How TV Networks Can Force Trump to Release His Tax Returns

[Bernardo de La Paz]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/how-tv-networks-can-force-trump-to-release-his-tax-returns/493214/

The media is nothing if it can’t hold a presidential candidates accountable—if newsrooms and editorialists can’t force a White House aspirant to keep a promise, uphold precedent, and address suspicions that he’s a tool of Moscow.

Journalism is a joke if we let Donald Trump slide.

And so I have an idea for CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and the three broadcast networks: Stop interviewing Trump, and stop paying his surrogates, until he releases his tax records.

Trump must be made to release his tax records because he repeatedly promised to do so; because every major presidential candidate in the modern era has done so; because Richard Nixon released his tax returns while being audited, which is Trump’s latest excuse for reneging; because voters have a right to know how much he pays in taxes and to charities; because there are credible and concerning links between Trump and the Russian government, which is suspected of hacking the Democratic National Committee computers and leaking embarrassing bits.

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I think this is an excellent essay, even though I don't think the media have enough guts to do it.

Do you?

What would happen if they did stop?

Can Democrats keep up enough pressure to force Trump to lose his law & order strategy if he doesn't release the returns?

[question everything]

1. Great idea, will never happen. It is all about ratings

and the Trump explosions during the primaries have paid well.

[FSogol]

2. We need to pressure the media to do their job. n/t

[Glamrock]

3. Now that,

ladies and gentlemen, is your true unicorns and rainbows. Chuck Turd couldn't go a day without talking about Trump. Shit, MSNBC without empty podiums and tarmacs? Who you kidding?

Honestly Bernardo, my acidity is certainly not directed at you. But seriously, what country is the author living in? Can't be here....

[uponit7771]

4. +1!!!!!!"Stop interviewing Trump, and stop paying his surrogates, until he releases his tax records"

[onenote]

5. Not a precedent I'd want set

What if the next thing they insist on demanding is something else from a Democratic candidate. They should remind people that he hasn't released them, that everyone else has. But media blackmail is not a good precedent to set.