Meet the Press The hustlers, hucksters, hacks, and cowards who helped elect Donald Trump

[seaglass]

This is long but a great read:

https://washingtonspectator.org/press-trump-perlstein/
December 6, 2016

By Rick Perlstein

I was curious, so I did a bit of research on theories about why great civilizations fall. Some scholars point to the danger of overextended militaries, others on overwhelmed bureaucracies. Sometimes the key factor is declines in public health, often caused by agricultural crises. Political corruption is another contender, as are inflated currencies, technological inferiority, court intrigue, rivals taking control of key transportation routes, or an overreliance on slave labor. Others point to changes in climate, geographic advantages won and lost, or the ever-popular invasion by barbarian hordes.

None I could find, however, mentioned what may become future historians’ most convincing explanation for America’s fall, should Donald Trump end up her author and finisher: bad journalism.
...
Trump boogied his way to Pennsylvania Avenue to the tune of the extraordinary finding by a Washington Post-ABC News poll that “corruption in government” was listed by 17 percent of voters as the most important issue in the presidential election, second only to the economy, and ahead of terrorism and health care—and that voters trusted Trump over Clinton to be better on the issue by a margin of 48 to 39 percent, her worst deficit on any issue. This is the part of my article where rhetorical conventions demand I provide a thumbnail sketch of all the reasons why it’s factually absurd that anyone would believe that Donald Trump is less corrupt than Hillary Clinton. I have better things to do with my time than belabor the obvious.
...
Click the link. Print it out. Seal between two six-inch thick plates of Lexan glass and bury it 50 feet deep in a lead-lined bunker. Future archaeologists are going to need it. It will help them explain how a once-great civilization fell.

[COLGATE4]

1. Great read, depressing beyond belief. nt

[Dem2]

2. I couldn't read it

Too disgusted - this is a dark time in our history - we'll be lucky if we survive this.

[Ninga]

3. We need Media Whores On Line to return. ;( nt

[lindysalsagal]

4. Not sure I'm buying it. The public knew he was a liar and swindler

and voted against Hillary anyway.

You can try to make the case that the media taught people to hate Hillary, but honestly, they already did.

Add that to the loss of manufacturing/iron/coal jobs, and voila: They'll vote for anything.

[kacekwl]

5. The reason they already did

hate her was mostly due to the national inquire style of journalism we enjoy in the country.