So Hillary Clinton supposedly had a bad week

Here’s what happened

• Hillary was diagnosed with pneumonia

She continued to work

She went to the 9/11 memorial – it was really hot, really humid, she wasn’t feeling well, she left quietly as is appropriate on a solemn day, trying to not make the day about herself, she got light headed, got off her feet, got some water, felt better

Then her campaign explained her departure and her moment of light-headedness and was pilloried for her lack of transparency

• Hillary made a comment that said those people who are supporting Donald Trump who are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic are in a basket of deplorables – she acknowledged that her characterization that put the number of those people as roughly half of those who support Trump was wrong.

That was her bad week.

The media characterization of those two things went past ridiculous. Hillary Clinton was called out for not being transparent because it took her an entire 48 hours (less actually) to say that she had pneumonia. She was also ripped apart for saying that racists and all the rest are deplorable.

On the other hand – here is just a bit of Trump’s week

• Donald Trump lied during the Commander in Chief Forum – and so much more – there is a whole list…
• Donald Trump continues a love affair with Putin, saying that he is a better leader than our own President
• He, until today, refused to acknowledge that President Obama was born in this country, and made that a thing again this week
• He started a feud with a pastor in Flint, MI – one in which he fundamentally, well, just lied about what happened
• There was the Newsweek story about Trump’s business dealings, which included international debts, contracts, and obligations that show an overwhelming conflict of interest
• There is the continuing refusal to release his tax returns
• His son said that if his father released his taxes it would be a “huge distraction”
• His economic speech was a mess of lies and at least a $4 trillion deficit creator
• He said that he was willing to start a war if people made the wrong “gestures” around the US military
• He suggests that something “bad” would happen to Hillary Clinton if the secret service were to remove their protection
• His so-called foundation gave an illegal “pay-for-play” donation to the FL Attorney General, spent foundation funding on items for Trump himself, pay his own properties for fundraisers, hasn’t received funds from Trump since 2008 – and he accepts awards for giving other people’s money away as if it was his own

That’s just a bit.

And this was Hillary’s bad week.

The false equivalencies that the media plays up is astonishing. Trump has a litany of breathtaking awfulness. Hillary has well nothing. So they take the Republican lies and innuendo and build on them to make Hillary untrustworthy and to make her unlikable. Everything goes back to emails, the Clinton Foundation – which does an enormous amount of good around the world, and well nothing. It’s all smoke and mirrors. It is played against Trump’s actual lies, actual fraud, actual opaqueness and it’s judged as equivalent and more – Hillary is found wanting.

Have you noticed that in almost every story about Donald Trump there is mention of Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, and how she is untrustworthy?

Have you noticed that both candidates and both parties are held as somehow equal despite the differences in approach and truthfulness?

How many times have you heard the media label him as untrustworthy? How many times has he been called a liar? How many time has he been asked why people don’t like him?

When you hear something over and over again it begins to feel true – use birtherism as an example. Do you know more people question President Obama’s citizenship today than in 2008 because the question has been repeated over and over again? It’s why the “swiftboating” of John Kerry was so successful.

So when you hear about Hillary Clinton’s “Really Bad Week” you should stop and ask why? When she’s called untrustworthy when Donald Trump is the one who is always lying you should stop and ask why?

We have the power to change the narrative and we can “shame” the media into providing fair and equal coverage. Hillary Clinton is talking about the issues. She does have a strong powerful message. We need to make sure we hear it.