printRepublicans—blind followers of the Big Man—often lack even an elementary idea of what’s ethical and what’s not. Take the fact that former daytime talk show host Geraldo Rivera is a bosom buddy of Sean Hannity. The fact of the two’s friendship makes a mockery out of their canned TV “debates.” Differently put, it’s intellectually dishonest to rotate your friends on your opinion show. You shouldn’t hire your friends.
A talker should feature interesting, independent opinion and avoid in-house hires. You could say Geraldo Rivera is a Hannity friend with benefits. Responses to this no-brainer on social media tell me that people no longer grasp elementary ethics.
Ethical practices entail keeping your (journalistic) work and friendships APART—just as you should keep your wife out of the office of the president (Mugabe) and your kids out of the White House (Trump). Avoiding conflicts of interest, and the commitment to intellectual honesty implicit in your relationship with your audience (Hannity’s): These were once understood by people. I think the populace is too dumbed-down and consequently corrupted to have a feel for these finer points.
Certainly when it comes to their guy, Trump (or Bush) voters lack a basic sense of what’s ethical and what’s not. This ethical ignorance and hyper-partisanship guarantees voters will be powerless to detect transgressions in their candidate or collect on campaign promises.