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Keller @ Large: Do You Want Blissful Ignorance Or The Truth?

BOSTON (CBS) - It's the oldest trick in the political playbook - when things aren't going your way, or there's a story out there you want to deflect attention from, there's one sure way to change the subject and invite universal approval from the audience - demonize the media!

Donald Trump is a master at this, although he's far from the only offender. You don't have to follow the campaign for very long before you'll hear Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders using the same tactic.

Trump's tantrum Tuesday after he finally, after months of media pestering, accounted for the millions in donations he claimed to have raised for veterans groups back in January, was a classic of the genre.

Reporters working the story, he said, were "dishonest" and "sleazy." The details of his charitable donations, touted repeatedly as a selling point of his candidacy, were no one else's business, he claimed, and "the press should be ashamed of themselves" for holding him accountable.

This line of defense fits neatly with deteriorating public perceptions of the media, I get that. But while I understand the anger people feel toward the press when we get facts wrong or display obvious bias, that doesn't justify what Trump and the rest do.

Would it be ok with you if a major-party nominee for president claimed to have raised money for charity that actually hadn't been raised yet?

Shall the questioning of Clinton's email practices be left for federal investigators, the details shielded from public view, perhaps forever?

Would you rather live in blissful ignorance about the foibles of the powerful, or would you prefer to know the truth?

I vote for the truth. What about you?

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