Six planes containing US citizens and Afghan allies are sitting in an airport in Afghanistan, unable to take off. The State Department admitting at least 100 US citizens are stranded in the country, while Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca.) says it could be as many as 500. Over half of our Afghan friends we were supposed to get out are still trapped. Undoubtedly all the Sunday news programs would be exploding with questions of how this could happen. Newspaper Headlines demanding to know how we are getting these people out. 

Unfortunately, most media outlets had little or nothing to say on the subject. Most headlined a Supreme Court procedural vote rejecting a stay of implementing a new Texas abortion law. The court said there had to be an actual case before the court could act. It didn’t take up the merits of the case. Just saying it needed to follow a long-established procedure. The recent severe storms and wildfires also claimed a lot of space. Thousands of lives in Afghanistan, many US citizens, at-risk just weren’t that important.

On his program, George Stephanopoulos steered any conversation away from Afghanistan. Of the four Network weekly news shows, only Fox News Sunday devoted any real-time to the peril of those trapped. One of the greatest disasters in our history, and somehow it’s yesterday’s news. What’s going on? Where are the journalists?

David Ignatius is one of the Washington Post’s journalistic crown jewels. Not only a longtime columnist, but he’s also a senior editor. He’s the paper’s go-to guy on foreign affairs. So how do you excuse his recent column explaining away Biden’s Afghanistan debacle? This Harvard Summa Cum Laude graduate blindly accepts the General’s numbers for abandoning Bagram Airbase. Arguably the dumbest move in the whole fiasco.

The Top military claimed it would take 4,000 troops to protect the parameter of the sprawling base. Ignatius swallows this whole. Simple math should’ve stirred the journalist in him. With the 2,500 soldiers we had in the country, we protected Bagram and a lot more. All we had to do is maintain the already existing defense posture. Also, the base’s air power would’ve been a significant deterrent. The military’s argument is silly because we had to put 6,000 troops in to protect the awful Hamid Karzai civilian airport. Still, we lost 13 of our best, along with almost 200 civilians. All we had to do is keep our troops at Bagram until we got out the civilians.

This failure isn’t a matter of opinion; it’s math. The numbers don’t lie. The previously highly respected Ignatius had to know the Generals were giving him a bunch of bull. Yet, he and so many others have put away their journalistic skills to put a wall around a manifestly ineffectual president. They have, from the top down, become propagandists.

Geraldo Rivera on Fox’s “The Five” came up with a ridiculous analogy that Biden somehow got the Titanic safely to port because of his actions. The other four looked incredulous and quickly moved on. Geraldo’s analogy was mindless, but it got me thinking. 

What if, after hitting the Iceberg, the Captain sent 75% of his crew off the Titanic first. Then instead of women and children, whoever managed to get to a lifeboat received a place. As time ran out, the rest of the crew, less the 13 killed, along with some passengers, jumped in the last boats. The rest of the passengers went to their watery fate. With all of his crew and some passengers saved, the Captain claimed a historic success. The Headlines glowingly read, “Most Shipwreck Survivors Ever.” This banner sounds like today’s journalism to me. 

Journalists have always considered themselves part of the educated elite. After all, you have to learn to write. The highly literate have leaned left for many years. Over time they have gained control over awards in most fields. Write the error-filled 1619 project and win a Pulitzer. Turn up solid clues showing Covid came from the Wuhan Lab and, and they may never see the light of day. Even if they do, you will be attacked online and shunned in most newsrooms. Towing the left’s line looks like the best career choice.

Once you put your journalistic ethics aside in service of your politics, you only can maintain that stance. Some commentators lost journalistic objectivity over the phony Russian -Trump collusion nonsense. They joined those denying the Wuhan Lab as the likely Covid source. All skid down the slippery slope. 

They followed these missteps by building a wall around Biden to protect him from his son Hunter’s laptop information. What we do know, it could expose Joe Biden as corrupt. This myopia extends journalism’s battalions downward march. Will those in media continue as the Biden Wall or finally show some character? Will they realize the thousands of lives at risk are more important than they are? Only time will tell.