Recently, I started turning on cable news during primetime again, after going many months without even turning on the TV. I had been watching news clips and videos online, but I wanted to get a longer view of what’s going on during primetime. I intend to watch CNN some nights too and I will attempt MSNBC, but MSNBC has felt like torture for years. MSNBC primetime veered off into far-left cuckoo-land a long time ago and being conservative, it’s difficult for me to sit through.
The thing that’s hard to admit for many on the right is FOX News primetime has often veered off into far-right territory too. If you’ve veered into that territory, it might feel just fine, but I expected the right to be calmer, care more about facts, study issues more. Despite there being a real need, CNN didn’t stake out some middle ground during its primetime, but turned into #Resist/anti-Trump and blabbing about what FOX News is airing.
There’s been a concerted effort among liberal media and Dems to pressure FOX news to remove Tucker Carlson off the air. I have never been a Tucker fan, even when he was on other cable news networks, but sometimes he gives voice to news or issues that I feel are important. I don’t want Tucker fired, but in this case, I wish his staff had done more research. He often plays into stories that have gained a lot of traction on right-wing online forums.
Tucker had on some journalist from Rebel News, to relate a story of the feds raiding and fining an Amish farmer, Amos Miller, in PA.
This case started in 2016, not during the Biden administration – that’s fact #1 that is wrong with Tucker’s story.
I had been following this story for a few years. The truth is this story isn’t about the feds just randomly targeting some poor Amish farmer. The case started back in 2016, stemming from an outbreak of listeria, where one man died. The CDC testing linked the likely source back to raw milk from Miller’s farm. I also read this information at a lancasteronline news site too.
From there Miller had agreed to comply with inspections, then failed to comply, tried to open another farming business under another name, tried to fire his attorneys, after listening to some “sovereign citizen” nuts, and he’s defied the court at every turn. Miller’s lawyers have tried to be removed from representing him too, once he got caught up in listening to sovereign citizen lunatics. He isn’t a victim. Here’s a Daily Beast rundown of events: Conservatives Milk Story of Amish Farm Tied to Fatal Listeria.
This Amish farmer story spreading on right-wing social media follows the same trajectory of the food facility fires hysteria. Granted, there have been many fires at food facilities, but there’s no evidence that these fires are arson or connected in some big conspiracy. And there are many other potential causes for a rash of fires from changes in work force at facilities due to the economic upheaval over the past few years, to faulty equipment or lax safety procedures at these facilities. Leaping to the conclusion that it must be some major government plot to destroy the food supply, without a shred of evidence seems premature. Yes, perhaps down the road some bigger conspiracy will be proved, but so far no one’s presented hard evidence of that. The same thing is happening with this Amish farmer case, trying to turn him into some victim of the Biden administration.
If you were to directly defy a federal court order, after agreeing to comply several times, the judge probably wouldn’t still be trying to work with you – you’d be in jail. Amish people need to abide by the food safety laws, just like everyone else who sells food. And one person died of listeria, so the federal government definitely should have jumped into action trying to trace that listeria strain back to a source, because a safe food supply matters to all of us.
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