1. On March 4, 1997, the NYT front page ran a story about Al Gore allegedly making a few phone calls from the White House to donors. It was portrayed as a serious scandal.
Compare that to what just happened with Trump using the White House for his campaign's convention speech.
Compare that to what just happened with Trump using the White House for his campaign's convention speech.
2. The White House and campaigns are supposed to be totally separate, so that presidents can't abuse their powers for private or political gain. Trump held a political rally at the White House, using the building as a prop, hosting donors, using his powers to boost his campaign.
3. It's obvious that Trump is also calling donors, raising money, making shady quid pro quos etc. from the White House grounds. But if journalists let scandals get buried simply because there are so many of them, then the press has failed to do its job.
4. The benchmark is really simple to follow: if the same behavior (or in this case, far less egregious behavior) warranted a front page story as a scandal in the past, why doesn't worse behavior now warrant a front page highlight as a scandal? A simple metric, not often followed.
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