Oh, what a difference it makes when the news media likes or dislikes a President! Think back to just a few years ago when Barack Obama was President. Then the master of evil was al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden, the master mind that brought down the Twin Towers and thousands of deaths. An elite group, the Navy’s Seal Team 6 was dispatched to a Pakistan hideout for a secret mission. That mission was to kill or capture Osama bin Laden. The mission was a success. The team surprised bin Laden’s body guards, and he was killed in that mission. When it was confirmed he had been killed, President Obama proudly announced that he had given approval for the mission, claiming responsibility. Our nation celebrated the successful mission, giving President Obama praise for his success.

Roll things forward to recent events. While the media was focused on troop movements out of Syria, this president sent into Syria another elite team. This time, the Army Delta Force unit was tasked with removing the Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Just as happened several years ago with President Obama, President Trump announced that Baghdadi had died in the raid. However, this time instead of the media celebrating this mission, there was a far different response. A perfect example was the headline of “The Washington Post” newspaper. The first headline they published referred to Baghdadi as the “terrorist in chief.” This headline was quickly replaced with a rewritten headline that led off that he was an “austere religious scholar at the helm of the Islamic State.” No one is sure exactly why the headline was changed, but it certainly appeared that it was driven by politics. The question that one must ask is this: Was the headline changed because the editor ordered it because it sounded like President Trump had done something right, or was it because leaders of the Democrat party ordered it changed?

It probably makes no difference; they are both singing from the same hymnal. Overwhelmingly the media is in lockstep with the Democrat party. Instead of being honest brokers of the truth, they have changed to the roll of party cheerleaders. After the Post realized how political their original headline change looked, they finally decided that the final headline should be “Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48.” Still unwilling to give President Trump any credit as they had President Obama.

Interestingly, media appeared to have a love affair with Donald Trump when he was running for the Republican nomination. They immediately turned on him when it was clear he would get the nomination. It appears they helped prop up his campaign believing that Hillary Clinton would have an easier time defeating him than they would other Republican candidates. Since that date, they have shown nothing but contempt toward the president.

The media became equal partners with the Democrat party, encouraging efforts to bring down this president even before he was inaugurated. Showing their true color, they have given every anti-Trump mob coverage, no matter how silly and partisan they have been. They have jumped to attention each and every time any Democrat calls for impeachment, yet when the facts don’t bear out the claims, the media seems to no longer believe the real facts are news worthy. The perfect example was the Mueller Report. For a year and a half, the Democrats repeatedly claimed they had proof of wrongdoing by Trump. The mainstream media reported it as fact. When the report was finally released to the public, the Democrat claims proved unfounded, and the media simply dropped reporting on the Mueller Report. They never did any follow-up stories.

Now, Trump is trying to determine what happened in Ukraine in the last years of the Obama-Biden administration. Democrats have decided that the American citizens should not be allowed to know what ill-gotten gains went into the pockets of Biden’s family from Ukraine and China. In contrast, they argue President Trump should ignore the antics because Joe Biden now is trying to return to power into a position to enrich his family.

The media has got to be ashamed of the role they are playing and return to being honest brokers of news.

FRANK RUFF JR. serves as the 15th District senator in Virginia. He can be reached at Sen.Ruff@verizon.net, (434) 374-5129 or P.O. Box 332, Clarksville, VA 23927.