We may never know exactly what exactly health issues lay behind Hillary Clinton's apparent collapse at a 9/11 memorial ceremony on Sunday, but we do know one thing for sure:
It took no time for the mainstream media to pick up whatever explanation for the episode that the Clinton campaign decided to throw at them and repeat it so many times that it became official:
Hillary was "powering through."
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Campaign manager Robby Mook and spokespeople Brian Fallon and Kristina Schake all repeated the talking point ad nauseam in their cable appearances on Monday. The media picked it up as well, with reporters on CNN and MSNBC using the phrase to describe how Hillary Clinton bravely reacted to a pneumonia diagnosis on Friday.
The campaign did not disclose that she had pneumonia until after her near-collapse when she abruptly left New York’s 9/11 memorial on Sunday, initially saying she felt overheated.
And then Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams gets into the act, pointing out that "powering through" life-threatening illnesses is just one of those things that women have to do because sexism:
That’s just what’s expected of women in the workforce, so that’s what gets done.
Let it be noted that while Donald Trump got out of military service because he had bone spurs in his heels, for a woman to acknowledge illness or an existing condition or the routine rhythms of the female reproductive system often has serious negative career consequences. We fear being viewed as weak, so we hustle through the job, hiding or downplaying our diagnoses and hoping nobody notices.
And of course:
Can you blame the Clinton campaign, which has been under absurd scrutiny for every head turn, every cough, for initially keeping Hillary’s illness quiet? Could the Clinton team not know that if you’re looking for an argument that someone is unfit for a job, having a treatable and temporary illness sure seems more credible than “is actually an ignorant, incompetent bigot but at least has a penis,” right?
And here's Eric Schmeltzer at the Huffington Post:
A 68-year-old woman, with pneumonia, still kept a schedule that most of us wouldn’t make it through, flying here and there, holding multiple events and briefings a day.
That’s not weak. That’s actually strong and tough as hell.
So–Hillary Clinton may or may not have been powering through pneumonia when she had her fainting episode on Sunday, but the media have been powering through on overtime to make sure that that's the only explanation that the public hears.