January 7, 2016
This is Yellow Journalism
Weeks ago, I took Hillary Clinton and
Donald Trump to task for behaving
like rude, dishonest children — she,
fibbing about Trump being used in
an ISIS recruitment video; he, using
a vulgar term to describe her 2008
defeat by President Obama.
The mainstream media is joining the
bad behavior, copacetic with “Clinton
avoiding the same kind of treatment
as Trump,” Callum Borchers informs
in his piece headlined: “Does the
media have a double standard on
Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s
embellishments?”
Short answer: Yes.
When Mrs. Clinton made her false accusation, ISIS was actually using her husband, former Pres. Bill Clinton, in a
recruitment video. Even with this man-bites-dog angle — astoundingly underreported — Borcher predicts that Hillary
will “emerge from this media brush fire unsinged” in no small part because there are “enough . . . supportive media
outlets.”
Now the Post reports that a new 51-minute “propaganda video released by the Somali-based al-Qaeda affiliate alShabab includes a clip of Trump calling on the United States to bar Muslims from entering the country . . .”
The story’s lede smears Mr. Trump with guilt by association:
Last month, The Washington Post reported that white nationalists have begun using Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump as a recruitment tool. Now, the polarizing Republican presidential front-runner has become the recruitment
fodder for another group of marginalized extremists.
The Post’s previous article found white supremacists trying to somehow glom on to, but clearly being rebuffed by,
Trump. Repeatedly associating the two is gutter journalism. Should we hold our breaths for stories about members
of the Revolutionary Communist Party favoring Clinton or Bernie Sanders?
Spare us.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
On the web at: thisIsCommonSense.com
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