In political times like these it is imperative we are told how much our decision making has sucked up until this point. Seriously guys, after seventeen people ran in the Republican primary we came up with Donald Trump. What the actual f*$%? I guess Republicans felt like winning was optional this year. Then the Democrats held a pseudo-primary intended to be Hillary’s tour of America. Well at least you can legitimately say Bernie got cheated, but the point is no one else even stood a chance in the first place. So as I’ve stated, we suck. But let me tell you why it’s not your fault.
Media bias is never acceptable no matter who or for what it’s against. This goes for both top candidates, but let’s start with Donald.
During the primary his campaign did not need to worry about raising money due to the free press he received which the New York times estimated in March to be around $2 billion. Not bad for a candidate who raised less money than all primary contenders who received more than one delegate with the exception of John Kasich. This is blamed highly on his erratic nature; the Huffington Post went as far as covering him in their entertainment section. Granted no one thought he would be successful, but when someone gets $2 billion in free air-time with people laughing at his antics rather than discussing his policy, they can get out of hand as we saw and now all have to live with.
But it didn’t just stop there. Rightwing media outlets such as Breitbart began to defend him unquestionably. This led to the exodus of many journalists including former editor-at-large Ben Shapiro following their support of the Trump campaign over their own reporter, Michelle Fields, who claimed to have been assaulted by then Trump campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. As if Trump wasn’t cozy enough with Breitbart news as it was, he eventually added Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News to his staff as a chief executive. This involvement in a campaign by a news network is what led the late Andrew Breitbart to form his news network as Ben Shapiro stated in an open letter following his resignation. Furthermore, Mr. Breitbart was opposed to Donald Trump for the same reasons the “Never-Trump” members get bashed for. Any Republican should expect support from a noted conservative news source such as Breitbart in the general election, but the extent of the involvement even during the primary really takes away all credibility.
But it doesn’t just stop there (have I said that before?). The largest conservative news outlet in the country was behind Trump from the start. Primetime legend Bill O’Reilly is notably friends with the real-estate mogul. Trump and Sean Hannity have a long-term friendship as Trump now famously called out in the first debate, “ask Sean Hannity!” in his denial of his initial pro-war stance in Iraq. Hannity has long maintained he is not a journalist so his support of Trump is not alarming per se. I don’t want to attack the journalistic integrity of O’Reilly as their friendship may not have led to any advantages in news coverage. However, with the goings-on between the Trump campaign and Breitbart, it is important to point out these conflicts of interest. Then, like with Breitbart, Trump took on the former CEO of Fox News, the embattled Roger Ailes as an advisor.
These are the kind of shady events Trump tries so hard to pin on the Clinton campaign. Conservatives will say who cares, with all the attacks by the drive-by/mainstream/leftwing media he needs all the support he can get. I have no problem telling them they’re wrong. Even if this only were to occur in the general election. As a voter I want to see the candidates torn to shreds. I want to know every dirty secret they have before I fill in the box next to who I think she be the leader of the free world. Instead, as liberal outlets laughed at the campaign and conservative outlets attacked them for it, no one asked Trump about his policies which include a new entitlement program, or cared to vet him thoroughly enough to uncover his “locker room” talk with Billy Bush.
Conservatives should feel cheated by the media as a whole for their lack of adequate coverage starting during the primary season. This is why Trump isn’t your fault. Hell, if I weren’t a natural-born cynic I may have fallen into that trap as well. But to all those who didn’t see this coming, I hope you learn to do your own research or next time you could see Charlie Sheen as your nominee. After all, he was all about “winning” before Trump even used the word.
Read about Hillary Clinton media bias here.
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