Friday letters: Media gin up fake controversy to attack Trump

The controversy over Donald Trump’s debate response to the question about the election results is nothing more than a contrived media distraction from the effective compelling points he made. Shamefully, FOX News is going along with the mainstream media’s diversion. Feel assured it was predetermined that if Trump had a good debate performance, a distraction from policy issues would need to be manufactured.

No, Trump did not respond as clearly and as eloquently as he could have. But challenging or considering challenging the initial election results in our country is not unusual. Richard Nixon seriously considered challenging the results against John F. Kennedy in 1960, Al Gore did challenge the election results against George W. Bush in 2000, and John Kerry seriously considered challenging the election results against Bush in 2004. And challenges are not terribly unusual in Senate & House races either.

If the discussion is public policy issues, Trump wins. It’s high time for the media to report on what truly impacts the lives of everyday Americans. And it’s time for everyday Americans to be much more offended by what Hillary Clinton had done than by what Donald Trump has said.

James L. Pollack, Near North Side

An abuse of family leave time

Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times reported Thursday that half of 911 call-takers are on leave, due to rampant abuse of the Family and Medical Leave Act. It’s no shock to me or to other taxpayers that public employees would turn a government mandate, with an appealing name, into a boondoggle. We need to test public policies on a small scale before we impose them on everyone. Otherwise, the economy will never grow faster than it does now.

Richard A. Crane, Lincoln Park

Why no question about global warming?

It was disconcerting that Chris Wallace, moderator of Wednesday night’s presidential debate, failed to ask the candidates about the crisis of global warming. This is an issue Hillary Clinton is much better on. She cares deeply about protecting the environment, ecology, biodiversity, oceans, forests, nature havens, endangered species, wildlife habitats and, most importantly, the millions of people harmed by the deadly ramifications. Donald Trump’s denial of global warming, on the other hand, is grounds for his dismissal as a viable presidential candidate.

Brien Comerford, Glenview