Here at AP, we never apply the word “distinguished” to Donald Trump, but today we have to make an exception.
Alaska, which we bought from Czar Alexander II in 1867, is one helluva a big state and it has only one Member of the US House. When stone-faced Secretary of State William Seward managed to pull the big deal off, it rounded off our strong desire to control all of North America. Only problem with all that was that Alaska became a Republican state which managed to produce the least competent vice-presidential candidate ever in 2008, which is how come John McCain lost (‘course poor John, he had to go against Barack, one of the greatest orators of the early 21st century).
Donald Trump spends 24/7 endorsing his fave Republican candidates and slamming those who are disloyal to him, which explains why, when he endorsed Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, he distinguished himself by doing it with the express condition that Donleavy NOT endorse Senator Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican Senator up for re-election next year who voted to convict him for inciting the Insurrection (https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/politics/trump-dunleavy-endorsement-murkowski/index.html).
We here at AP would be morally as well as politically wrong if we failed to mention the passing of a great Democratic statesman, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev). On December 28, he died from pancreatic cancer (nobody should get that!) at the young age of 82 (having said that, we are constrained to mention that the bench of us Dems needs quite a lot of renewal, ‘cause Pelosi and Clyburn are not exactly young). See https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/30/harry-reid-democratic-party-leader-526259.
But when Sen. Reid died, it coincided with the death of football legend John Madden, a genial enough guy in a sport that encourages concussions and makes huge amounts of money for its owners.
And the media were much more focused on Madden’s death, than on the passing of Harry Reid, a great soldier for democracy.
Media’s bad.