The media's treatment of Obama and Trump

After Barack Obama was elected president, we were rocked by all kinds of scandals. Obama addressed these scandals by attacking the legitimacy. He also repeatedly pushed outright lies. Obama made it clear that he didn't run because he thought he could do a good job. He ran because he was egomaniacal. He only cared about himself. Even before the scandals, he made this clear by boasting about such things as turnout for his inauguration, which in no way measures his performance.

The media made it very clear that they were in love with Obama. They downplayed his scandals so much that a significant portion of the population believes that his presidency was scandal-free. They made it very clear that they viewed their job as protectors of the president.

After eight horrible years under Obama, the Republicans nominated the most Obama-like candidate they had. Donald Trump emerged as egomaniacal with absolutely no sense of ethics. After winning the election, he boasted about the crowd size of his inauguration, even though it was actually smaller than Obama's. We immediately saw the return of scandals. Trump defended himself against these scandals by attacking the legitimacy. Trump turned out to be so much like Obama that I honestly don't understand how anyone can like one and hate the other.

Despite their similarities, the media treated these two men very differently. In fact, I think they swung too far in the opposite direction. Instead of protecting the president, they now viewed their job as taking down the presidency. Even with legitimate scandals, the media had to invent scandals. For example, Trump played a role in getting the Koreas to speak with each other. Although there are certainly benefits to this, the media portrayed it as scandalous.

I hate how the media pandered to Obama. I also hated how far overboard they went to villainize Trump. If I had to choose between the two, I definitely prefer how the media treated Trump. The presidency has way too much power. We need scrutiny more than we need protection.