[nik-]

Originally Posted by New Era

Nope, that is not what I was saying at all. And that actually was their job. I was very clear in saying they failed their duties as the people's oversight to power. Prior to changes in regulation in late 80's and 90's the function of mass media was to perform an important function in our democracy. They were to be our voice to the powerful and ask the questions the general population could not. They were to access the information that we could not. They were to educate the electorate so we went to the ballot box with the knowledge that our candidates had been vetted and we knew what they stood for. They were to do so in a fair and balanced way as dictated by law. Deregulation and actions by the court eliminated the requirements on media to perform these duties and media consolidation turned the newsrooms into profit centers.



There was plenty of coverage, but little reporting. If the media did their job they would have dug deeper into Trump and shown the public he was indeed the serial liar that he was accused of being. David Fahrenthold was one of the few reporters who stuck to a story and chased it down to exhaust the facts. Sadly, no one else from the mass media was interested in facts and was more interested in promotion of the cult of personality that had become the primary focus of the election. If the mass media had bothered to follow Fahrenthold's lead and looked into Trump's taxes, Trump's admission of sexual assault, Trump's housing racial discrimination, Trump's mafia ties, Trump's ties to Russia, the Trump University scandal, Trump's use of illegal immigrant workers, Trump's abuse and refusal to pay contractors, the Trump Foundation, and on-and-on, they may have educated enough people to realize what a complete threat this guy was to our system of government and our society in general. They failed and instead allowed the guy that should have been vetted to set the agenda, frame his opponent, and own the media cycle.



People didn't have the information. The electorate deserve a large percentage of the blame for the outcome - critical thinking skills were laid to waste this cycle - but the mass media failed the electorate by not investigating and reporting on the many issues that should have ended Trump's presidential campaign.

How did everyone here on this board learn about these things? We all saw that he constantly lied, we all saw that he never released his tax returns, we all saw the sexual assault comments video, we all saw the fact that his Foundation is a sham. This wasn't because we found it out on our own. We weren't out there investigating Trump. It was all reported in the media. You're still saying the same thing. They should have done this, they should have done that. They did, it just didn't work. You can't seem to separate the execution of something with the effectiveness of it.

What it basically comes down to, in the comparison of Trump reporting to Clinton reporting it's like one kid standing under a dump truck of skittles pouring out trying to catch as many as he can, and another kid being handed a Snickers bar. Volume worked against depth.

You wanted them to pick a story because you think if they went in depth it could have sunk Trump. I disagree. If that wall of total #### that came out on him during this election didn't sway the electorate, then nothing in the stuff that came out, elaborated upon, would have. It would have literally taken evidence of him paying multiple women for abortions or murdering someone to have any effect. Not enough people cared.