“Angry man for pay” Michael Wolff is using his USA Today column to be a tendentiously dishonest man for pay. The argument: Hillary Clinton is getting a free pass from a media obsessed with Donald Trump.
Now, there’s no doubt that Trump has gotten a lot of media coverage—it benefited him enormously through the Republican primary, as you may recall—but a free pass for Clinton? Oh, yes, writes Wolff:
The result, by all appearances and polling calculations, seems to be that Clinton will walk into the White House having faced the least amount of scrutiny, criticism and antipathy of any major-party nominee in modern media history. This is the same Clinton who, after 25 years in public life, might reasonably have had a lot to answer for.
Um. About that 25 years in public life … you may recall Clinton having faced a certain amount of scrutiny throughout that time, much of it due to fake scandals created by Republicans out to get her.
And if that sounds more recently familiar, it’s because Republicans are yet again investigating Clinton, the previous round of investigations not having come up with the results they wanted. The truth is, “Clinton will walk into the White House” having faced 11 hours of questioning on Benghazi and investigation of her email, to say nothing of ridiculous false equivalences by the media. All of which is on top of a campaign in which she, unlike Trump, has offered meaningful policy proposals—ones she’s actually thought through and researched, as opposed to Trump’s “blurt out any old thing now and say the opposite 10 seconds from now” strategy.
But Wolff’s dire warning may not just be the loony claims of a minor pundit looking for attention.
Consider this quote from new Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, claiming that “Scarcity benefits Hillary Clinton. If you don’t see her, you forget she’s running, too, and you think this entire election is a referendum on Donald Trump.” Taking Conway and Wolff together, “Clinton isn’t getting the scrutiny that would be her undoing” starts to sound like the launch of a new Republican talking point. Because outrage! Clinton’s traditional campaign and detailed policy proposals aren’t getting the attention of Trump’s personal attacks and blatant lies. The deck is clearly stacked in her favor!
