The consensus that I read from multiple news sources was that President Joe Biden did a very good job delivering the State of the Union Address, and that 60 percent of the viewers had a favorable impression of it. Yet today I am reading that Biden didn’t get any bump in the polling after his strong performance in delivering the State of the Union Address.
I must say that I have no confidence in the polling or the media’s reporting of the presidential race. I sincerely hope that the various media outlets are not playing games just to make this critically important election a horse race and just to increase viewership and profits. Of course, that would be a travesty and a shameful abandonment of their code of ethics. Some people, myself included, believe that Fox News abandoned all professional ethical standards a long time ago.
Our country used to trust the news as reported by Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Barbara Walters and others. Today, with the advent of the internet and 24/7 news coverage, there is a virulent rush to judgment, little or no time taken to verify facts and sources — a sordid free-for-all, no holds barred.
It’s not surprising that trust in the news media has declined precipitously. And, of course, Republican operative Kellyanne Conway introduced the absurd and shameful concept of “alternative facts.”
Donald Trump and his MAGA cohorts — Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and so many more, now including Alabama U.S. Senator Katie Britt — have no regard for facts or honesty. They are incapable of shame. Their leader, Donald Trump, has shown them the way: lie, obfuscate, delay, and never, never, ever admit to your mistakes, and never apologize. Rather, turn to fundraising off your lies and misdeeds.
Not too long ago, politicians were excoriated for flip-flopping. Today, bald-faced lies are so commonplace that you can’t keep up with them.
Has the rot gone too deep? Have we become Rome? Is there anything that can bring the Republicans back to their senses and become the serious political party that they used to be?
Could you ever imagine Ike or Ronald Reagan bowing down to Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán and Kim Jong Un the way Donald Trump does? For me, it’s incomprehensible.
Perhaps our country will once again persevere. Hope springs eternal.
Dick Sheehan
Manorville
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