The dust-up between Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CNN's Dana Bash was truly fascinating to watch in the same way it's interesting watching a praying mantis catch and eat a roach. You kinda wonder how the insect was so foolish as to get so close to the creature that looks like a 10-year-old's drawing of a monster, but then you remember that the insects aren't very bright to begin with.
So RFK Jr. made a meal of Bash during what was a conversation about CNN's actions (and indeed the legacy media's general modus operandi) during the COVID era, in which Kennedy accused CNN and Bash of "scaring people." I recommend watching the entire thing if you haven't yet, because Kennedy goes for the jugular, and you can click on the link to my colleague, Kyle Becker's article, just below.
READ: RFK Jr. Forces a Long-Overdue COVID Reckoning on Dana Bash and CNN
But it was during this verbal slap across the face that Bash tried to defend herself with something that, I think, irreparably destroyed the trust in many American institutions, at least for a few generations.
Bash did what the legacy media always does and appealed to authority, saying that all she, and thus her legacy media colleagues, were doing was reporting the "truth" about what the experts had a consensus on. Kennedy pointed out that this is an abject lie, as CNN was guilty of scaremongering people with death-toll chyrons and shame-based reporting about those who resisted. Still, regardless, CNN and the rest of the media always hid behind this appeal to authority to pardon their undeniable bias and agenda-driven reporting.
You see this a lot, especially from the Left. Their reporting boils down to "The experts say A, so A is the truth," which isn't the press's job. They seem to remember this when Republicans are in office, but forget it in totality when Democrats hold power. It'd be even more accurate to say that when Republicans are in office, they hold that everything is a lie, and Democrats can only tell the truth, which is the bias we've come to know and hate.
Regardless, that pattern is seen ad nauseam.
Global warming? An overwhelming number of scientists say it's coming to destroy us all and "the debate is over." Everyone just vote Democrat, let the government have overwhelming regulatory power, and we will save you from the weather. Don't forget to have as many abortions as possible, because humans are the main reason the planet is dying, and the fewer there are, the better.
Of course, that 97 percent consensus that the Democrats loved to tout as their appeal to authority was never accurate, and the number was discovered to be so cooked that Gordon Ramsey would've screamed himself hoarse upon seeing it. Ninety-seven percent of people don't agree on anything, much less science that has so many variables that you'd forget more than you'd remember, and we're still finding new variables all the time.
Still, so many people believed it, including corporations that bent the knee to the "science," which you'll also notice is a pattern with major corporations. Whether it's LGBTQ+ activism, climate change, or COVID, the C-suite loves to prostrate themselves and be seen doing so. It's caused so many unnecessary self-regulations that have caused price hikes for you, not to mention job losses and missed opportunities.
The point here is that these appeals to authority aren't really appeals to authority so much as shields being used to let ideologues continue with their agenda under the guise of following some kind of common-sense guidelines established by people smarter and more informed than you, peasant. Even if and when you eventually catch on that the science is wrong, either through self-experimentation or just basic observation, the people with master's degrees, highfalutin' titles, and all the right friends with all the right opinions are still right because the institutions they like say they are correct.
And then we all suffer for it.
To cap off my point, I want to tell you a short story about a boat that sank in South Korea, and I will refer to the coverage provided by CNN of this very story.
Back in April of 2014, a ferry ship called the Sewol began listing to port terribly. On the ferry were 325 students from Danwon High School on a field trip who were below decks at the time. Even though the ferry was clearly sinking, the students were told to stay put by the crew:
“Please do not move from your location,” the ferry’s loudspeakers, which swiftly began taking on water after running into trouble, barked at those on board. “Absolutely do not move.”
So they did. They stayed, and stayed, and stayed... and died. Drowned under the water, waiting for someone to tell them they needed to begin acting to save their own lives. There are videos recovered from the scene, including from students, some of whom can be heard panicking and crying for their mothers.
The Captain and his crew, however, abandoned ship and did so early during the sinking. They got away alive while many passengers ended up dying needlessly, especially since, as CNN reports, a vessel ready to help was just 200 meters away. There was even a U.S. Navy boat nearby offering assistance, but the authorization from the Korean government never came, so the American Navy men and women could only sit idly by.
The backlash to this event was explosive. The ferry company's CEO and the ship's captain were arrested, and South Korea's Prime Minister resigned, and the Captain of the Korean Coast Guard vessel that was nearest and did next to nothing was also arrested and imprisoned. The real heroes ended up being local fishermen and civilian craft.
All told, 304 people died, with only 172 survivors. Among the children, 250 died, cold, alone, confused, and terrified.
However, among those students who did survive were the ones who defied the orders and did not stay put as they were told. They saw the danger, understood the issue, and made their way to safety. They would survive, pulling as many students as they could with them.
I think the point is clear. Authority doesn't always have your best interests in mind. Oftentimes, your own deductive reasoning and common sense will outclass bureaucratic shortsightedness. Appealing to said bureaucracy, or obeying it despite your internal logic screaming at you, won't help you in the end, and anyone who continues to say we should trust said bureaucracy despite its repeated failures is entirely suspect of either being incredibly stupid or in their pocket.
With CNN, it's probably both.
