Four years ago showcased just how tough 2016 really was going to be.

[Drunken Irishman]

Clinton had pneumonia. She got sick. She fainted. After a bit of downtime at her daughter's apartment, she was seen looking much better later that day.

The media storm that followed was atrocious.

Every outlet questioned her fitness and health. Many in the media even attempted to diagnose her leading to Dr. Drew eventually being fired for foolishly speculating about her health based on a letter from her doctor. It was an insane moment played up so extensively by the media that I actually think that led to her defeat in November. Just crippling double standard news stories that normalized, or drowned out, all the bullshit Trump was doing.

Watching the media's narrative play out in those subsequent days after her fainting really freaked me out...I think that was the first time in the entire campaign that I actually thought Trump might win because of how god-awful our media was in handling the candidates. Sure enough...

It's insane just how poorly the media did their job four years ago. It's why I have no sympathy for Trump when the media pounces on him daily like they did Hillary because they gave him such a pass four years ago. Hell, even now they still do but it's nice to see that the negative stories aren't drown out by bullshit like in 2016.

If there's been one positive about this pandemic, it's that it has given the media less opportunity to scrutinize every little thing Biden & Harris say or do on the campaign trail, which seems to allow for more opportunity to do it toward Trump.

[Claustrum]

1. to be fair, we scrutinized a lot out of Trump's water drinking and walking down the ramp incidents

I think the media is scrutinizing less on Biden and Harris because there is multiple stories centering on Trump daily.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. I kinda spoke to that...

...why I don't have sympathy for Trump with those attacks especially after he mocked Hillary shortly after for fainting. It's all fair game now.

[Claustrum]

3. Don't get me wrong. I have no sympathy for Trump either.

But I think it's fair game for those scrutiny whether it's toward Hillary or Trump. It was definitely an unfortunate incident happened at the wrong time in public for Hillary. As a presidential candidate, health, mental fitness, character, etc are all part of the selection process and deserve scrutiny, at least that's how I see it.

[Drunken Irishman]

5. Scrutiny is one thing. The media went completely ape-shit over it.

Far more than they ever did Trump's failure to lift a glass of water or even his inability to walk down a ramp. It dominated the news for a week-plus. I get it was a serious event but they really played it up like she had stroked out or something.

[DarthDem]

4. Agree With Every Word

The media is complicit in the outcome of both the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections. In each case, everything that the Democrat did (no matter how meaningless or trivial) was scrutinized and criticized (and typically mocked) endlessly, while the Republican got a free pass on everything that he did.

That has been difficult for the media to repeat this time around because Mr. Trump has a record - and a terrible one - to be examined; he has treated the media with contempt, which is the biggest no-no for the national media's sympathies; and Joe Biden is very difficult to make into a bad guy. The media hasn't really even tried to do so, and the Trump campaign has completely failed to do so.