A false narrative gave us Bush. Coupled with a double standard, it gave us Trump.
Bob Somerby, liberal critic of the liberal media, has done exhaustive work concerning the role the media played in giving us the Bush II presidency. He (along with Paul Krugman) spent the better part of late 2015 and 2016 warning us that it was happening again.
I've heard lots of press outrage over the past week over the highly speculative accusation that a Democratic president committed a felony. The press reminded us that fishing expedition investigations are antithetical to our system. Investigations must proceed from evidence.
In addition, I've heard thundering umbrage concerning the "criminal theft and publication" (Chris Matthew's words) by Wikileaks of CIA emails. We have not been treated with the breathless reportage of juicy tidbits taken out of context by the MSM.
These are just the latest instances of the application of a now entirely normalized double standard when assessing similar situations.
This week, the good people of Vermont elected an eminently qualified former Republican as the chairman of the state Democratic party. It is heartening to see that his political evolution was accepted and celebrated. Perfection was not the standard. Motives were not impugned. A flawed candidate was accepted and elected, as has been the case through our history.
It is troubling, however, that this privilege is reserved for some and denied and met with suspicion for others. Then again, there was no standard narrative to exploit in this case, no ratings to stoke, and no fun to be had by the pile on of the pundits.
http://howhegotthere.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-08-20T07%3A20%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=1
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/05/opinion/hillary-clinton-gets-gored.html?_r=0
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/opinion/how-the-clinton-trump-race-got-close.html