Having been a journalist for nearly four decades, I understand that the media wants to appear to be even-handed. So American news organizations are establishing that there are equivalent issues on both sides of the presidential election campaign.
But they aren’t equivalent. They are false equivalents. Take the two big issues that the media harps on regarding Hillary Clinton–her emails and her family’s foundation:
Emails: This is the equivalent of a foot fault in the game of tennis. To establish that some grievious harm was done, her critics would have to establish that she gave away classified information to our enemies or that she somehow betrayed the confidence placed in her. None of the thousands of emails released to date has come even close to that standard.
Foundation: Washington is an open running sewer of selling contacts and information. It is the essential lubrication of a place that has grown corrupt over the years. What the Clinton Foundation did was minor league compared with some of the other heavy handed manipulations that occur. By introducing donors to people in the administration, the foundation was merely doing what everybody else in that town does. To prove that the foundation crossed the line, the critics would have to prove that a donation to the foundation resulted in a policy action by the government in favor of the donor and that someone in the administration received financial gain. Nothing close to that has emerged. People made donations and they got meetings. By Washington’s standards, that is routine.
These two accusations are not even in the same league as what Trump has done. I will cite these:
–He has refused to release any tax records. We don’t know what he’s hiding.
–He has married and divorced women solely on the basis of their appearance and then discarded two of them. He also is alleged to have engaged with other women in inappropriate ways. Why would any person of faith support that?
–His businesses have specialized in cheating and defrauding others. Trump has been involved in more than 3,000 law suits. Many of them were business deals in which he paid a contractor only part of what Trump owed them and made them go to court to get the rest.
–Trump’s remarks about Vladimir Putin are an outrage. Inviting him to hack into Democratic Party files to come up with evidence to smear Clinton is an act of national betrayal.
–Trump has offended virtually every ethnic/lifestyle group in America–Mexicans and Hispanics, Muslims, people with physical disabilities, etc. The Big Wall threat is completely laughable, particularly now that Mexicans are not coming over in nearly the same numbers as before.
–Trump does not understand how a democracy functions–he suggests he can replace generals, get even with a Mexican-American judge from the White House, and more.
–His economic advisory panel consists of corporate raiders and other near-criminals of the financial class. How can anyone believe that he will come up with economic policies that benefit the average working man or woman?
So clearly one candidate is qualified to lead the country. The other one is a dangerous buffoon who has pulled the wool over the eyes of so many people.
I submit that the media’s job is not to treat the two candidates with equivalency, but rather start speaking the truth about what should be a non-election. The longer the media plays the game of false equivalency, the greater the risks that Trump could actually win.
