Bob CollinsDonald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for president. Most news organizations are running stories today saying wins in most states on Super Tuesday tomorrow will lock things up.
Over the weekend, the New York Times used its ink to document in great detail the behind-the-scenes efforts of the Republican Party to prevent him from getting the nomination en route — the establishment says — to a loss in November. It said Senate Republicans, planning their own re-elections, are considering a strategy in which they distance themselves from the party’s own nominee.
Think about that. This is a party that had four — and really, eight — years to plot a White House comeback.
Even Trump’s clumsy response to being embraced by the Ku Klux Klan isn’t slowing him down, partly because coverage of Trump remains mostly about entertainment and strategy than about substance.
Donald Trump says he couldn't hear question about KKK, blames a "very bad earpiece" https://t.co/qzcZH5MtYI pic.twitter.com/C5UoTMzip2
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) February 29, 2016
The way things are in the news media these days, leave it to a comedian to do the job.
After Oliver’s takedown of Trump, some newspapers ran stories today repeating some of his work, without mentioning their source.
Last week, Trump said if he’s elected president, he’s going to make life miserable for the nation’s newspapers, apparently singlehandedly changing the Constitution to be able to sue newsrooms that produce negative stories.
If the party leaders are wrong and Trump should win the White House, nine months from now journalists will be writing stories about how they gave him a free pass, and wondering how that was allowed to happen.
For now, however, there are dresses at the Oscars to talk about instead.
