Rachel Maddow broke every rule I learned in Journalism 101 class.

She buried the lede.

She over hyped the story.

She bored her audience to tears.

She had Donald Trump’s tax returns and told us about them and told us about them and told us about them for 18 painful minutes before explaining that they were from 2005. That it was only a 2 page return, not the one with all the details like oh, how much he may owe to foreign banks and with V. Putin’s name as a co-signer of a mortgage. Oh, and yeah, he paid taxes.

Nice job girl! You did the impossible. You made Trump look credible. And generous, because he paid taxes thanks to a clause of the code that he plans to repeal.

Here’s a hint to Maddow and crowd- never play gotcha. Just because you have access to “leaked documents” doesn’t mean they are worth much. And these weren’t. In fact, they were so favourable to Trump that you have to ask if Bannon leaked them in order to a) divert attention from the Trumpcare shit show and b) end any more clamour demanding the release of Trump’s tax returns and c) blunt chatter about ties to Russia just as all those Congressional committees are getting started.

I’d go with a).