Dear Press, Give Donald J. Trump a Break Today

Inauguration Day linked to Election Day

The day after the 2016 presidential election, my daughter-in-law met my husband and me at Hobby airport in Houston, where our flight from Lubbock had just landed. She could not stop talking about the presidential election. She was energized and jubilant about the results.

“I cannot stop watching TV,” comparing, she said, coverage between networks CNN and Fox.

In spite of pundits, polls and media bias, Donald J. Trump won the presidency.

The outcome astonished everyone, including her. And me. I had convinced myself Trump could not win.

Remember this date, November 8, 2016, I thought. My dog Scout had been put to sleep on this Election Day.

Sadness, tears and thoughts of regret wound around the various reasons leading us to let Scout go.

Watching election coverage that night served as a diversion.

Now it’s time to say goodbye

Time to say goodbye to all the vitriol and vapid assertions that fuel the 24/7 news cycle. A long and winding road eventually reaches its end.

Now it’s time to inaugurate Donald J. Trump. Yet the pontificating press continues every single day and night to vilify his person and damage his prospects for uniting citizens of America.

The media did then and continues to do now what the Press is not supposed to do. Create the news rather than report it. Place side bets. Take sides.

But the more media outlets push and shove personal opinions via public platforms, calling it news, the more thinking people will push back.

To my surprise, most people I query under age 45 don’t watch the news. Or read newspapers. My daughter-in-law excepted.

Maybe it’s time to reclaim the high calling of journalism and abandon tabloid sensationalism.

Maybe it’s time to rethink the mission of the press.

At any rate, President-elect Donald J. Trump deserves a break.

At noon today, the country has a new leader.