Bernie’s Weekly Q&A (3/15)

Biden the uniter? TikTok, Bill O'Reilly, and more!

Welcome to this week’s Premium Q&A session for paying subscribers. I appreciate you all signing up and joining me.

Let’s get started:

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Mr. G., In Sports Media, some consider or title themselves writers and others consider themselves journalists. Is there a difference? Should there be a difference? —ScottyG

Any writer, Scotty, who covers news events is a journalist. And any journalist is a writer, at least to some extent — sometimes in TV a producer writes a rough draft and the correspondent edits and shapes the script in his style. So basically, there is no difference between a NON-FICTION writer and a journalist — and there’s no reason that there should be.

Like you, I've been subscribing to a "none of the above" mindset" in the voting booth during the past two presidential election cycles. Then this morning I read that Trump is hosting the dictator Viktor Orban from Hungary at Mara Lago. You say, tongue in cheek, that, "Ain't America great?" I do believe it actually is as I am sure do you. So great, in fact, that it can weather this impending storm if we do not elect an enemy of democracy to the chair. I might actually pull the D for president for the first time since 1976. What do you think? Is this a risk worth taking for those who despise Trump but love America? — Jesse B.

We have a lot in common, Jesse. The last time I voted for a Democrat for president was also in 1976 — for Jimmy Carter the first time around. But here’s where we differ: While I won’t vote for Donald Trump, a man clearly unfit to serve in the White House, neither can I bring myself to vote for Joe Biden — or any Democrat. The party no longer represents my interest. Pollsters always ask some version of: Which candidate cares most about people like you. Since my answer is neither, I know what I’ll be doing November 5. NOT voting for president (unless an interesting third-party ticket emerges).

Sure would be nice if you dug into those 91 felony counts and explained how ridiculous most of them are. You dislike [Trump] so you take them at face value and root for negative outcomes (for Trump). Bernie, you are better than that. You and I both know that the “get Trump” crowd employs an ends justify the means mentality. — Thomas C.

Thomas, I’ve written and talked on this website multiple times about which indictments I think are fair, and which ones I think are political. I’m sorry you somehow managed to miss that commentary, but since you did, here are a couple of pieces to refresh your memory (and another one where I responded to you directly about this very topic). Hope you enjoy.

Bernie and John, Bill O’Reilly has always been an arrogant SOB with a sense of over-importance. He self righteously claims to be the adult in the room, fair, and even arrogantly said he could’ve saved Fox News from that lawsuit, in that interview with you Bernie. I didn’t watch it, but his YouTube video popped up and it said “Bill judges people who hate Trump”. Is that what a real journalist would say? How can he pretend to still be a journalist and not a Trump hack? —Ed G