Somebody Tell Susan Glasser To Sit Back And Relax This Time

One of the more enjoyable aspects of this past week has been watching the panic-stricken dying news media — CNN, Washington Post, and the like — figure out what to do with themselves now that Donald Trump is once again the most powerful man in the world.

Here’s an idea: Barring a spiritual intervention that moves journalists in Washington and New York to stop being maniacally deceitful sociopaths, they could take a back seat this time.

The environment for Trump’s second term almost makes it impossible for the media to do what they did the last time. One, because Trump is term-limited, so there’s not much use in trying to ratchet up hysteria with some new Big Lie that would deny him another one. And two, because the voters’ rejection of Kamala Harris was just as much a rejection of the media’s B.S. They’re over it.

But still-alive media propagandists like New Yorker magazine’s Susan “B.” Glasser, a true grouch, haven’t yet come to terms with reality. She wrote this week on her personal frustrations with Trump’s first few days in office, but in such a way that suggests everyone else must also feel the same anxiety she does. “He loves to drown us in outrage,” she wrote. “The overwhelming volume is the point — too many simultaneous scandals and the system is so overloaded that it breaks down. It can’t focus. It can’t fight back. The distractions are just too damn distracting.”

This is how the media operated during Trump’s first term. They were offended by the president, so they told their audiences, collectively still in the tens of millions, that they should also be offended. That was the point of promoting the Russia hoax, the hyped-up Covid hysteria, and the violent BLM race riots. The noise and manufactured outrage were intended to exhaust voters and push them to vote for someone else.

It worked, but then Americans had to live with the consequences of allowing the media to tell us what was and wasn’t acceptable. A post-Trump presidency featuring hyperinflation, rampant abuse of the Justice Department, and breakout wars is where they got us, and it sucked. So, despite the media’s herculean effort to once again get their preferred candidate into the White House, voters said, “No, thanks!” They’ll suffer whatever “outrage” Trump brings instead. Things would hopefully get better, but they certainly can’t get any worse.

Coping with having been so thoroughly dismissed and left with questionable remaining influence among voters, it’s understandable that Glasser and her peers would feel embittered. But instead of continuing to slam their heads against a wall, frantically coming up with the next way to take out the president, they could just let go. Take a breath. Relax a little.

They’re not in control this time. They should learn to embrace it.