It’s 14 days before we know whether the world ends as we know it, or if we’re going to war. Common sense tells us that if you don’t know everything the presidential candidates stand for, stand against and ate for breakfast then you are doing it wrong. But that’s not really true, is it?
We don’t know, for example, how Clinton plans to create a no-fly zone over Syria without starting “conflicts,” “skirmishes,” or “WW3” with Russia. We don’t know how she plans on working with a Congress that thinks she should be in prison. We don’t know how Clinton is going to change the establishment when she is the beacon for establishment politics.
We don’t know what Trump will decide to do next for, well, anything. But that’s beside the point. He’s not likely to become the next president, as the polling in key states and most of the press seems to think, then why are we still talking about his campaign strategy as though it matters?
If you watch CNN or listen to NPR, then you know how much they bend over backwards to protect Clinton from scandal. Every mention of Clinton’s emails come with a warning that you may be listening to Russian propaganda. People who do wrong under her, for example her campaign staff, do not represent her wrongs—although presidential appointments are a key aspect of the presidency.
The fear of a President Trump has driven the media to be more adversarial, which is not a bad thing except it’s in the direction toward Trump and away from the direction of the most likely candidate.
Yes, this election is particularly important, and yes the opposing candidate is more candid then we expected, even if the policy is not so different. But every election is important.
In 2020 when Ted Cruz or Tim Kaine run for president, people will say the same thing. Abortion rights will be on the ballot. Gun rights will be on the ballot. Gay rights will be on the ballot. Everything will be on the ballot because everything is always on the ballot. That’s the point of a ballot.
Maybe this election will serve as a reminder that elections matter and they shape our society.
But we also need to remember that the media is supposed to be adversarial to all candidates. Not just the ones who scare us the most or who can spew the most outlandish remarks. Public pressure is one of the strongest tools that can determine how a candidate will behave, and when you focus too much on one candidate you ease the pressure off the other candidates.
Mass media has been patting itself on the back for their excellent coverage of Trump, his history, his failures, his speeches, etc. But the media has utterly failed at covering Clinton’s past beyond the points the Republican Party has raised. They covered Clinton by what the GOP said and called it objective reporting. Clinton is not just about emails, Benghazi and Bill’s infidelity.
What about her involvement in Haiti, what about her fracking advocacy, the coup in Honduras?
But it’s too late now, she’s going to become president and she never had to address any of these issues. Both because Trump is not sophisticated enough to defeat a weak candidate, and because the individuals who make up the media feared Trump so much that they collectively decided not to pursue Clinton’s own checkered past.
