The media lost?

I have insisted for years that the media controls the government. During election season, they have tremendous control over what citizens do and do not know about candidates and issues. Several over-the-top anti-Trump reports convinced me months ago that the media was going to elect Hillary Clinton.

Because of the media's antics, I had no trouble saying that Trump had the anti-media vote locked up. I also insisted that far more people trust the media enough to blindly follow their lead. As far as I was concerned ,the election was over.

I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but it's probably best if I point out some of the reasons that I became furious with the media. There were numerous statements made by Trump that were undeniably taken out of context. There were also numerous absurd opinion pieces stated as fact. For example, I read an article from the Associated Press that criticized Trump because his use of "us" and "we" was racist.

 A lot of people have criticized Trump for saying that he would support punishing women who have abortions. These comments almost always fail to recognize that he was asked about whether he would support such punishment if abortions were illegal. Essentially, his comment merely indicated that he supports the enforcement of laws. By refusing to include the original question, the media convinced many people that Trump wants to punish women despite abortions being legal.

A popular Trump criticism came from a comment he made about criminals crossing the border. He mentioned murderers and rapists. The media creatively portrayed this as an absolute for all illegal aliens. While I'm not a mind reader, I don't see how it's possible that Trump could believe that absolutely every single person breaking immigration law will automatically break far more serious laws.

More recently, Trump said that he would hire a special prosecutor to pursue legal action against Hillary. Later, he commented that she would be behind bars if he were president. Taken in context, it's clear that his comment reflected his belief that she was guilty. The media portrayed his comment as though he would act as a dictator and imprison her without a trial. If that were the case, he wouldn't need the prosecutor.

I'm trying to be overly defensive of Trump. He put his foot in his mouth almost as much as Hillary. In one instance, he praised Saddam Hussain for killing terrorists. With how casual he talks about killing, I have to wonder if he will go too far and risk the lives of innocent people. Of course, the media found another way to portray this blunder. They insisted that he liked someone who was so horrible. Personally, I think that finding a positive traits in an otherwise bad man could be considered to be a good thing, but I do wish his positive would have actually been positive.

I could go into several instances when I agreed with the media's criticism of Trump, but I really hope people can understand those kinds of concerns without me going into any detail.

Both candidates turned out to be horrible. I ended up dreading the day the media reported that their election of Hillary would be official. Unsurprisingly, I was shocked when I heard that Trump was projected to become our next president.

It appears that I wasn't completely wrong. It looks like Hillary Clinton will win the popular vote. Also, I believe Trump's voters were more energized and likely to vote. Overall, most Americans seem to be in line with the media's demands. The number of people defying the media's desires, however, was far more than I ever imagined. I was clearly wrong in that regard.

I feel far more optimistic right now than I anticipated. This isn't because Donald Trump won or Hillary Clinton lost. It's because American citizens stood up to the corrupt media. I honestly didn't know that was even possible. Just knowing that the media is not all powerful is reason to be grateful.