Shock but not scandal

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos noted that the nasty guy settled lawsuits that all but admitted his university was a scam. That was all over the newspapers – for two days. That’s in contrast to Hillary Clinton’s emails being in the news for over 600 days. Sumner says this is…

Because the media still holds Donald Trump to account for nothing and no one. Trump can shock for an hour or a day, but it can’t be a scandal, because for a scandal you have to have some expectations of civil behavior. The press holds Trump to no expectations at all. He’s not just the guy who could shoot someone on 5th Avenue without losing his voters; he’s the guy who could pull that trigger knowing that the story would run, briefly, on page 11. Near the bottom. In small type.

That’s a big reason to ignore corporate media.

A couple days after the election Laura Clawson of Daily Kos wrote:

When one candidate is overwhelmingly truthful and the other candidate habitually lies, but people—not just confirmed partisans but media consumers in general—come away believing the liar is more truthful and the truthful candidate is more untrustworthy, there’s a serious problem in reporting.

And now that the media has helped the nasty guy get elected (see above) they are getting worried. They’re worried about:

* Weaker libel protections that the nasty guy has threatened when media doesn’t fawn over him.

* Less access to the White House.

* Safety, because supporters threatened them.

Now they’re worried? Their investigating and reporting is so bad they didn’t see this coming?