Scandal Equates to More Coverage for Both Candidates

By: Zahara Pruitt
zaharapruitt@aol.com

This week proved to be a tough one for both presidential candidates, as the media heavily criticized both candidates--but for far different reasons. Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton health was brought to question and Presidential Nominee Donald Trump's visit to Flint, MI did not go as he may have hoped.

Like most other news outlets, the Washington Post posted several articles relating to Hillary Clinton's health. More specifically, the fact that she left the September 11th Commemoration Ceremony after falling ill at the event. Due to this, questions regarding Mrs. Clinton's viability as a candidate came into question. The notion of "needing a healthy president" suddenly seemed to be of the utmost importance to everyone.

I also believe that it's important that our next president is in good health standing. However, this is not the first time a presidential nominee has gotten sick during the campaign trail. In fact, it's pretty common for nominees to get sick during a time of so much travel and turmoil. John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt both fall into that category.

However, their teams dealt with their sicknesses with far less transparency. Presidential Candidate Clinton's team let everyone know that she had pneumonia. I find it somewhat funny and ironic that the general public seems to always call for more transparency from candidates and then once they finally get it, as seen in this instance, they are extremely critical.

This week, the Washington Post wrote a piece wishing everyone would move on from discussing Clinton's health already. They noted the note from her doctor attesting to her overall good health. However, even after this note was released, several media outlets still seemed to focus a lot of time discussing Clinton's pneumonia.

Trump also grabbed several headlines this week regarding his recent trip to Flint, MI. He visited Bethel Methodist Church, a predominantly African American congregation in a city still recovering from it's recent water crisis.

When Trump began to criticize Hillary and her policies while speaking at the church, he was quickly interrupted by Rev. Faith Green Timmons. You can see that here:


The Reverend stated that she "didn't invite Trump there to give a political speech, but to thank them for the work they had done in Flint."

Trump's recent agenda in trying to capture the black vote is proving to not be a success for him. His criticisms of ethnic groups early on in the primaries will not soon be forgotten nor forgiven. Trump has commented that Democratic practices has left "inner cities impoverished and dangerous."

The Washington Post was also very critical of Trump for alluding that he would release his health records earlier this week and then not doing so. During his appearance on Dr. Oz, Mr. Trump produced a letter health summary from his doctor which showed that Mr. Trump was in good overall health. However, Mr. Trump has yet to release the actual records.

So on one hand, Clinton was criticized after being extremely transparent while Trump drew criticism for not being transparent enough. Due to the scandals surrounding both candidates this week, I did begin to see more balanced coverage in the amount of stories that were produced on both candidates and their placement on the Washington Post's site and app. So if this trend were to continue, we would see that the more scandal each candidate has surrounding them, the more coverage they will inevitably receive.