Dear CNN and MSNBC (I’m sorry, those were the only two news channels I could get to yesterday):

I found it ironic, watching your coverage August 3rd, that so many of your anchors, reporters, pundits, and guests repeated the comment that “Donald Trump is sucking up all the oxygen in the political room,” while what you were doing was giving it all to him. The story that you gave wall-to-wall coverage yesterday—a grifter, liar, and multiple business failure had been indicted and was being arraigned for serious crimes against the American people—could have been adequately covered in five minutes at the top of the hour with another one-minute recap at the bottom.

From your business point of view, I understand the appeal: your team didn’t have to ferret out actual news stories, and it’s much cheaper to just keep talking about politics as if the election were next week, rather than fifteen months in the future. But maybe we need to bring back the fairness doctrine, and give all the candidates equal air time. Because Donald Trump’s third indictment—as serious as the alleged crimes are (and I sincerely hope he is quickly found guilty)—certainly did not merit our undivided attention all day yesterday. When the trial is actually happening, sure, we’ll need to see that. But the preliminaries we’re suffering through? The live coverage of his motorcade from his golf course to Newark Airport? Were you proud of the story you were telling yesterday? I wouldn’t have been.