Obama's congratulations aside (do we know for sure he did send congratulations?), the 2012 election appeared not to be rigged, ran relatively smoothly ("positively") and didn't feature the opposition leader being excluded as a result of trumped-up (see what I did there? ) charges.

But otherwise, yeah, those two events are exactly comparable.

2012 was before the first July - Sept. 2014 US sanctions on Russia for Crimea.

Putin was a 'good guy' back in 2012

It's not just "the media" he's in trouble with, it's politicians in his own party. Who were also regularly critical of Obama's policies towards Russia.

I'm fairly amazed that Trump's decision to ignore and not enforce the Russian sanctions passed nearly unanimously by Congress hasn't gotten more attention. It all fits into a pattern of capitulation, lying, and discrete communications/meetings even when there's no clear political upside to these actions...

Ok, that's the situation now. You imply however that the dems may well have been no better in the past (perhaps corrected for less detailed data and their processing). Do you know of studies on the topic?

For some larger context: gerrymandering is a dreadful anti-democratic practice, but it's also as American as Apple Pie (it's been going on for centuries!). Often, it was done in a bipartisan way to benefit incumbents (e.g. in California) or to disenfranchise minority populations - which americans are quite ingenious at.

One reason it's a little challenging to answer your question is the extreme congressional partisan gerrymandering we see today has taken off in the 21st-century. And because Republicans have held more power in state legislatures it can be hard to say whether they're more shameless gerrymanders or were in the right spot at the right time - that is, the time when respecting democratic values became a complete facade.

Here's a website from a Princeton Professor that has numerical assessments of gerrymandering. You can scroll through the years and see who are the worst offenders. Currently: Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconson, Michigan, and North Carolina - all drawn by Republicans. It's why the Democrats likely need to win the house by a total of ~6 to 7 points nationally to actually control a majority of seats.

Worth noting that there are heavily gerrymandered states for Democrats, e.g. Maryland, it's just that a few of the more populous states controlled by Democrats (where gerrymandering really makes a dent congressional representation) have opted for a fairer and more transparent redistricting process.
For example, California: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Califo...ing_Commission
Washington State: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washin...ing_Commission

Not seen any official documents stating the contrary

How would you suggest that's done? have you got any great treasure trove of stories where trump tells the truth, acts honorably or even like an adult that the nasty wasty media are willfully not reporting? How about any willfully false stories akin to the Clinton pizzagate stories? Willfully false like your lower bound of 43% I mean, lowest I'm aware of is more like 36%

What are they to report? He lies, they report it, he cheats on his wife, they report it, he lies, they report it, he breaks promises they report it, he lies they report it, he acts like a pathetic man-baby, they report it, he attacks vets, they report it, he mocks the disabled, they report it. He says (but not does) anything that resonates with the sort of people who voted for him and they report it.

Still inching towards another Govt. shutdown
Bill needs to be agreed, text finalised and voted on by both House and Senate and all before close of business on Friday.

Latest gossip
Trump will not get the $25 Billion he requested for his wall, maybe $600 million for a "non-concrete" barrier; whatever that is

Maybe $600 million for projects that could be diverted to the Gateway tunnel project (New York - New Jersey) despite Trump saying he will not sign that.

No financial punishments for Planned Parenthood or sanctuary cities.

The bill does not fund President Donald Trump’s request to increase the number of detention beds and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

More money for defending against cyber warfare

30% budget cut for EPA not approved.

Of course all this is gossip and may well be different on the day.

Do not know what will happen about Trump's requests to cut funding for other departments like State, I suspect also ignored!

Latest news, White House just announced Trump will sign the Bill.

Former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe oversaw a federal investigation last year into whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions was fully forthcoming in his testimony to Congress about his contacts with Russian officials, ABC News reported Wednesday.

Top GOP and Democratic lawmakers learned about the probe last year in a private briefing with McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The probe has since been closed.

Sessions was not aware of the investigation when he fired McCabe on Friday night, according to ABC News.

Source

Presumably they decided Sessions did not break any laws?

Media bias isn't about not reporting stories, rather it is about giving attention to one side of the story, or deliberately under-reporting/over-reporting certain stories.

Whatever happened to ISIS?

You want to give trump credit for the end result of a campaign ongoing since 2014? seriously? a guy with who won't even read intelligence briefings?

I think his point was that IS is not in the news much these days. kriss kross seems to think that's an indication of reporting bias.

I've noticed that the moon landings get very little coverage nowadays, as well.

I think the defeat of IS did seem to be under-reported, Trump decimated 90% of their forces after years of trying under Obama - just like he said he would.

But that's just my speculation and I can't prove that, yet if you want proof of the media bias against Trump just look at some of the studies which show there is a clear agenda against him.

The verb "decimate" being used (almost) correctly, for once.

IS was on the brink of defeat after years of onslaught under Obama. Trump came in at the opportune moment of the coup de grace -- if indeed IS is in fact finished, only time will tell.

Do you genuinely believe that Trump swept in on his white charger (to save pain from his heel spurs), planned, orchestrated and executed a stunningly brilliant strategy to reverse the advance of IS and obliterate the organisation -- all in six months? That must have been one hell of an army school for delinquent children that he went to as a teenager.

You don't think that maybe the media is biased against Trump in much the same way as it is against any incompetent, racist, misogynist, obnoxious twat?

Did Trump do this, or did it just happen on his watch?

Would you like to also claim that the Magnolia blossoms in Washington are Trump's doing?

He's a president, not some omnipotent being. If you want to give him ownership for every good thing that happens on his watch, then that's your choice. How is this different from seeing him as completely evil?

It's a loaded question; there are large swathes of Americans who simply don't view him the same way as you do, as I previously posted his approval is around 40% and I’m just surprised that their opinion is not reflected more in the mainstream media.

At least Fox News are being nice to Trump! They are studiously ignoring his marital infidelities with adult film actresses. And it's not as if they do not love reporting that kind of stuff the rest of the time.

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/21/171441...els-porn-trump

Depends what news you are into I suppose. BBC Newsnight did a piece on it ages ago, and I remember there was a Panorama documentary, too. While they didn't attribute it "90%" to Trump , they covered the forces involved and how it got to that point.

Personally, I'd favour seeing as little airtime given to IS as possible. It's a group that thrives on the oxygen of publicity. A by-line mention that they've been crushed off the face of the earth is probably enough, but I admit that doesn't shift newspapers or garner clicks and shares.

I think you are giving far too much credit to Trump, to be fair. As others have pointed out, it's just luck that IS has crashed on Trump's watch after a lengthy, multi-national military campaign.

so he is treated like JFK?