"The media...has covered this entire election in terms of scandal"

Ace of Spades writes,

...The media -- not just the Queen Bey of Cable Newsreaders Megyn Kelly -- has covered this entire election in terms of scandal. Occasionally (grudgingly) Hillary's, and mostly Trump's.

We have not talked about issues at all.

And you know why that is, of course.

Because the Hillary Clinton campaign has decided that the issues cut against her, and she's decided to make the election exclusively a referendum on Trump.

All three of her debate performances -- with the partial exception of the Wallace debate, because Wallace permitted it less -- have been singularly focused on attack lines against Trump.

And the media never objected to this. They never offered up the criticism, "Ms. Clinton did not bother to announce her agenda or defend her resume, instead focusing singlemindedly on a memorized oral-recitation oppo dump on her rival."

Consider this: If the roles were reversed -- if it were a Republican Party currently holding the White House, and the Republican nominee had a poor record of her own, and a worse record of the current occupant of the White House to defend -- and that Republican candidate decided to ignore all policy issues and all talk about actual results to deliver a tabloidy oppo dump on her opponent at every appearance --

Would the media join this crusade and amplify it? Or would it start chattering incessantly about the "relentlessly negative, personal, and empty campaign" of the Republican candidate?

Elections are about what the media decides what they're about -- and the Democrat party decides for the media what they'll decide it's about.

In 2006, the Democrats decided the campaign was about a "Culture of Corruption," and the media dutifully parroted this theme.

In 2008, the Democrats decided the campaign was about youth, hope, optimism, and "change," and the media carried this water, or this Pepsi commercial of an "agenda."

In 2012, the Democrats decided the election was about the #WarOnWomen. For this one, former Clinton media-massaging operative George Stephanopolous actually agreed to launch the first strike.

Now, in 2016 -- rather than talking about the five wars we're in and how badly we're faring in all of them, or the 1% "growth" economy (where 2.5-3% is needed just to keep pace with population expansion),and the rigging of the FBI itself, and Obamacare blowing up like a Samsung battery made entirely of Space-Age Kerosene, and the murderers' row at the VA, and the graft and corruption, and on and on and on -- Hillary has decided that the only issue in this campaign is Trump's Moral Failings, and wouldn't you know it, the media has agreed.

Only this time, the "conservative" media has agreed as well, and isn't even bothering to talk about other issues.

Isn't it funny that every campaign is fought on the precise battlefield the Democrats have adjudged to be most advantageous for them, and every campaign cycle, the media conducts an encircling action around the Republican to guarantee he can only fight on that unfavorable field.