Smear Campaign

   The open impeachment hearings are under way, and Republicans called it the result of a "orchestrated smear campaign being perpetuated by the Trump-hating media."
   That's the phrase on a GOP email posting, an echo of opening remarks by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-California), who called it part of a "carefully orchestrated media smear campaign."
   As if American news media are cooperating with each other as well as with Democrats in creating and presenting negative stories about the current president. Except Fox News, of course, which as everyone knows is the only neutral presenter of straight news stories without a slant toward either liberal or conservative viewpoints.
   As if every editor of every newspaper in the nation and the world, including the wire services and all the television news operations get together every day to coordinate their coverage of every news story they use.
   Get real.
   To begin with, they don't have time to do that. Secondly, they are competitive, always trying to be first with a breaking news story if they can't be exclusive.
   Finally, and perhaps most important, calling it a "carefully orchestrated smear campaign" raises the question of who's leading the orchestration. The implication being that the Democratic Party is conducting the campaign.
   Really? What happened to the First Amendment guarantee of a free and independent press, immune from interference by any person or group?
   Constantly complaining of biased news reporting when any information negative to your cause is published only leads to sharper questions from reporters when the information is accurate and provably true.
   Nobody likes being insulted, and reporters generally ignore such criticism. But when it happens every day for months and journalists know their reports are accurate, the result is more detailed reporting of what the insulter says and does.