We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.

We cannot make good news out of bad practice.

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.

—Edward R. Murrow, journalist and radio news broadcaster for CBS during World War 2 and beyond—

On October 1, the New York Times released a story about Donald Trump that never should have become news. The story proclaims,

Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, records obtained by The New York Times show.

Note the word “legally” in the above statement. Even the New York Times admits Trump boke no law. Yet at the same time, it also implies he did something unethical or wrong. In fact, this was the clear intent of the story.

Campaign for Working Families president Gary Bauer noted in his daily report for Monday, October 3,

As a businessman, Donald Trump has every right to take full advantage of our tax laws. And the tax laws do allow individuals and businesses to deduct losses. This is central to almost all investment in the country.

Moreover, the New York Times knows this—it did something very similar in 2014. So did many major U.S. corporations and even Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Now, a word about illegality.

It was not illegal for the New York Times to publish this story. But Trump’s tax returns were illegally obtained by someone. Perhaps we have another IRS scandal in the making, which would not be at all surprising.

The IRS exposed the tax records of a conservative traditional marriage organization and was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. You may also recall that Joe the Plumber had his personal records exposed by vindictive state bureaucrats when he dared to expose Obama’s socialism.

Given that the Times is not accusing Trump of doing anything illegal, perhaps we should all focus on the crime that was committed and demand that the individual responsible for leaking Mr. Trump’s tax documents be held responsible.

Maurice Emmer of Aspen, Colorado noted in a letter to the editor of the Aspen Times,

My dad was a business owner. In some years he had a profit and in others he had a loss. I’m sure there was a year when he lost at least $900,000 in his business. In other years he made that money back. Income tax rates then were about 50 percent. If my dad had been taxed at 50 percent on a $900,000 profit in one year ($450,000 of tax), but got no tax relief when he lost that same amount in another year, he would have paid $450,000 of tax on absolutely no net income (a profit in one year exactly offset by another year’s loss).

Business cycles occur over many years, not just one year. It’s understood that businesses have ups and downs. Therefore, our tax code has virtually forever permitted losses in one year to offset profits in other years. This results in a tax system that taxes long term business income results.

Did The New York Times explain this aspect of our tax system to enlighten its readers? Of course not. It turned an unremarkable example of the application of long standing tax law into a political slander job on Trump. The journalism profs who trained these people should be ashamed of what they have produced.

Sadly, they apparently are not ashamed. More on this in a moment. For now, let’s note the following facts.

1. In declaring his loss on his 1995 tax return, Donald Trump acted legally, ethically, wisely, and responsibly. The tax provisions that allow Trump to do this not only benefit American businessmen and their businesses, but also their customers and their employees, who, by the way, become more likely to keep their jobs. The Trump campaign issued a statement that said in part, “ Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required.”
2. Trump has paid many millions in taxes over the years. As the Trump campaign further pointed out, “Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions.”
3. The implication that Mr. Trump acted selfishly to deduct his business loss in 1995 is slanderous and hypocritical. Do you know of any individual or business that, given the choice between two different amounts in taxes, would intentionally choose to pay the higher amount because it’s the “noble” thing to do?
4. As Gary Bauer pointed out, Hillary Clinton has benefitted from the same tax laws she is trying to smear Trump for using—and she benefitted from them as recently as 2015. This is utter hypocrisy. When it comes to ethics, Hillary Clinton has no room to talk. (Also go here and here.)
5. The verbal assaults on Trump regarding a tax return that is both legal and more than 20 years old fit the pattern of Democrat demagoguery we highlighted two and three weeks ago—a pattern involving emotional appeals and ad hominem attacks. We see both of these in Hillary Clinton’s statement at a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina and other places. She said, “If not paying taxes makes him smart, what does that make all the rest of us?”

I am not a shill for Donald Trump. He has done some things I would never try to defend, although—full disclosure—I do believe the electorate must prevent Hillary Clinton from becoming president. That said, Trump isn’t being covered fairly, and the media should be held accountable. As long ago as 2012, irrefutable evidence surfaced showing that the mainstream media marches in lockstep with establishment liberals. Moreover, we see evidence of this favoritism regularly, and it is getting more intense with each passing day. (See here, here, and here. Also, here is a report that helps explain part—not all—of the reason for liberal bias.) Is it any wonder that trust in the mainstream media has dropped to its lowest level ever—32 percent?

Truthfully, the willingness of the media to throw integrity and professionalism out the window in pursuit of a liberal agenda is to no small extent a reflection of the moral depravity in America at large. Sadly, the media are accelerating the country’s moral freefall with their lies and relentless promotion of a liberal, and in many cases anti-Christian, agenda.

What can we as Christians and other people of good will do? I have a few general suggestions.

1. Rely on and support conservative news sources.
2. Support and follow the media watchdog group Media Research Center, which operates the website newsbusters.org.
3. Become familiar with the ideological worldview underpinnings of liberalism, progressivism, and socialism. For starters, go here, here, and here. Also read Calvin Beisner’s excellent book, Social Justice: How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel. You can download a copy here.
4. Express your views whenever you have a good opportunity and platform to do so—but don’t wait for a perfect platform. A perfect platform never will exist. Don’t be ashamed to be a conservative.
5. Pray for pastors to step up to the plate and educate their congregations on truth versus error in today’s American culture.
6. Work diligently to preserve religious liberty. This includes but is not limited to supporting organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom. Actually, religious liberty and defense of innocent life are primary concerns when one thinks of a Hillary Clinton presidency. (See the first item listed in this article. Note the other items as well, for they also are of great concern).
7. Finally, pray for spiritual renewal in America, one with an emphasis on the critical need for repentance of sins, both individual and national.

As we honor God with our efforts to support and disseminate the truth, He will encourage and strengthen us to continue.

After all, if we are on God’s side, the truth is on ours.

Copyright © 2016 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.

top image: newsboy, Iowa City, 1940