The Media Need to Reflect on This Election Result

The media convinced themselves that their foamy-mouthed anger with Donald J. Trump was shared by the American people as a whole. The people responded with a giant nuh-uh. President Trump will not go in the books as a Jimmy Carter or even as a George H.W. Bush: Despite his having presided over perhaps the bleakest American year in my lifetime, his reelection was an attractive proposition for a massive slice of voters. Even assuming the narrow Joe Biden victory that now appears likely, the media should prepare themselves a shame sandwich for lunch and devour every bite.

But will they? After Trump’s global shocker of a victory in 2016, the media should have reckoned with his popularity. Instead, they and their friends in the Democratic Party manufactured some scandals (the nonexistent collusion with Russia) and exaggerated others (Trump’s ridiculous but not terribly meaningful tweeting habits), whipping themselves into frenzy upon frenzy upon frenzy. When you live in New York and work at a place such as CNN, everyone thinks the way you do. Everyone talks about Trump incessantly, and the only register is outrage.