In the golden era of studio dominance in the entertainment industry, any kind of publicity was good publicity. Today, we find Donald Trump totally dominating the daily news. Is it his skill at manipulating the media that is the cause or is it because the media can sell more copy and have more attention spent on the Donald in the headlines of cable news and therefore add to their profit picture or is it a combination of both? We shall probably never know the answer to these questions.

The worst thing that can happen to any candidate is to be ignored. Can you imagine being one of the two major candidates for president and actually you are being ignored. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is being ignored in the coverage. Is it because she is a woman? Is it because she is boring? Or is it because she is not over the top in what she says and does not have the media advantage of not selling copy and cable coverage by not being the outlandist and gosh candidate that Donald Trump is.

The second worst thing that can happen is if the media manufactures controversies when there aren’t any! Hillary Clinton’s campaign if I might paraphrase Paul Krugman’s oped today, is being Gored. The press evidently does not find it to their liking if one candidate is ahead. There is no news in that, if there is in essence no race in the so-called race for the presidency the media, the press will make up things to insure that the poll numbers are reflective of their need for ratings by making up further stories about Hillary’s email, so-called scandal and stress the wildest accusations about the Clinton Foundation to lower the poll results to their liking.

Maybe they really want Donald Trump to win! There would be ratings in that, wouldn’t there be? The new standard for journalistic standards seems to share more in common with the National Enquirer than it does with the hallowed traditions of excellent journalism. And who suffers from this lack of ethics in journalism, we do. We are dealing with serious issues in our country. We do not deserve to hear about gossip and innuendo, we want the facts and only the facts.

There is a real double standard in this campaign! Hillary is campaigning on the issues. The only problem is that unless you are in the local news media market of where she is campaigning the national media is silent on her campaign. The double standard is that the media and press point out things that have no substance to tear her down, which have no factual basis. At the same time,  Trump’s campaign dominates the airwaves as far as time on the tube is concerned, while the press turns a deaf ear to his lies. But really when the press does point out the lies, what is more important is that he dominates the airwaves. It does not matter if the press is good or bad as long as you have your name in the headlines and your opponent does not have her name present and accounted for, he wins.

Donald Trump’s whole campaign is built upon lies, but nevertheless, the media pounces on every world and syllable of the Donald, without bothering to point out the factual inaccuracies. Wallace of Fox news seems to believe that it is not the press’s job to tell the truth or point out the inaccuracies.

Imagine a world where Donald Trump is the president! His presidency would get great ratings. If he won it would be like watching a train wreck in progress, exciting but too dangerous to contemplate. Would the press like it because it would really sell what they do or would they actually get it that they have a responsibility to the public, that is far more important than ratings? It is too scary to contemplate but it is possible that he could win due to the press’s tendency to believe that they can make or break a candidate. We have a campaign that is so disgusting that many of us will be glad when it is over. It is depressing because the press has allowed the level of discourse to sink so low that we the people are getting tired and drained of any will to listen to anymore of it.  All I can say is that the press owes the citizens of this country a fair and impartial telling of the story of this campaign with equal time for each candidate. We deserve to know the truth! We deserve to have the best candidate for President win.