I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

I suppose there are many different factors which have led to the rise of Donald Trump.  For today though, I’d like to focus on the media and their mostly complicit behavior over the past six months or so.  In March, the amount of free media given to Trump was estimated to be $2 billion! That’s a staggeringly large amount of free media and blows away the amount of free media given to all other candidates.

So there’s that.  Beyond the free media however, there has also been way too much of a free pass given to Trump.  Keith Olbermann just wrote a great piece on the topic, where he compared it to the media coverage of the post 9/11-pre Iraq War coverage.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/media-goes-easy-donald-trump-898477?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%20Breaking%20News_2016-06-01%2007:00:00_awashington&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_breakingnews

I think that comparison is spot on.  The media completely let us down during that period of time.  In case you don’t remember, here is Howard Fineman on the topic.  I don’t think he went far enough.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/16/iraq-war-10th-anniversary_n_2885510.html

There were very few in the national media who had the courage to stand up to Bush/Cheney during that period and ask the tough questions.  They better not continue to make that same mistake with Trump the candidate because based on his current dealings with the press, you have to wonder what he will do to the free press if he becomes president.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/31/politics/donald-trump-veterans-announcement/

These are dangerous times.  Trump is a dangerous candidate.  We need the press to do their jobs and ask the tough questions.  It looks like they have finally started to do that.  Maybe if they had started earlier, we would not be in the position we currently find ourselves in.

Going with Thick for this one because Tull created a whole fake news story for the album, in case you were wondering…