Media bias is a greater threat than terrorism, according to Rep. Lamar Smith. Rep. Smith heads the Media Fairness Caucus on the Hill.
The Business and Media Institute interviewed Rep. Smith about Internews, the liberal journalism group which has gotten more than $364 million in funding from the US government through the State Department and USAID. Internews also received $1.7 million from liberal billionaire George Soros.
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“I do not think the government should be funding any kind of journalism,” Smith said during the interview. “We have an independent media, or we should, independent press, freedom of speech, constitutional rights and the government should stay out of the media business.”
Smith went on to discuss the potential dangers come with a biased media. “The greatest threat we face in America is not necessarily a terrorist attack, not necessarily a recession or economic calamity. I think the greatest threat we face in America is a liberal, biased media. And the reason I think a biased media is such a great threat is because if they don’t give the American people the facts, if all they do is give the American people their opinions, then the American people don’t have the facts in which to make good decisions. And if the American people don’t have the facts on which to make good decisions we will lose our form of government, we will lose our democracy.”
Smith also stressed that the government doesn’t have its own money to spend – a notion that is often lost on those in Washington. “There is no such thing as a government dollar – there are only taxpayer dollars. These are hard earned dollars that have been acquired by and gathered by and demanded by the IRS.” In a previous interview with BMI, Smith had called the government’s funding of Internews “inexcusable and irresponsible.”
Watch highlights from the interview here:
And you can watch the full interview here:
