It’s a hot summer here on the East Coast, and usually a newspaper columnist expects that would be a period where people are tuning out the news cycle and thinking of vacation. But this summer is an election year so people are paying attention to the news, yet my friends in mainstream media seem to not understand the English language.
Stop calling Donald Trump a political outsider. In his own words, he has “paid off politicians in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.” That is the ultimate political insider.
Some say Hillary Clinton is untrustworthy. Grow up: All politicians shade the truth or, as is now popular now, “evolve.” Ronald Reagan (arms for hostages), Richard Nixon (Watergate), and I can name at least one item for each president.
Trump lies.
Examples: Mike Pence was his first choice for vice president, Trump was the first to speak out against war with Iraq, he supports LGBT rights (but then accepts support from those who ushered in the “kill the gays” legislation in Uganda — how’s that for foreign affairs?).
Both candidates are viewed unfavorably by most Americans, but most of that flack toward Clinton is based on her “change on issues” to better her political chances of winning. This is pure sexism since no one can deny that Trump is the king of flip flopping.
The best example — which he changed his position on five times in only 48 hours — was regarding whether a woman should be punished for having an abortion. It went from yes to “the doctor should be punished” to “both parties have to be responsible,” then to “a woman needs to be clear on what she is doing” to finally the campaign stating they would no longer field any questions on this subject.
While asking for Clinton’s emails, why has no media outlet asked to view Trump’s emails dealing with his government contract? He boasts about winning the D.C. Post Office contract so let’s see his personal emails regarding that contract. As he has bragged, he gave political contributions to win contracts, which brings us to …
Pay to play. This is a term that literally translates to giving political contributions to win government contracts or approvals. Trump has stated he has done so, but has any media asked how many or which of his many government contracts were pay for play? And that brings us to …
Stick to a point until Donald Trump gives you an answer. Stop allowing him to direct your interview. That’s called journalism.
Mark Segal is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. His recently published memoir, “And Then I Danced,” is available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or at your favorite bookseller.