The media called on Hillary Clinton to hold a press conference. Trump has jumped on their call and now they are working together to attack Hillary.
On Labor Day with the inaugural flight of Hill Force One, the new Clinton Campaign plane, the media will be flying with Clinton around the country. She welcomed them on board and did a press availability on the plane responding to questions on her emails, the foundation and one on the Russian threat to interfere in our elections. She did another one the next day.
Now let's see if the press finds their way to reporting accurately on Hillary, something they have had a hard time doing. Will they now start demanding Trump let the press fly on his plane?
Mystifying about the press complaints about Hillary is there isn't anyone in America or around the world who hasn't read about, or heard about, the issues they want to question/pummel her on; her emails and the Clinton Foundation. The issues, both facts and the fiction, have been reported on by the press, and talked about ad-nauseum on both regular network and cable television programs. Hillary has answered countless questions, the same ones asked over-and-over, about these issues. She has done one-on-one interviews on FOX, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC and Univision among other outlets.
What so often happens in press conferences is the shouted questions are often from reporters who clearly don't like any answer that doesn't jibe with what they have already decided is the truth. Most recently Associated Press reporters wrote a column on the relationship between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation making assumptions based on shoddy reporting now shown to have little basis in fact. They were corrected by the Clinton campaign and others but have stuck to their story. Despite their headlines, and repeating of their reporting by other outlets, neither they nor anyone else has shown any quid-pro-quo was given by Hillary to Foundation donors. Even buried in the AP story is a line confirming Hillary didn't do anything to run afoul of the agreement the Foundation and the Obama administration made when Hillary was asked to be Secretary of State.
The only person benefitting from these hyped-up stories is Donald Trump. He gets to talk about them while the media continues to give him a pass on so many issues including not releasing his tax returns. The first day on Hillary's plane NBC's Andrea Mitchell asks an email question and then does a story about Hillary coughing as if having allergies is a major issue again allowing Trump to quote the media on a phony health issue.
The media appears to be helping a candidate who bans some of them from covering him? CNN releases a skewed poll and NBC reports unsubstantiated Clinton health issues. I can't imagine they really want to help Trump but reporting on this Presidential campaign has been so bad it can be considered criminal.
Hillary and other politicians would be more amenable to holding regular press conferences if the media indicated any desire to share with voters information on issues impacting their lives on a daily basis. Asking candidates to answer questions about their positions on education, infrastructure repairs, on fighting addiction, job creation and building the economy seems foreign to today's media.
I have written about the decline of the mainstream media. How the public now gets information on what are billed 'news' programs when what they are mostly hearing is opinion. The hosts on those shows don't bother to counter blatant lies spouted by their guests. Sunday on Meet the Press, Alex Castellanos told a blatant lie about the Clinton Foundation and Chuck Todd just moved on without correcting it. Todd has said it isn't his business to correct lies that people tell on his show. If that's true then stop calling Meet the Press a news show! It is an opinion show with no news value at all.
We have now heard from FOX host Chris Wallace who has the same idea of reporting. Wallace will moderate one of the debates and has already said when asked if he would correct obvious falsehoods "That's not my job. I do not believe that it's my job to be a truth squad. It's up to the other person to catch them on that." Where is Candy Crowley who caught Mitt Romney in a lie when we need her?
Hilary has done maybe thousands of interviews responding to questions from the press in nearly 50 years of public service. She has done hundreds since she began this Presidential Campaign. She has met with editorial boards and print reporters across the nation. Chuck Todd, when talking to VP candidate Mike Pence in an interview last Sunday did ask how the Trump campaign can call for transparency without releasing his taxes. Todd then admitted all the information on Hillary is out there already whether by her own hand or by FOIA requests and he is correct. There is more information available on Hillary to the public than there has ever been for any other person running for President.
The media seems reluctant to press Trump on anything or willing to move on to the real issues with Hillary even after she said recently on CNN "I have been asked many, many questions in the past year about emails, and what I have learned is that when I try to explain what happened, it can sound like I am trying to excuse what I did. And there are no excuses. I want people to know that the decision to have a single account was mine. I take responsibility for it. I apologize for it." The FBI and DOJ agreed there was no crime committed by Hillary. So to continue to discuss this has zero benefit to the people of the country as they decide who they want to elect as President.
It is past time for the media to press candidates on the real issues in this campaign. If they don't it says more about them then about the candidates.