Published on GilroyLife.com on May 31, 2019

Editor’s Note: An email was sent to us by Gilroy resident Alan Viarengo in response to a guest column written by Gilroy Life Publisher Marty Cheek in the May 29, 2019 issue. The guest column had the headline “If we lose our free press, we lose our freedoms — and we lose our nation.” Mr. Viarengo requested us to publish his response. We publish it online without any editing.If you wish to read the original guest column that prompted his response, please click HERE to go to the webpage.

Image result for Alan Viarengo Gilroy

Alan Viarengo

Dear Gilroy Life:

 This letter is in response to Marty Cheek’s May 29 article claiming that freedom of the press is being “threatened by those in political power.”  I will begin by agreeing with his concluding statement that we must not lose our freedoms; I am a huge fan of all the Amendments, particularly the Second and the First. I also hold Julian Assange to hero status.  Journalists should not have to reveal their sources, and neither should anyone else; no special rights for reporters (and no special gambling rights for ethnic groups, but that’s another topic).

Cheek goes on to talk about the atrocity against Bryan Carmody; I do not find it ironic that this happened in San Francisco, the bluest of the political blue (socialist). I hope he wins a huge lawsuit against every law-enforcement agency involved in that raid! Make it know, and let the contempt grow (a special barb for local Judges Brock and Shapiro, from yours-truly).

So why do Cheek and his fellow writers feel “threatened” (boo hoo hoo)? To most, it’s due to actions like those against Carmody; they need to learn some good, healthy contempt for authority. Could it also be because we finally have a real leader who is calling out what many of us have known for decades – that the televised (fake) news pick and choose what they want us to see?

Most of the major news groups are political. The local major Bay Area “News” paper Group has for the 42 years I have been reading it been nothing but a political rag. They pick and choose the stories that fit their agenda. They drone out about “diversity,” but have never had one local right-wing writer.

News agencies try to sell stories, and they write what they can sell; only the ignorant do not see through it. My favorite recent example was that of how CNN (the most fake of the fake news) showed Nick Sandmann, a student wearing a MAGA cap, telling an American Indian, Nathan Phillips, “Build the Wall.” They conveniently left out the part how a speaker in Phillips’ group launched a bigoted attack on Catholics when Sandmann’s group arrived, calling the mostly white youngsters “crackers,” and how Phillips banged his drum in Sandmann’s face.

Make America Great Again (and Keep America Great in 2020)!

-Alan Viarengo, Gilroy

408-843-8819

Guest Column