“Trump’s media strategy also wiped the campaign almost completely clear of substance—which was a ground on which he didn’t want to fight. Had the Republicans nominated anybody but Trump, issues like climate change, the Afghanistan War, the South China Sea squabble, the drug war, and the future of Medicare and Social Security would have been germane to the discussion. But such is the Trump effect that these issues were barely mentioned in the three presidential debates. The snowdrift of controversy that follows Trump wherever he goes, and which the press must report on, has helped freeze out these topics in favor of discussions of his ‘character.'”
Once the media sold out for ratings
And succumbed to the obvious baiting
Of a huckster whose swill
Set him up on the Hill,
They became his prime target for hating.
© 2017 Susan E. Eckenrode