Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Five Simple Rules

If you’re going to write about politics in America, you’re going to have to know how to write about the Clintons.  Jonathan Allen at Vox lays out the ground rules.

The Clinton rules are driven by reporters’ and editors’ desire to score the ultimate prize in contemporary journalism: the scoop that brings down Hillary Clinton and her family’s political empire. At least in that way, Republicans and the media have a common interest.

[…]

1) Everything, no matter how ludicrous-sounding, is worthy of a full investigation by federal agencies, Congress, the “vast right-wing conspiracy,” and mainstream media outlets

2) Every allegation, no matter how ludicrous, is believable until it can be proven completely and utterly false. And even then, it keeps a life of its own in the conservative media world.

3) The media assumes that Clinton is acting in bad faith until there’s hard evidence otherwise.

4) Everything is newsworthy because the Clintons are the equivalent of America’s royal family

5) Everything she does is fake and calculated for maximum political benefit

None of these apply to anyone else, especially the Republicans, because if they did, the only viable candidates left in the GOP ranks would be George Pataki and Ben Carson’s cat.

I actually think the Clintons show remarkable restraint when dealing with the press.  If it was me, I wouldn’t have used a rope line to hold them back, I’d use a cattle prod.