About Opifaction

I am inspired to write my blog by my mother, who was a tireless fighter against abuses of power and for justice. My focus is on circumstances that reflect the existence of systemic flaws in or failures by our political institutions, judicial institutions, or news media. Such defects should be challenging to find. But, tragically, they are not.

We are missing effective checks on certain abuses of power

In theory, there are checks on abuses of power that occur within our political institutions. Those checks exist first in our governmental institutions, judicial system, and news media, and second at the ballot box. Until the Trump administration, those first checks have appeared to work, viewed collectively, concerning abuses of power within our political institutions.

Ironically, there is a practical absence of any checks, outside of the judicial system, on abuses of power that occur within the judicial system. Similarly, there is an absence of adequate checks on abuses or failures by the news media, despite the seeming diversity of the press.

Abuses and failures within the media

There is an illusion of constructive criticism of the news media coming from the political right and the “conservative” press. But there is a complete absence of self-reflection by the right-wing press, which appears to distort its coverage purposefully. The criticism by the mainstream media of such distortions by the right-wing press is tepid, at best. Moreover, the criticism of the mainstream media by the right-wing press is often dishonest and aimed at discouraging fair and honest reporting by the mainstream media.

The reporting on Justice Kavanaugh and his confirmation proceedings is an instance in which the mainstream media has failed to report honestly, competently, and fairly. That failure has benefited Republicans and political conservatives and has aided and abetted the poor reporting by the right-wing press.

This absence of honest and competent reporting about Justice Kavanaugh by the mainstream media may reflect a broader practice within the mainstream press of favoring the political right while pretending to be neutral or to support the political left. The baseless criticism of the mainstream media by the right-wing press provided cover for the reporting failure of the mainstream media, which appears to have been conscious.

Abuses of power within the judicial system

Concerning the justice system, the media does not cover judicial abuses unless the judicial system first acknowledges that the conduct exists. That approach is not functional because the judicial system is carefully structured so that its greatest flaws are not publicly exposed.

I have been led by my personal experience with judicial corruption to carefully examine the method through which the judicial system polices itself. There are multiple layers of complexity that hide the fundamental truth that, when it comes to policing itself concerning corruption, the system of judicial self-regulation is a sham.

That truth is obscured by the fact that the method for policing judicial misconduct often works just fine for instances of idiosyncratic individual judicial misconduct. But that is not the case for instances of judicial corruption, where it would threaten the reputation and self-perception of the judicial system to acknowledge the existence of the problem.

However, by failing to acknowledge the existence of corruption, the judicial system leaves the past, present, and future victims of the corrupt activity unprotected. The institutional unwillingness to forthrightly acknowledge and address corruption is far worse than the corruption itself. It reflects, not only a willingness to tolerate corruption, but a willingness to protect the corrupt actors from being publicly exposed.

The media doesn’t look for judicial corruption

There is a simple explanation of why the media is incapable or unwilling to report effectively on the existence of judicial corruption. Virtually everyone who is hired to comment as an expert on alleged judicial abuses has grown up in and has to live within the legal system. So, they are both conditioned and incentivized not to do the right thing.

They do not attempt to be brutally honest about the conduct and misconduct of judges. They implicitly give unwarranted credence to the judiciary’s system for policing itself. That faith in the judiciary’s system of self-policing is only implicit because the discussion in which it might become explicit never even occurs.

There is no evidence of the judiciary being closely scrutinized by press. You won’t find what you studiously decline to seek.   

My blogs

My series of blogs will begin by focusing on the evidence that proves Justice Kavanaugh’s guilt and will then examine the related conduct within our political institutions, media, and judiciary.