Where’s our quid pro quo?
Okay, mainstream media, after President Joe Biden had one bad day on the debate floor, you harassed, beleaguered, vexed and bullied him. Between the two of you, New York Times and Washington Post, you wrote fifty articles in fifteen days telling us how Biden was too slow, too befuddled, TOO OLD to continue to be President of the United States. Between the four of you, CNN, ABC, CBS and MSNBC, you never let a day go by without reminding us how terribly the President performed on that one day, what a disgrace, what an embarrassment, what a shame he was, how sad he was.
It didn’t matter that 95% of the job of President is what he does in the quietude of backroom reflection, in the careful decisions agonised over, honed and perfected with the advice of experts. It didn’t matter that Joe Biden was the most effective and frankly brilliant President in recent modern memory. It didn’t matter that Trump’s performance on the debate floor that day wasn’t just as bad as Biden’s, it was worse, it was full of lies and false promises. Even so, you had to excoriate, condemn, disdain and lambast Biden. You had to destroy him. All because he had just one bad day.
So where is it? Where the hell is our effing quid quo pro? Where are your relentless calls for Trump to resign? Where is your call for Trump to quit? Where are your reminders that Trump is too old, too befuddled?
Now that Trump was destroyed by Kamala Harris in what had to be the biggest, most lopsided, most complete destruction of an opponent in the history of debating, where are the endless harassments? Trump, who withered and shrank before Kamala’s towering condemnations. Trump who told lies Kamala caught and exposed in real time. Where are your relentless calls for him to quit? Where are your endless editorials about how, by dint of his abject failure, his embarrassingly stupid performance, he is unfit to be president? Where are your daily goddamned reminders?
Nowhere, that’s where. Oh sure, you had your light lunch at Trump’s expense. You feasted on his failure in the immediate aftermath of the debate. You reviewed his worst moments. You pointed out that, according to any rational metric, he didn’t just lose. It was a rout. It was a humiliation. Hell, even Fox News did that. We’re not blind. You’re not going to both sides that one. Even MAGA was head-slapping their pointy little red hats.
But with a little over fifty days left in the campaign it’s now going to be back to business as usual, isn’t it? You can’t keep holding Trump’s feet to the fire, can you? After all, you’ve got a horse race to run, and in order for that horse race to be successful it’s got to be exciting, it’s got to be dramatic, it’s got to be CLOSE.
So in the final analysis you’re going to give Trump what you never gave Biden. You’re going to give him a pass. Aren’t you? Because you no longer even pretend to be about both sides. You’re about being lopsided. Even Fox News abandoned the pretence of being fair and balanced. You don’t just need a close race. You need a close race ending in a Trump win. Because Trump is better than OJ, better than Monica, better even than 9/11. Trump is his own 24/7 news cycle. Trump is great for business, and business is good.
You don’t fool me, mainstream media. Sure, you’ve got a few eloquent pundits wringing their weary hands over the horrors of a Trump presidency. But you will never really unite in a single voice and finally admit what he is. He’s a conman, a liar, a rapist, a racist bastard, a make-believe candidate running for two reasons only. He’s running for his own glory and to stay out of prison. Nowhere does the welfare of the American people figure in his calculations.
He’s an illegal candidate. The Constitution says so. He’s a criminal, a jury of his peers said so. He will destroy America. He said so. We need you, mainstream media, to call him what he is and never stop. You’ve made enough money. It’s time for you to do your goddamned jobs. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.