If not all, most will agree that presidential campaigns are far too long. Other nations do quite well with shorter campaigns. But the profit-driven, ratings conscious mainstream media, especially the broadcast network and cable outfits, love this madness.
I have long ago ceased giving any credibility to the mainstream media. As a card carrying Democrat, I am just as furious at the mainstream media as my conservative Republican friends - I think I still have some. My contempt for the media may be for different reasons than Republicans, but maybe not so different in the final analysis.
I once believed National Public Radio (NPR) to be a bright light in the broadcast industry. Full disclosure: I annually give a few bucks to Wisconsin Public Radio and to Northern Illinois Public Radio. Lately, it's still marginally better than commercial radio and television, if only because commercial media sets the bar so low.
Of late, NPR has joined the commercial media in going nuts over minutiae, making scandals out of stuff that is no scandal at all and, under the guise of "neutrality," engaging in the false equivalence of making all "scandals" equally egregious. NPR repeats the same cliches echoed by the rest of the media nitwits. All this, while neglecting issues that people care about as too boring and "wonkish."
It was bad enough, but the clinker was the frenzy over the health and stamina of the two major candidates. Who ever thought it would be a scandal to get sick? And that the media would monopolize the better part of a week with the "analytical expertise" of our over-indulged out-of-touch media celebrities over this?
Both Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump have for over a year endured physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting schedules that only the strongest, most resilient, and determined human could handle. There can be no doubt about the stamina and physical strength of either candidate.
So, wearing a formal wool suit on a hot humid day during a ceremony, Clinton has some problems with the heat. (If she had been wearing a sun dress, her opponents, with the aid of the cooperative media, would have gleefully excoriated her for being too informal.) Exhausted, it turns out that she had pneumonia.
Trump immediately jumps on that: "She is weak. She should reveal more of her medical history, and is unfit to be president."
There is nothing "fair" about political campaigns, and we expect such trashing from her opponents. But we should expect more from the ostensibly "neutral" media stars and from NPR.
But the media celebrities who see themselves as more important than the candidates they cover are furious, not because Clinton has pneumonia, but because she didn't tell them soon enough. "Left them in the dark," they claim. "Another sign that she can't be trusted," they bay at the moon and anyone who will listen.
Even NPR's frequent guest, Cokie Roberts, an intelligent woman who should know better, and agrees that the media is complicit in the Trump phenomenon, took a couple of vicious shots at Clinton over this.
Since when is it a scandal to try to work through illness, hoping that a cough, runny nose, or sore throat will go away? Except for a few goldbrickers, we have all done it. Maybe we should have stayed home, but when there is work to be done, we do it - instead of admitting that we're sick.
Yes, citizens need to be assured that candidates have the stamina to bear the weight of the most powerful, responsible and stressful job in the world. But both candidates have already proven that they have the physical stamina and endurance to handle a schedule that would crush most individuals. When Secretary of State, Clinton's travel schedule proved her stamina well before her presidential campaign.
Those who don't like Clinton will think of plenty of reasons for not voting for her. The media response was typical, like jackals, piling on whenever they sense someone is down.
I would never vote for Trump. But it has nothing to do with doubt about his physical stamina. I'm more concerned with mental and emotional factors, temperament, policy issues, and experience in dealing with domestic and world issues.
Who cares if the guy is a couple of pounds overweight and takes pills for cholesterol? Heck, it seems that the entire nation, including too many kids, is on a witch's brew of pills for every ill, real and imagined. No appetite and can't eat, too much energy and can't sit still, can't sleep, depressed? Just take another pill.
Pardon my cynicism. But absence of food has anciently been known to stimulate desire to eat. Prolonged hard physical labor creates the need, desire, and ability to sleep. Vigorous outdoor exercise away from electronic gadgets will consume a kid's excess energy. I'm no shrink but it seems there are more effective remedies for depression than taking pills. But I digress.
I'm not concerned with either candidate's physical stamina, or that they take a pill or two. It's how they react under fire in emergencies, and where they intend to take the country.
Some of us still vainly hope that our out-of-touch media celebrities and debate moderators will do their part to enable our candidates to talk in serious terms on policy, national goals, and direction. And when, and if, we get to that point, not linger on non-issues, and non-scandals. Policy issues may be seen as boring, and not good for ratings and profits of the corporate owned and controlled mainstream media. But we need to get to it.
Presidential debates, once the province of the League of Women Voters, are now profit centers, an informed public incidental to media ratings and profits.
Clinton and the mainstream media both got sick. Clinton is over it. The mainstream media is not.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
I have long ago ceased giving any credibility to the mainstream media. As a card carrying Democrat, I am just as furious at the mainstream media as my conservative Republican friends - I think I still have some. My contempt for the media may be for different reasons than Republicans, but maybe not so different in the final analysis.
I once believed National Public Radio (NPR) to be a bright light in the broadcast industry. Full disclosure: I annually give a few bucks to Wisconsin Public Radio and to Northern Illinois Public Radio. Lately, it's still marginally better than commercial radio and television, if only because commercial media sets the bar so low.
Of late, NPR has joined the commercial media in going nuts over minutiae, making scandals out of stuff that is no scandal at all and, under the guise of "neutrality," engaging in the false equivalence of making all "scandals" equally egregious. NPR repeats the same cliches echoed by the rest of the media nitwits. All this, while neglecting issues that people care about as too boring and "wonkish."
It was bad enough, but the clinker was the frenzy over the health and stamina of the two major candidates. Who ever thought it would be a scandal to get sick? And that the media would monopolize the better part of a week with the "analytical expertise" of our over-indulged out-of-touch media celebrities over this?
Both Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump have for over a year endured physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting schedules that only the strongest, most resilient, and determined human could handle. There can be no doubt about the stamina and physical strength of either candidate.
So, wearing a formal wool suit on a hot humid day during a ceremony, Clinton has some problems with the heat. (If she had been wearing a sun dress, her opponents, with the aid of the cooperative media, would have gleefully excoriated her for being too informal.) Exhausted, it turns out that she had pneumonia.
Trump immediately jumps on that: "She is weak. She should reveal more of her medical history, and is unfit to be president."
There is nothing "fair" about political campaigns, and we expect such trashing from her opponents. But we should expect more from the ostensibly "neutral" media stars and from NPR.
But the media celebrities who see themselves as more important than the candidates they cover are furious, not because Clinton has pneumonia, but because she didn't tell them soon enough. "Left them in the dark," they claim. "Another sign that she can't be trusted," they bay at the moon and anyone who will listen.
Even NPR's frequent guest, Cokie Roberts, an intelligent woman who should know better, and agrees that the media is complicit in the Trump phenomenon, took a couple of vicious shots at Clinton over this.
Since when is it a scandal to try to work through illness, hoping that a cough, runny nose, or sore throat will go away? Except for a few goldbrickers, we have all done it. Maybe we should have stayed home, but when there is work to be done, we do it - instead of admitting that we're sick.
Yes, citizens need to be assured that candidates have the stamina to bear the weight of the most powerful, responsible and stressful job in the world. But both candidates have already proven that they have the physical stamina and endurance to handle a schedule that would crush most individuals. When Secretary of State, Clinton's travel schedule proved her stamina well before her presidential campaign.
Those who don't like Clinton will think of plenty of reasons for not voting for her. The media response was typical, like jackals, piling on whenever they sense someone is down.
I would never vote for Trump. But it has nothing to do with doubt about his physical stamina. I'm more concerned with mental and emotional factors, temperament, policy issues, and experience in dealing with domestic and world issues.
Who cares if the guy is a couple of pounds overweight and takes pills for cholesterol? Heck, it seems that the entire nation, including too many kids, is on a witch's brew of pills for every ill, real and imagined. No appetite and can't eat, too much energy and can't sit still, can't sleep, depressed? Just take another pill.
Pardon my cynicism. But absence of food has anciently been known to stimulate desire to eat. Prolonged hard physical labor creates the need, desire, and ability to sleep. Vigorous outdoor exercise away from electronic gadgets will consume a kid's excess energy. I'm no shrink but it seems there are more effective remedies for depression than taking pills. But I digress.
I'm not concerned with either candidate's physical stamina, or that they take a pill or two. It's how they react under fire in emergencies, and where they intend to take the country.
Some of us still vainly hope that our out-of-touch media celebrities and debate moderators will do their part to enable our candidates to talk in serious terms on policy, national goals, and direction. And when, and if, we get to that point, not linger on non-issues, and non-scandals. Policy issues may be seen as boring, and not good for ratings and profits of the corporate owned and controlled mainstream media. But we need to get to it.
Presidential debates, once the province of the League of Women Voters, are now profit centers, an informed public incidental to media ratings and profits.
Clinton and the mainstream media both got sick. Clinton is over it. The mainstream media is not.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
