News media do another awful job, wasting our time in trying to call midterm elections

A voter entering the Fairmount School in Hackensack around 2 this afternoon to vote in the 2018 midterm congressional elections, as well as on county races and two ballot questions. Voting machines were set up in the cafeteria. Hackensack schools were dismissed after a half day.

A voter using a cane as he approached the doors to the Hackensack High School gymnasium, another polling place where voting machines were set up.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Nearly 2 years into the presidency of Donald J. Trump, not a single reporter has had the courage to confront him and say, "Mr. President, please stop lying to the American people."

Instead, they've covered every one of his partisan rallies, and spread his lies around the world with no fact-checking.

Then, days or weeks later, The Washington Post or New York Times thunder about all of the lies Trump has told.

Who will win?

Today is Election Day across America, and the news media have spent the past few weeks obsessing over who will win, and whether Democrats will be able to take control of the House and Senate.

Why not just wait for the results to come in after the polls close, and devote all that energy to laying out the issues instead of relentlessly focusing on politics?

Polls are notoriously inaccurate, yet their reports are filled with them, and updated every day, it seems.

Sensational ads

NBC, CBS and other networks accept the most sensational, deceptive or inaccurate campaign ads, signaling to viewers that only the bottom line matters.

It's no surprise there are so many apathetic voters in Hackensack and elsewhere across the nation.

The blame rests squarely on the news media, who seem cowed by Trump's campaign to portray them as the enemy of the people.

It's another sad day for the Fourth Estate.

Hackensack Councilman Leo Battaglia, in dark top and cap, in the Fairmount School cafeteria this afternoon.