not the media

Thanks to Amendment 1’s provision for the freedom of the press, the media can say or write just about anything with immunity (until they stand before the judgment seat of God). The media slanders and libels and is very seldom required to prove their allegations. The Constitution’s lack of moral parameters allows the “freedoms”¹⁴ enumerated in the First Amendment¹⁵ to be interpreted by the prevailing morality or immorality of the American courts at any given time:

In developing a truly free press, newspapers found they had a powerful ally in the supreme court, which turned a single phrase, “or of the press,” (contained in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) into a potent shield for press freedom.¹⁶

If you believe in unqualified freedom of speech and freedom of the press, you have probably never had your name sullied by individuals with whom you have little recourse under today’s juridical system. Neither have you been libeled by the press, whose editors care more about titillating headlines than a person’s reputation.

The average citizen has virtually no recourse against the media’s calumny. This unbridled power is feared by nearly everyone, including many Christians, despite the fact that we are commanded to fear only God:

Thou shalt fear Yahweh thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods…. (Deuteronomy 6:13-14)

Consequently, to unquestionably believe or fear the media is an act of idolatry.

When attacked, Christians must guard themselves from fawning at the media’s feet by making inappropriate concessions:

Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked. (Proverbs 25:26)

Consider how foolish it is to fear the media—words are their only arsenal. Yahweh advised the Prophet Ezekiel not to be afraid of such impotent weapons:

And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words…. (Ezekiel 2:6)

The Apostle Paul provides additional incentive:

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. (Philippians 1:27-28, NASB)

 

Related posts:

Thou shalt not make unto the any graven image. This is the second in a series of ten free online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.

Thou shalt not bear false witness. This is the ninth in a series of ten free online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.

Chapter 11 “Amendment 1: Government-Sanctioned Polytheism” of the free online book Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

“Right, Left, and Center: Who Gets to Decide?”

 

1. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. Regrettably, it was deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”

2. Howard Beal, quoted by Lloyd Billingsley, Christianity Today, 4 October 1985.

3. Thou shalt not make unto the any graven image. This is the second in a series of ten free online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.

4. Thomas Jefferson, quoted by Steven Jacobson, Mind Control in the United States (Santa Rosa, CA: Critique Publishing, 1985) p. 18.

5. “[I]n the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” (2 Corinthians 13:1)

6. Thou shalt not bear false witness. This is the ninth in a series of ten free online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments.

7. There’s Only One with the authority to determine what constitutes conservatism. Anything left of His right is left, liberal, and ungodly. For more, see blog article “Right, Left, and Center: Who Gets to Decide?”

8.Even most small-town newspapers and radio and television stations are now owned by large conglomerates.

9. John Swinton (1829-1901), Editor-In-Chief of the New York Times, speech at an annual dinner of the American Press Association, sponsored by the New York Press Club, quoted by Upton Sinclair, The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest (New York, NY: Lyle Stuart Inc., 1963) p. 482.

10. John Swinton, quoted by Sender Garlin, John Swinton: American Radical (New York, NY: The American Institute for Marxist Studies, 1976) p. 29.

11. Steven Jacobson, “Mental Programming and Mass Media,” Mind Control in the United States (Santa Rosa, CA: Critique Publishing, 1985) p. 25.

12. Edward Bernays quoted by Peter Phillips and Tom Tomorrow, Censored 1997: The News that Didn’t Make the News—The Year’s Top 25 Censored News Stories (New York, NY: Seven Stories Press, 1997), quoted by Andrew Amirault, “The Invisible Hand of the Media.”

13. Ben Bradlee, quoted in “Boycotting the Media.” Quoted in The News Manipulators by Reed Irvine, Joseph C. Goulden, and Cliff Kincaid, Publishers: Book Distributors, Incorporated, p. 179. Quoted in Trashing the Planet by Dixy Lee Ray with Louis R. Guzzo, p. 76. The latter gives as its source an article by David Brooks in The Wall Street Journal, 5 October 1989.

14. Liberty was formally lost in America when the 18th-century Enlightenment founders made liberty a goal (almost a god) instead of a corollary of implementing Yahweh’s perfect law of liberty (Psalm 19:7-11, 119:44-45, James 2:12) as the supreme law of the land.

For more on how Yahweh’s moral law applies and should be implemented today, see Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.

See also A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government.

See also series of ten online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes, and judgments, beginning with Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

15. Chapter 11 “Amendment 1: Government-Sanctioned Polytheism” of the free online book Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.

16.International Information Programs, USINFO.STATE.GOV, “Freedom of the Press,” Rights of the People: Individual Freedom and the Bill of Rights, http://usinfo.org/enus/government/overview/press.html.