For anyone who still believes in the pink unicorn known as "liberal media bias," let me set you straight. There is no liberal media bias. The clear and unambiguous media bias, at least right now, is in favor of Donald Trump.
Take, for example, Hillary's one and only gaff: She has called half of Trump supporters "a basket full of deplorables." And for this, she is being virtually burned in effigy on CNN and - yes! - even on MSNBC, which I am watching right now as I type this, and am listening to the talking heads ripping Hillary.
As if to rub salt in the self-inflicted wound, they reported Trump's veep candidate, Mike Pence, saying, "I have never seen a candidate of a major political party speak so disparagingly of the American people."
Dude, have you MET your running mate?!
And guess how many talking heads called him out on it? That's right. None of them.
Hillary has several hundred more gaffs to go before she meets the same quota that Donald Trump has dished out. But the media seems to think that one - ONE! - gaff by Hillary means its lights out for her. While Trump gets away with gaff after gaff after gaff.
This is not bullshit. It's shit from multiple bulls. Hell, it's an entire stampede of bulls and their accompanying shit! And while this bullshit-stampede cuts a huge swath across the countryside, trampling into a bloody pulp what used to be known as journalistic integrity in this country, the public outcry is somehow lacking.
Never mind that this is the classic scandal - that a politician is in trouble for telling the buck-naked truth. Never mind that Hillary gets a cold and the media all but calls in a hearse. And never mind that Trump gets a media blackout on all his previous bullshit just because he's managed to keep his big mouth shut for an entire week. The media wrongly assumes that Hillary is a despicable person, and so reports on her despicably, reinforcing a false stereotype that 1) they first invented, and that 2) they now wrongly sustain.
The "basket of deplorables" is the media!
Why must I, with my lone, quixotic blog, be the only one to debunk the misinformation being bandied about regarding Hillary? Why must I do the media's job for it, as if I had either the time or the money to do so? Am I Ed Murrow? Am I Walter Cronkite? Am I Dan Rather? No? Then why should I have to be? And where is the modern equivalent to these giants? There really isn't one. Our generation is stuck with David Muir, who leads off his news stories with some piece of crank "native advertising," disguised as a news story. Disgusting!
When Americans travel abroad, they always ask things like, "What is it with Donald Trump?" "How can Americans actually support a guy like that?" Most Americans put in such a position have no good answer to give them. But I do.
You see, the reason why Donald Trump happened, and is still happening, is because the media doesn't give a rat's ass about reporting the news anymore. They only care about ratings. And money. And ratings. And more money. Thanks to Ronald Reagan removing the fairness doctrine, and Bill Clinton signing into law a bill which allowed networks to be monopolized by a few small corporations, freedom of the press is all but destroyed. Oh, it exists as a part of freedom of speech, and people are free to report whatever they want, but American media is now basically only three giant sauropods of high-def misinformation, and the rest of us are just gadflies by comparison. These behemoths make so much more money when people like Trump's supporters get pissed off at Hillary, and people like Hillary's supporters get pissed at Donald Trump. The more fuel gets thrown onto the fire, the more divided America gets. The more divided America gets, the more campaign money gets raised. And the more money gets raised, the more gets spent on advertising. On their networks. All of which they own.
Cha-ching!
Donald Trump happened because he's good for ratings and advertising dollars, which is good for the bottom line.
And if he wins, it will be because these media giants decided that an irresponsible Trump presidency will net them more money than a responsible Hillary one will.
In a real world, where real reporters report the real news, Hillary Clinton would be leading by 20 points, just as she nearly did two weeks ago. After all, Barry Goldwater was an utter loser, and Trump is crazier than Goldwater by a factor of ten. But the media doesn't cash in from a laugher. They don't make the big bucks when one candidate gets to do a slam-dunk. And so, at the peril of our nation and every value that we hold dear, the networks have decided to make it a photo-finish. They have decided to rip down the deserving front-runner, Hillary, even though it could cost our nation dearly if they miscalculate just a little bit, and Trump actually wins. They tear Hillary down for the same reason the caution flag comes out with ten laps to go in a NASCAR race because of a plastic bag out on the runway or some such silly shit. They don't want one driver to win by a mile and a half. They want an exciting finish, and maybe a big crash for good measure.
If they want to play chicken, why don't they just go find a goddamned train and do it the old fashioned way?
You bet half of Trump supporters are deplorables. They have made no bones about it. They have gone out of their way to show it! They've nazi-saluted Trump at his rallies, assaulted minorities at the door, sucker punched black people in the aisles, praised building a wall to keep Latinos out, and in general acted like assholes at every turn. How dare they have the nerve to act surprised at Hillary calling them out!
Fine. But what about the other half?
The other half exist because they have been lied to by the media. Yes, Hillary has baggage, but this ought not be a close race.
And if the media were doing its job, it wouldn't be.
Eric
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