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On April 21 1980, Rosie Ruiz won the fabled Boston Marathon in record time and looked as fresh as a daisy when the media descended on her after she had been crowned with a wreath à la ancient Greece. Rosie answered all the questions. She loved running. This was only her second marathon. No, she had never been tired or doubtful of victory during the two hours and 32 minutes of the race. The newspapers and the hacks went wild.
Well, the reason for Rosie’s freshness, it later transpired, was that she had entered the race half a mile from the finish. She had missed all the checkpoints but, perhaps in view of the fact that she was a Cuban American and a woman to boot, the race marshals had blamed themselves for missing her. For some strange reason we haven’t heard of Rosie since, but I hear that nowadays, aged 66, she’s doing fine. Oh yes, I almost forgot: Rosie had to return the medal and the cash to the rightful winner, a Canadian lady who, throughout the two hours and 30-odd minutes, believed herself to be leading only to be told that she was second after a record-breaking run.
Rosie has never complained about having to give back the medal, but in a somewhat similar situation two women, an old grey hag and a gossipy middle-aged one without hair, both of whom were caught cheating, have refused to return the prizes. I am of course speaking of the New York Times and the Washington Post, both Pulitzer Prize-winners for exposing Donald Trump’s collusion with Russia, something they decided to invent the moment the Donald was elected. And it was as easy as pie. Unlike Rosie, who at least ran for 20 minutes and worked up a sweat, these two old tarts didn’t even bother to go through the motions of investigating.
The Spectator’s two Washington correspondents have thoroughly covered the farce of false Russian collusion charges, but here’s a different view, what might have been if the two old hags had acted like proper news gatherers. They (the old hags) could have gone Greek, i.e., taken the high road. But that would have required talent as well as knowledge. Instead, a lachrymose and hysterical Roger Cohen sort of compared Trump to Hitler, a tired cliché, especially when one killed millions of Jews while the other moved his embassy to Jerusalem and recognized Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights. Try reading a bit of history, Cohen, and have a colonoscopy to clear up your brain.
Just imagine what an intelligent writer could do with Trump’s presidency. They could go Euripidean, with American details strictly observed. A talented person could do wonders with a mythological Greek tragedy full of glory and pathos. Trump is, after all, a glorious tragedy as well as comedy. But both papers, as well as CNN and the networks, are under the influence of the pimps of death, as I call the neocons; those dark forces behind the Iraq and Afghanistan tragedies. William Kristol, a Never Trumper, has grown increasingly cartoonish by always being wrong, yet his career keeps advancing. As the saying goes, there’s a sucker born every minute.
When it comes to Trump, triumph and tragedy would make great reading. But fake news has prevailed. What is annoying is the refusal of the newspapers and hacks involved in a two-year masquerade not only to apologize but also to return the prizes they voted to themselves. American hacks think they’re superior, but they judge by comparing themselves with those they never stop defending, the dregs of society. More socialism and more open borders are what the Democratic party wants, and what the media parrots.
And it gets worse. It now transpires that the cheating and collusion was done by the FBI working in cahoots with Hillary’s campaign. The New York Times and the Washington Post chose to write the very opposite: that it was the Russkies and Trump. This should have been a death blow for the reputation of any newspaper, but if people watch zombie and sci-fi programs on television day and night, as Americans tend to do, how on earth can they recognize fake news when they see it.
Everything Trump said or did these past two years sparked an avalanche of thunderous denunciations from both reporters and editorial writers. Now that Russia has fallen through, the media will no doubt expose Trump as a KKK member and a rabid racist. It will be another massive disinformation campaign, and who knows, this time, without a Mueller, the charges might stick.
Night after night, over two long years, the public had to listen while pundits explained how a Russian op was directing everything and anything the Donald did. Are they now eating humble pie? Not in the least. The plot to kill brown and black people and keep all of them out of the mainland will be the next fake news. And you read it here first.
This article was originally published in The Spectator magazine.
