Yes, Hillary Clinton Wrote a Book, Defended Herself and Made Money. Spare Me the Fake Outrage

Not sure you’ve heard the news, but former First Lady, New York Senator, Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has a new book coming out today entitled What Happened. And depending on the media outlets one looks to, this is either an insightful account of a historic election, or a “pass-the-buck” account that is worthy of mockery.

No other media outlet has embraced the schadenfreude of ridiculing Ms. Clinton for her loss than Fox News. Judging by the television transcription service TV Eyes, Fox News has mentioned the name “Hillary” and “book” 365 times in the past three months. By comparison, CNN has mentioned her by name 163 times, and MSNBC 245 times. Not an enormous difference, but mention searches do not account for context, and — based on programming points of view of each network —  it doesn’t take a media expert to infer how Ms. Clinton was portrayed by Fox News anchors compared to the other, more, ahem, favorable outlets.

And this isn’t something that we haven’t already observed.

Mediaite’s Justin Baragona noticed this trend in a smart opinion piece that simply asked why “Sean Hannity can’t quit Hillary?” (which outlined Hannity’s seeming obsession with Ms. Clinton.)  Fox News’ other top rated opinion programs like Fox & Friends, Tonight with Tucker Carlson and The Five have all also reveled in Clinton’s campaign loss and ridiculed her for allegedly blaming everyone else for her defeat in lieu of accepting responsibility.

In fairness, all this ridicule of the Clinton campaign isn’t a surprise as they are giving their audience what they want, which is a comfortable distraction from the dumpster fire that is also known as the Trump administration.

The best metaphor for this phenomenon that I’ve considered is that of a sports fan who would rather watch their rival lose than watch their favorite team lose in a rout. Most fans turn off the TV and move on to something else, but in this instance, Trump supporters would rather watch Hillary get beat up, and that’s where we are with much of the Trump-friendly media.

This weird bullying and beating up of the now private citizen reminds me of the classic “he’s already dead” scene from The Simpsons.  The set-up is that Homer takes on a job as a Krusty the Clown impersonator and attends the opening of a new franchise. The “Krusty Burglar” shows up ostensibly to “burgle some burgers” who Homer unwittingly destroys as he is not aware of the promotional bit. As we hear Homer pummel Krusty Burglar we see a random kid lament “Stop, stop! He’s already dead.” Watch the full scene below:

No, Hillary Clinton isn’t dead, but her political career is. So the constant mockery of a now private citizen goes from being politically relevant to just a mindless distraction designed to make viewers feel good at the expense of someone’s misery. If we were to notice this specific behavior in middle school, we’d likely say the mean kids are just coping with their own insecurities by bullying the kid who is courageous enough to be unique and speak out.

Yes, Hillary was a notably weak presidential candidate for many reasons — some of which are fair and some maybe less so. She represented the very inside-the-beltway perspective that many voters were eager to vote out, and her lack of campaigning in states like Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania suggested low energy and entitlement. And then there were her emails, money donated to the Clinton foundation, et cetera. If a GOP candidate had these sorts of issues, then Democrats would treat him or her with the very same skepticism.

But 65 Million Americans voted for her. Millions more than voted for Donald Trump. She is simply monetizing that audience by selling a book that outlines her account of her surprising general election loss.

Remember when the narrative surrounding Trump’s then likely loss was that he was going to monetize his audience with Trump TV? That was mostly viewed as a smart way to continue to make money and be relevant. What Hillary is doing with “What Happened” isn’t that different, though this is in book form. She’s cashing in on the emotional and significant financial investment she made in her campaign and telling a story many want to hear.

Trump friendly media — and the pro-Trump base of voters — are in something of a desperate need of a political enemy. The “Fake News” media narrative only goes so far, and the brewing civil war between the Trump White House and Republican establishment don’t quite meet the mark. Enter Hillary into the political state and suddenly there is a perfect target to throw darts at in much the same way a lightening rod is designed to protect others.

Even if you don’t agree with her politics…or her character…or how the Clinton Foundation appeared to take donations from foreign entities while she was Secretary of State, you cannot blame her for writing a book. It’s the American way and to criticize her for it — while giving a pass to nearly every other candidate who has done exactly the same — seems to be a pretty chauvinistic approach. Not necessarily by gender (though one could easily argue that plays a big role) but just blinded by one’s own patriotism, in this case, the anti-Hillary crew, aka Trump’s base.

When explaining this to fellow Mediaite contributor Larry O’Connor, he replied quite honestly “totally fair point” before adding (from his conservative point of view) “it’s just so much fun!”

So if you don’t like the book, then just don’t buy it or read it. But spare me the faux outrage.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.