“If average voters turned on the TV for five minutes this week,” writes Kimberly Strassel in The Wall Street Journal, “chances are they know that Donald Trump made lewd remarks a decade ago and now stands accused of groping women.
“But even if average voters had the TV on 24/7, they still probably haven’t heard the news about Hillary Clinton: That the nation now has proof of pretty much everything she has been accused of.”
Strassel goes on to list some of Mrs. Clinton’s less desirable traits, such as being “someone who constantly changes her position to maximize political gain” and who maintains two positions — one public, one private — on a host of issues: on banks; on the wealthy; two on borders; on energy.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
But, alas, Strassel concludes:
Voters might not know any of this, because while both presidential candidates have plenty to answer for, the press has focused solely on taking out Mr. Trump. And the press is doing a diligent job of it.
So exactly how bad is it? Fox News Channel’s “The Five” did an analysis and found that the three major news networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — in the past several days have devoted on average 9 minute to allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump and between 0 and 30 seconds on WikiLeaks.
If you were to ask the networks, they would probably tell you that little has changed. Back during the primaries, Donald Trump’s unorthodoxy as a candidate made him a ratings magnet, and coverage of him was wall-to-wall. The same, they would argue, obtains now. But does it?
Some of the revelations about Hillary Clinton that have emerged from the release of hacked emails have the potential to utterly destroy a run for the presidency. In one of the emails sent by Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta, there is an open acknowledgment that the Democratic nominee “hates everyday Americans.” Another bombshell suggests strongly that Hillary’s coming out against Keystone XL was a totally calculated move. Then there is the granddaddy of email smoking guns, which reveals a Democratic strategist’s mortal fear that Hillary would have to run against a candidate other than Donald Trump.
Which is where the MSM figures into all of this. During the primaries, they gave The Donald the time and publicity he needed to become the GOP’s nominee for president. Now they are giving him the rope he and his detractors need to hang him, while giving Hillary Clinton a pass and, ultimately, they hope, the White House.
