Why I won't watch the vice-presidential debate. Hint: it's the same reason I shouldn't have watched the presidential one.

Ever since Kellyanne Conway added the term "alternative facts" to our lexicon in January 2017, the media has been unable to catch up, and in many cases, unable to do its job.

For those of you who may have forgotten those early days of Trump's term as president, then-host of "Meet the Press," Chuck Todd, was interviewing Ms. Conway and repeated the assertion that the size of Trump's inauguration day crowd was less than that of President Obama. Trump himself was furious over the fact that the former president had surpassed him in popularity. (Still, today, Trump remains obsessed with crowd size.) It was during this interview that Ms. Conway came to her new boss's defense by claiming that Sean Spicer (Trump's press secretary) had simply offered alternative facts.

Todd took issue. "Alternative facts aren't facts," he said, "they are falsehoods."

Conway responded, "Your job is not to call things ridiculous that are said by our press secretary and our president. That's not your job."

Except...it kinda is. And it eerily predicts what the Supreme Court would later claim about a president's official acts always being legal. In this case, it was the spoken word: if he says it, it's true.

Kellyanne Conway is very bright, and it must have rankled her to say something so patently absurd. Still, she was more symptomatic than decisive, for she merely paved the way for years of other subordinates, from Lindsay Graham to Vivek Ramaswamy, to make equally asinine and laughable assertions.

When Trump turned lying into an art form, however, the mainstream media relinquished their jobs of presenting facts and denying lies, replacing it with some fairness doctrine that provides even the worst and sometimes most dangerous liars with a forum.

The latest recipient of this new acceptance will be J. D. Vance. Oh, and apologies for the "unnecessary" periods after J and D, but he doesn't get to alter grammatical truths with the same nonchalance with which he attacks Haitians, immigrants, childless women, and car seats. Vance will say anything in sycophantic allegiance to his leader, and there is no reason to believe that tonight will be any different.

So, I'll sit this one out.

Debates seldom change minds, but I believe people should watch them. Other people. But until I can remotely interrupt bare-faced fallacies when I hear them, maybe shout down the most blatant comments or prompt a pie in the face, I can find other ways to raise my blood pressure.