The Sentinel is not fake, and neither is the news we report.
Amid the dangerous, mythical and deliberate alternate reality that President Donald Trump, his regime and his supporters are trying to impose on America, the nation has one defense: the legitimate media.
Even before he was re-elected in November, Trump and his campaign turned to a strategy that has been tried and true by despots in the United States and all over the world. Trump knows how other tyrants have succeeded in their grifts by attacking and trying to undermine the messenger, this newspaper and thousands like it across the country.
Using compliant media outlets like Fox News, One America News Network, Newsmax and a growing army of social media trolls and right-wing propaganda websites, the Trump regime works to groom Americans for their own nefarious purposes.
The Trump regime has repeatedly lied about critical and trivial matters, nearly every day. The proof is irrefutable.
Trump’s most recent scheme seeks to throw doubt on just how impervious the First Amendment is, and even whether the solid foundation of the nation instilled by the Constitution — creating a nation led by a Congress and run by a president —.can exist under the tyranny of Trump.
It is a treacherous chaos that offers nothing but danger to Aurora, to Colorado, to the nation, and to the world.
Trump and complicit elected Republicans continue trying to sow doubt, distrust and hatred for the American press for the sole purpose of controlling the message and manipulating truth, reality, Congress and you. It’s a scheme so fraught with peril that the framers of the Constitution and the nation installed powerful free press rights unlike any in history.
This week, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a report saying that, under a Trump administration, a free press is “no longer a given in the United States.”
The nation’s creators had seen despotism. They knew then, just as enlightened Americans know now, that only the legitimate press can keep America free from tyranny by being allowed to keep citizens informed about what their government really does and what leaders really say.
That’s not a partisan issue. It’s an American issue.
Only an unfettered and independent media can provide the transparency and accountability needed to hold government officials accountable to their deeds and rhetoric.
Because of the provable truth the mainstream American press reveals about Trump, his supporters, collaborators in Congress and his regime, have labeled us “enemies of the people.”
It’s an old phrase and tactic strategically used by despots and dictators around the world for generations.
Trump’s rhetoric speaks loudly to a small but sizable group of Americans who are sympathetic to his message of selfishness, greed, blame, intolerance and despair.
He and some Republicans have not only ignored science, truth and pragmatism, they’ve turned their followers against it. Others now fear an intolerant and vengeful Trump and quietly follow orders.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has worked daily for weeks to undermine real science. Here in Denver, a research project determining just how successful a program is that runs positive social media messages to minority parents, who are vaccine hesitant, was canceled by the Trump administration. While much of the work was complete, and it appeared promising, the project is now unable to vet and analyze data in a way that legitimate science demands.
Real science sets out to uncover the truth and substantiate findings, whereas Kennedy and Trump officials have already made clear they look to further pseudo-scientific goals, promoting information that serves a purpose, not the truth and reality.
Now the target is all manner and levels of programs created to elevate minorities into jobs and careers that their race, their culture or their sexual preference or gender previously was used to hold them back.
Falsely claiming to end racism by ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the Trump Administration is trying to end one of the nation’s most successful efforts to address centuries of unrelenting white supremacy and bigotry.
By working to silence universities and their scientists, research advocates, businesses and even the press, Trump and his acolytes work to drag the nation back to a time even before the Civil Rights era.
The notion of a “color-blind” nation cannot come from a government steeped in bigotry and racism, banning Muslims, arresting minority students, dismissing claims of police brutality, tormenting LGBTQ+ citizens and refusing to admit or address the persistent ways that people of color in the United States are treated differently than their white counterparts.
Reporters, editors and photographers hold beliefs about politics, government, religion, culture and science as varied and disparate as everywhere else in the nation, because we are the nation. If there is one underlying motivation among every journalist that’s ever worked at Sentinel Colorado, or at newspapers like ours across the country, it’s the pursuit of justice, for everyone. Journalists are bound and driven to ensure that our work shines a light on injustices to the poor, the rich, Blacks and whites, Muslims and Catholics, atheists and zealots, victims and criminals, the right and the left.
The Sentinel, like so many other media, seeks the facts, the truth and to hold decision makers accountable to it. Journalists do this not as enemies of the people, but as advocates for the people, all of them.
While it is correct that we need the media to protect us from the many distortions that Trump puts out, it is also important that we have unbiased media to protect us from the distortions put out by the Sentinel and so many biased media. Trump, like Biden, constantly strays from the truth. Since everyone takes sides, the truth and the public good are simply ignored.
LOL, the same people who lied about COVID’s origins, reframed their narratives around the decades-old experiences on wearing masks, argued endlessly to keep schools from re-opening, deflected on data related to COVID vax injuries, claimed Hunter’s laptop was “Russian disinformation” and Biden was “sharp as a tack,” are suddenly arguing that they’re a “defense against despotism.”
No, you freaks simply don’t like your own “liberating tolerance” being given back to you. If your industry in “under threat,” it’s entirely self-inflicted. Especially when the words come from a hyper-partisan political theocrat pretending to be a “truth-seeker.”
You really must despise the adherence to ethics and honesty that normal people would like to see in their government.
It doesn’t bother you in the slightest that we have a lying, thieving crook in the White House, selling scams and gaudy bibles that look more at home in a carnival barker’s stall than at the seat of government. When he isn’t flogging crypto and making millions off of suckers like you, he’s promoting the forcible seizure of the lands and assets of other countries. No wonder he’s so enamored of Putin, another cheap crook from one of the most kleptocratic regimes ever seen, and one you seem right at home with.
That’s not MY hand in your pocket: It’s your “president’s”, the convicted felon who wouldn’t know the Constitution from a dirty joke scrawled on a bathroom wall. Assuming he can actually read either.
You’re not a good citizen, pal. You’re just another sucker where The Donald’s concerned. All you’ll have left when he’s done are bare cupboards and cheap “patriotic” souvenirs made in China.
Sad.
None of your assertions need to be taken at face value, Jeffy-poo. Your not an American, you’re the enemy.
And yes, I realize how much it upset you when the OG marxist utopia fell apart. Your side loves suppression when it benefits you, so don’t act like you’re upset about “oppression” in principle. You simply don’t like it when those you’re suppressing fight back.
Sad
The last paragraph of this editorial was completely misleading stating the Sentinel and modern media is unbiased. Ha!
In my opinion, the editor and the paper itself is the pure definition of bias. I’ve been diligently reading sometimes laughably biased one-sided stories from the Sentinel for years.
I was fortunate enough to be taught in school how to read critically to identify bias. Simply put, stretching the truth for one side’s benefit and promoting an overly one-sided view while disparaging the other side is bias. Who are we kidding? Does the Sentinel ever write anything but this? For example, I’ve yet to see the Sentinel write a story criticizing the democratic party or its leaders for decisions or actions they have taken.
I challenge the Sentinel to start writing as they state in the last paragraph of this editorial, in an unbiased way. I sincerely believe they can’t bring themselves to do it.
For example, how about a truthful unbiased story comparing how Clinton and Obama handled deportations during their administrations to current. Did everyone they deported get a hearing?
Or maybe, a story comparing government department cost cutting and firings from these previous administrations to current.
Or maybe a story on Tariffs that discusses previous democratic leaders past promotion of tariffs.
Or maybe a story about Biden’s real mental capacity when acting as president.
Let’s see it… write unbiased journalism going forward. Do it!
I think the media only shows and tells you what they want you to believe I’ve witnessed it firsthand for years so if they mislead the public they are no better than the people they try to purvey to us as the tyrants but when you don’t relay all the facts of the event to people they Make uninformed opinions because of the media and that’s just wrong and where has the media been with their voice on the budget for the past decade and how it’s helping to slowly dissolve this country.If the media did what they are supposed to be doing we’d have heard more of our government moving in the wrong direction but they go with the flow and don’t address the issues that truly have plagued our country so until they start telling the whole story instead of just badmouthing the people who are trying to reverse the direction of our country for the better they are part of the problem in this country IF you believe CNN they’d have you believe the world is FLAT! Basically whoever termed it FAKE news hit it on the head Don’t feel bad our judicial systems are very corrupt also the only way justice is served in this country anymore is if you have enough money to afford it.Say what you will this country needs a major OVERHAUL
If the media did what they are supposed to be doing we’d have heard more about our government moving in the wrong direction with the budget but they go with the flow and don’t address the issues that truly have plagued our country so until they start telling the whole story instead of just badmouthing the people who are trying to reverse the direction of our country for the better they are part of the problem in this country IF you believe CNN they’d have you believe the world is FLAT! Basically whoever termed it FAKE news hit it on the head Don’t feel bad our judicial systems are very corrupt also the only way justice is served in this country anymore is if you have enough money to afford it.Say what you will this country needs a major OVERHAUL
Mainstream media is a big part of the problem in our country they never give all the facts to the public who base their opinions on the facts there given and all facts aren’t given so they are misinformed we’ve seen this all to often over the past few decades it’s just not fair to the public and they all do it