From Politico, prognosticating about how tonight’s debate might go: “Both men struggle at times to hide their tempers, and with plenty of bad blood between the two of them — stemming in large part from Vance’s attacks on Walz’s military record and Walz’s crusade to label Vance as “weird” — don’t be surprised if things turn personal.”
That’s clever—biased, insidious, but clever.
Walz has been dishonest about his military record. That is a matter of record, and pointing it out to a public that knows nothing about Walz’s past and character isn’t “personal.” Calling an opponent “weird,” however, is pure ad hominem, and a personal attack by definition. (Interesting that the self-labelled “public school teacher” wields schoolyard-style insults. I thought teachers were supposed to explain why such jibes are wrong.)
So we have Politico, a Democratic propaganda news site, engaging in false equivalence to validate Walz’s cheap tactic (admittedly, one favored by Donald Trump) while minimizing Walz’s very real misrepresentation of his military record.
The news media deserves to be rejected, foiled, mocked and crushed by this election. Their efforts to rig it are so transparent. It is an ongoing assault on democracy and a betrayal of the public.
Ethics Alarms 