​In recent days, as the Democratic field grows exponentially each day, we’ve seen a return to 2016 coverage by the media: Trump takes over every news cycle with new crazy, Bernie is in the lead, Buttigeig speaks eight languages, Elizabeth Warren’s unlikable, Kamala Harris is too hard, Amy Klobucher is too mean, ranch dressing, fried chicken, infer vs implied! Are the women ready? Too emotional? That’s almost sounds like a joke considering who we have in the Oval Office right now.

I saw a headline just this morning that Trump had a new nickname for Pete Buttigeig. How is that a headline for a news organization? Four reporters covered this story for the “news” organization! Have we learned nothing in the last two years?

Not to  mention that news anchors and pundits continue to drown us in whataboutism, false equivalency, and but both sides.

Anyone who’s watched Mitch McConnell for the last decade can also see how far we’ve sunk and how we got here. The press has allowed its takeover by bad actors, loud voices, giving credence to not only nonsense, but lies and asking the rest of us to respond. Headlines are misleading, copywriters afraid of offending the 30% of Americans who answer the polls while ignoring the rest of us; the actual majority. As the country progresses and grows and naturally moves left, the press insists on the opposite.

No one, and I mean NO ONE should be listening to Kellyanne Conway.

The Democrats are not in disarray and Biden, Bernie, Beto, and Buttigeig aren’t leading anything. It’s too early for that nonsense.

We went from Nellie Bly to Walter Cronkite to Woodward & Bernstein to what? Fox & Friends? The New York Times exposes the Trump family’s tax fraud. Judge [Trump] Barry “retires” and nothing follows?! The Washington Post reveals Mueller’s letter contradicting Barr’s sworn testimony and the press describes the Democrats as the ones having trouble? What is going on here? One week ago was Press Freedom Day (you can visit my blog post from that day). Is the press free? For how much longer? This past Thursday, in “celebration” the Trump White House cancelled press passes from the White House Press Corps. They reinstated some through an “exception process” which can be revoked for any reason, but not for Dana Milbank and Jonathon Capehart, two well-known and long time political writers.

The press secretary doesn’t even give briefings and hasn’t for a long time. She holds court and delivers sound bites. If she does allow questions, her answers, nine times out of ten are lies.

This is not a free press. This is the first step towards a state run press (like they have on Fox News). We cannot allow this to happen.

Elizabeth Warren is laying out policy after policy and Time magazine is doing a fluff piece on Mayor Pete and his husband. Vanity Fair is on vacation with Beto and family.

Where are the in depth looks at Kamala Harris? Where are the deep dives into the policy differences of the candidates? Why is no one talking about Russia? Why are we allowing this corrupt Administration to suck away all the oxygen? And then charge us to get it back so we  can breathe?

We let the Republicans set the narrative. We respond to their lies as if they are holding a reasonable position. They are not. We continue to allow Mitch McConnell to run roughshod through the Constitution, blocking President Obama at every turn when he was President while today making deals with the Devil to push his partisan agenda through the courts, gaslighting and declaring revisionist history along the way. Why aren’t the media calling his lies out? I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t witnessed it in real time.

When will we do something about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? Is he last week’s news? We heard more about Al Franken than Roy Moore. The press does not hold Republicans accountable. They accept whatever they say as fact and continually beat down the Democrats. I’m exhausted from it.

Stake your claim: Pundit? Or journalist? Political entertainment? Administration stan? Or protector of what our country stands for?

We need the press to do its job. They’re not stenographers. They’re not part of the Administration. They represent the very FIRST amendment in our Bill of Rights.

free speech

free press

free assembly

They can be impartial. They can be non partisan, but they must, must, MUST fight. For their rights. For our rights.