It's sad that we have to report this on the basis that it is just so rare.
On the May 11 edition of "With All Due Respect," Mark Halperin introduced the "controversy," yes, the controversy, of whether Donald Trump should be required to release his income tax returns.
Co-host John Heilemann makes what should be an obvious statement, but sadly in both-sider 'report the controversy' Halperin-land of cable news, it isn't.
Transcript via Media Matters:
JOHN HEILEMANN (HOST): I can tell you two things. One thing is that the Clinton campaign is going to try really hard to make Donald Trump pay a price for not releasing his tax returns if he doesn’t do that. And the other is that it's our job -- your job, my job, our job in the press -- to make sure that Trump does pay a price if he maintains this stance. It's ridiculous and obscene that he could ever suggest the idea given the history, the precedent here that he would not have something close to full financial disclosure for the voters to determine what is in there. And we all need to keep the pressure on him because this really is something that matters a lot.
[…]
HEILEMANN: I will just say, look this is our job. The people that make a nominee pay the price when they -- I know the bell has gone off. But when they decide to divert from what is standard practice and what is standard practice for a good reason, we must be the ones who hold his feet to the fire on this and not let him continue to prevaricate about this. And not let him talk about the audit. As Romney points out, the audit has nothing to do with this. The guy should release his taxes and we should keep forcing him and pushing him to do that until he finally does.
As we posted from Driftglass earlier today, the media sucks at journalism. Sad that now when a media personality actually asks for accountability from their own, it's newsworthy.
