Would you go to a surgeon who got a medical degree without taking tough tests? 

The vice president is accepting the Democratic nomination for president this week having held no news conferences or even taken any significant questions from the national media in weeks. 

Her staff obviously believes in-depth interviews, and public accountability, are a political liability for a woman who wants to assume the most demanding job in the world. 

And, apparently, a vast majority of the American media do not care. 

This isn’t just unusual and unfair — it risks hammering the final nail in the coffin of a fair, inquiring media and setting a precedent for unexamined Democrat campaigns that could well infect critical elections in the next two years — including coming races in Colorado.

Allowing Vice President Kamala Harris to surf through a truncated election season solely to prevent the election of former President Donald Trump, knowing but not disclosing her massive shortcomings, is journalistic malpractice, and dangerous in a world that needs strong, tested leaders. 

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The best and brightest in any field are those who are ready, willing and able to stand in the fire with you and for you. 

There is a vital function scrutiny plays in showing voters how a candidate thinks, how sharp his or her mind is and whether policy proposals are defensible — away from the teleprompter and talking points.  

If you’re afraid to sit down with a TV reporter, how are you going to go toe-to-toe with the presidents of China, Russia and Iran?

In the early 2000s, I was the communications director for Gov. Bill Owens, part of a very effective team that, among other things, developed, shaped and then created messaging for a wide range of policy initiatives. 

We knew every sentence would be scrutinized by an energetic, skeptical and smart corps of reporters. And, yes, most of them were anything but conservative Republicans.

But we worked with them. We didn’t hide from them. 

Without a doubt, the universally recognized successes of Gov. Owens’ two terms — which often drove Democrats to distraction — came because what he did and what he said had to withstand the media spotlight. He was not permitted to govern by news release, talking points and teleprompters. 

There were no Harris hall passes letting us off the hook.

The Harris campaign’s early substantive decisions are suffering because she is coddled, not challenged. 

Take her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whose singular qualification in Harris’ mind was apparently he doesn’t wear a yarmulke and worship on Saturdays. Beyond that, they didn’t do a deep dive. The Harris team was clearly surprised at allegations he invented combat experiences. Even a whisper of stolen valor used to be instantaneously disqualifying.   

And so we now risk having a person who padded a military career — and who also thinks boys’ bathrooms need tampons — a heartbeat away from the presidency. Like his boss, Walz hasn’t had to answer directly for his dishonesty or lunacy. 

Secondly, she rolled out her economic plan, saying she would bring a hammer and sickle to the task. In the Kamala Manifesto, her speechwriters incompetently included a litany of specific spikes in the cost of grocery staples — which the Trump team quickly turned into a campaign ad underscoring inflation on her watch. The plan is so bad even reliably liberal media gave it a raspberry. 

Here is the longer-range problem national media are creating:

Colorado will elect a new governor in two years. Campaigns don’t tend to invent groundbreaking and innovative tactics; they try things and see what works.

Suppose Harris is elected president having experienced virtually no challenging media scrutiny, and her running mate’s serial idiocy gets equally smooth treatment — while Trump and Vance get bludgeoned day after day. Why would any Democratic candidate for governor — perhaps Secretary of State Jena Griswold or Attorney General Phil Weiser — ever answer a question? 

Why not give the media, and voters, the one-finger salute and stay in the Harris Hideaway?

A free society needs a fair, skeptical and aggressive media. Liberal lapdogs in the press who bare their teeth only at conservatives are doing a sad and risky disservice to the country.  

Sean Duffy, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Bill Owens, is a communications and media relations strategist and ghostwriter based in the Denver area.