Grown ups have finally started to tune out the #fakenews. The problem is that when a real story comes along, nobody will believe them now.
A fable…
There once was a simple shepherd boy who lived on the edge of a remote village in the hills. One day thought he saw a wolf eyeing his flock from another hillside and so he ran and ran as fast as he could to tell the adults.
The men of the village, wanting to protect their sheep, raced up the hill to the field armed with spades, broom handles and anything else they could put their hands to.
They quickly spread out but after hours of searching, they could find no wolf. Even so, the adults were grateful to the young shepherd boy for keeping a close watch and they thanked him, patted his little head and ruffled his hair.
Jake Tapper, I mean the little boy, was delighted with all the attention. Nobody had even noticed him before, let alone showed him any love.
And so, a few days later and craving the attention again Rachel Maddow, I mean the lad, once again ran breathlessly into the village crying ‘WOLF, WOLF.’
And again the grown ups all armed themselves as best they could and hunted around the area until darkness fell. But there was no wolf to be found.
The next day all the women of the village were calling out BBC’s, I mean the little boy’s, name telling him what a great job he was doing and to keep up the good work.
Naturally Kay Burley, I’m sorry, I mean the lad, like the dumb little puppy that craves a pat on the head, kept up the good work. Twice more she cried wolf and watched the adults rally to her warnings.
The following week Jim Acosta at CNN, I mean the small boy, called ‘WOLF’ three more times. And again the week after. Each time the grown ups all ran to the field to look for evidence. But the wolf was never found.
Before much longer the grown ups in the village began to realise there was no wolf and that Liberal Joe, I mean the little shepherd boy, was simply attention seeking or, in other words, telling lies.
But MSNBC kept on lying. He could feel the grown ups were, by then, ignoring his warnings and so the lies he told became bigger and bolder. Pretty soon there were two wolves and then three.
Chris Cuomo warned the villagers of this and Anderson Cooper warned them of that. The lies became bigger and bigger and still everybody ignored the media who cries wolf.
And then, one day, a pack of wolves really did turn up in the field. Once again they all sprinted off down the hill shouting ‘Wolf Wolf, and everybody simply laughed at them.
They had all stopped believing the repeated lies long before and the grown ups just waved them away and ignored the news they brought with them.
The entire Mainstream Media, I mean the little boy, was frantic and ran up and down the village street shouting ‘WOLF, WOLF. Please believe me, WOLF WOLF, come quickly.’
And not a soul in the village took any notice of them at all, however hard they shouted.
They, I mean he, couldn’t understand it. There really was a wolf this time. They all knew they had lied repeatedly in the past but this time it was true. Why wouldn’t the grown ups believe them now?
But none of the adults could be bothered to point out their own stupidity to them and, instead, just tuned them out.
Eventually they all trudged back up the hill alone and in tears. When they arrived back at the field they discovered the wolves had eaten all their advertisers, I mean sheep.
It was a disaster and it was their own fault for treating all the grown ups like idiots for so long.
And the moral of the story is simple. If you keep telling lies to attract attention and treating adults as fools, then nobody will believe it when you finally are telling the truth.
Which is something that should have been learned by the age of five-years-old.
Was anybody in the Mainstream Media paying attention when they taught Aesop’s Fables at school?
It doesn’t seem like it. -Albert Jack
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