Here are my observations and opinions on my selected news of the day.

NOT ALL IN THE MEDIA ARE GUILTY of leaping headlong into the false claim that President Trump asked his former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.

As a follow-up to my post yesterday, “Mueller drops the bomb on the media,” I thought you would be interested in the comments of Michael Goodwin of the New York Post.

He noted that the BuzzFeed “wasn’t alone in revealing its desire to be rid of Trump. Much of the political class embraced the story without doubts because they wanted it to be true. Dems in Congress instantly pledged investigations.”

Goodwin chastised so-called journalists for “swallowing the report without trying to confirm it themselves … inserting the ridiculous phrase, ‘if it’s true.’”

“Not long ago,” wrote Goodwin, “no respected journalist or news organization would go public with something unless they had enough evidence to reach the conclusion that it was true. The bigger the story, the higher the threshold of necessary evidence.

“Not on Friday,” Goodwin sadly points out, “Then the biggest possible story was presented with the least possible evidence. ‘If it’s true,’ is an admission of malpractice.”

NO SHAME – The Trump opposition media – ABC, CBS, NBC/MSNBC and CNN – were all guilty of broadcasting the false claim, and rather than apologize, they attempted to convince their audiences that they were merely reporting the “news” that BuzzFeed had brought forward. How pathetic.

MORE ON THE STATE OF JOURNALISM – Quoting the New York Times has been common for decades. Except for a handful of other major U.S. newspapers, most newspapers didn’t have the staff to cover national and international news.

In the 1980s, CNN was born and they, too, had reporters around the world. In the mid-1990’s, Fox News Channel and MSNBC began providing competition for CNN, and they, too, frequently quoted The Times.

Today it’s common place to see representatives of not only the New York Times, but other major papers, appearing as guest panelists. The result is that journalists who are supposed to be non-partisan and objective, become pundits and commentators.

Fox News Channel frequently invites people from its sister company, The Wall Street Journal, however, they are generally columnists, not street reporters. They do, however, invite reporters from conservative-leaning papers like the Washington Examiner and Washington Times.

“I really think that all the cable appearances on panels, particularly on CNN and MSNBC, are a huge mistake,” said former New York Times editor Jill Abramson recently.

“Print reporters are a staple at those two networks these days, often touting stories they have written for their newspapers,” she said, with concern that “the reporters appear with opinionated commentators, or are fed leading questions by hosts who have a clear point of view, leading viewers to believe they agree with the opinions.”

Abramson’s got a point, and I thought you should beware the reporter who loses his objectivity and turns commentator, then back to reporter.

IF YOU’RE WONDERING why Nancy Pelosi said “no” to the president’s offer on immigration issues that could lead to ending the shutdown you’re not alone.

The editorial board of the Washington Post urged both sides to get together. “Unquestionably, a deal would contain galling elements for both sides; that’s the nature of compromise,” they wrote. “But a measure of statesmanship for a member of Congress now is the ability to accept some disappointments, and shrug of the inevitable attacks from purists, if it means rescuing the lives of thousands of people living among us.”

Can Pelosi put her visible hatred for the president aside and come to the table?

“The Democrats are attempting to destroy Trump, gambling that prolonging the government shutdown redounds to their benefit while also calculating that more illegal immigrants means more welfare recipients, which means more Democrat votes,” asserts columnist Roger Kimball.

“Polls show that President Trump has been hurt more politically than the Democrats by the government shutdown,” says John Fund of National Review, “but I suspect the longer it drags on, with Democrats unwilling to even negotiate seriously about Trump’s proposal, the worse the Left will look to voters.”

GILLIBRAND’S GALL – New York’s Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was forced to announce her run for the presidency this past weekend with a mouthful of apologies for past stances on key issues.

Forget her 2018 reelection promise that she would serve her full six-years in the Senate that caused the Buffalo News to say she “flat out lied;” they all lie about that don’t they?

More serious are her flip-flops on major issues of the day, including her opposition to gun control, amnesty, sanctuary cities, and drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants.

“If Trump’s immigration positions are racist, were they racist when you held some of those positions as well?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked. “They certainly were not empathetic and they were not kind,” she meekly responded.

When questioned by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on her past immigration views, she simply said she was “callous” and apologized for holding those previous views.

It will be interesting to see if the voters will be as acquiescent as the media when she goes out on the stump.  I doubt it.  Remember how they treated Mitt Romney with his flip-flops?

During an interview for the Dartmouth alumni magazine, she said “the country is being attacked from within,” appearing to intimate a reference to President Trump. “Our core values are being attacked and undermined every day,” she said without explaining which values she’s referencing, like other Democrats frequently do.

Republicans are well aware that the country is being attacked from within by the holdovers from the Obama administration; the Deep State.

“Can Donald Trump be defeated?” asked Tapper. “Yes,“ she said, “someone who is passionate, authentic and is fighting for every day people to be able to provide for their kids and keep their communities strong and safe. Someone who connects with voters. Someone who is fighting for them and they believe he fighting for them,” she added, knowing she wouldn’t be asked about Trump’s America first pledge, his promises kept, a booming economy that has created jobs, increased wages, and tax cuts that include child credits.

MY VIEW: Hillary was bad, but this elite New Yorker will not be well-accepted in flyover country.

                               May God bless the United States of America.