On the Media #2 "After the Facts"

The first segment in After the Facts is titled "Why Don't People Trust Hillary Clinton?" This was very interesting to me because of its relevancy; so many people, regardless of political beliefs, have a very difficult time trusting Hillary Clinton. Hillary has a relatively shady past so it is understandable why many critics are concerned with Hillary's honesty, ethics, and decision-making. I will be honest, I don't particularly like or trust Hillary Clinton. I tried to keep this as biased and factual as possible but I used my opinions to help understand why other people may feel similarly.

National political correspondent for the Washington Post, Karen Tumulty, talks in this segment about some of the reasons people don't trust Hillary. Tumulty blames Clinton's untrustworthiness on partially on her "inherent tendency towards secrecy" and explains how it is part of her independent and private personality. In a "Meet the Press" interview on July 3, 2016, Hillary said, "the reason I sometimes sound careful with my words isn't that I'm hiding something, it's just that I'm careful with my words." This backs up the explanation that maybe thats just how she is--maybe seeming shady is just part of who she is or it could be attributed to her long history working in politics and constantly being in the public eye. This theory could very well be true; however, in combination with the questionable situations she's been in, it would be almost naive (in my opinion) to accept this explanation.

The situations I keep alluding to are the classic ones that everyone calls out: the email scandal and terrorist attacks on American's in Benghazi. I kept hearing about these situations but I didn't really know much about them until a couple weeks ago when I decided to do some research for myself on the topics. I read the information released by the FBI on the email investigation. It seemed clear to me that Hillary was being very reckless with such classified information. She blamed a lot of her questionable actions on her lack of proper training when she took the position of Secretary of State. When dealing with classified information, she never thought to ask anyone or research to make sure she was following proper protocol? If she is president and does something wrong, who is she going to blame? President Obama? Hillary has discussed in interviews why she believes people do not trust her, "you know you hear 25 years worth of wild accusations, anyone could start to wonder," Clinton said. "Political opponents and conspiracy theorists have accused me of every crime in the book," she said. "None of it's true, never has been," but it also never goes away, Clinton said.  Yes, she has had some 'wild accusations' against her, but being investigated twice by the FBI in the past 5 years is more than enough to make someone 'start to wonder.'

Regardless of if Hillary is innocent or crooked, her behavior and reaction to accusations is enough for people to question her trustworthiness and ability to run the country. I do not think it is possible for her to ever change that perception of her in the eyes of many people. The media, particularly social media, is very powerful and will fuel the vicious cycle of hate towards Hillary Clinton. There will always be people who feel angst towards her and those people often use media in the form of articles, Facebook posts, memes, etc. to voice their opinions. Then, people who feel similarly will share it and anyone who sees it will be influenced and affected by it in one way or another.

Here are some examples of the ridiculous Hillary memes being shared on the internet. Enjoy.