The Ugly Mob Hunting Hillary

From last year, a veteran Clinton reporter reveals the way journalists cover the Clintons. The Hillary coverage has turned out exactly this way.

From the Washington Post: Trump's corruption is mind-boggling and the Clinton Foundation gets the highest ratings from charity watchdogs. Why is Hillary the focus? Why is Trump always let off the hook?

From The Observer, Hillary is dogged, fearless, untiring and hard-working for things we need to be done. Why does the media go so negative about her? With women, is great not good enough?

A commentator's observations about the Clinton Foundation witch hunt.

Plenty of witchcraft going on at the Trump Foundation but never mind. Ignore that. Go after the woman.

(The pending investigations of the Trump Foundation, reported at Fortune magazine.)

Trump is provably, palpably dangerous, irresponsible, corrupt, dishonest, irrational, etc.

The list is long. Too long to report fully, so the news media doesn’t report it.

They’re too busy looking for small things about Hillary that they can blow up into big things. (The anti-Hillary bias this past year has been extreme.) Ordinary unobjectionable qualities they can spin into flaws.

Better yet, invent things, distort things. Imply things that aren’t there. Spread rumor. Cause alarm. Throw out weird speculations and spin stories from that. Throw mud and see what sticks. Clickbait.

(I remember this kind of girl-hating/woman-hating mentality from junior high. You never saw the same kind of pack mentality targeting a boy––unless he was suspected of being gay.)

Make America angry and afraid and they’ll buy newspapers and watch cable news every hour for the next five weeks.

“There’s no smoke without fire” says the reporter with the lit match.

If you try to point out the many dangerous and evil things about Trump they shrug.

Reporters covering Trump gently and helpfully now are imagining the Pulitzers they’ll win covering his White House.

For decades Republicans have worked to make government as dysfunctional as possible. Has the news media joined them? Do they hate the idea of functioning government that does things people want and enacts policies people need? Is it too boring for them?

Is this why the drumbeat of the political press is sounding "Trump! Trump! Trump!”?

God save us from these woman haters, these haters of calm competence. They want bonfires and mob violence. They wish they were Edward R. Murrow broadcasting from London as the bombs fall. But where does that leave the rest of us? The news media set fire to our house because they want something exciting to cover.