It’s past time that the media did its job.

Have you read the federal and Georgia indictments? Answer yes or no.

If no, why not? How can you defend someone against serious criminal charges you haven’t even read?

If yes, do you think the factual allegations are correct?

If the factual allegations are not correct, how are they wrong, precisely and factually?

If the factual allegations are correct, do you believe it is acceptable to elect to the presidency a criminal who tried to steal the 2020 election? Answer yes or no.

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We can reasonably anticipate from past behavior that Republicans will try to deflect with their customary “weaponization of the justice system” claims. Or the “what about Hillary” claims. Or the “what about Hunter Biden” claims. Or any of the other deflections that they use to avoid addressing difficult truths about Donald Trump and his co-conspirators.

The media, if they were to do their jobs, would demand in the strongest terms possible that the above questions be answered and that deflections be rejected. They should ask these questions every day until they get an answer. An actual answer, not a lecture on some other topic.

The job of journalists is to report the news. Ask questions, find and report information. For reasons I don’t pretend to understand, most of the political stories I read in mainstream media and obviously slanted sources are a mix of factual reporting and opinion, speculations, implied messages, what-about-isms and other misinformation and deflection. Headlines are frequently written as click-bait when the actual story is about something else.

Ask good questions and report the answers. If the person is lying or deflecting, report facts that show that but leave the commentary out. Just like Joe Friday used to say, “just the facts, ma’am.”

Just to be clear, the same rules should apply to Democrats.