If the 2024 presidential election What proved something was that the mass media no longer led the national debate.

They can no longer stir up fear and indignation among average voters. They can no longer support bad candidates.

And, like it or not, President-elect Donald Trump’s success with black, Hispanic and Jewish voters, if the exit polls are even close to correct, proves that the whole “fascist” scare has been a failure.

Indeed, the corporate press enjoys less trust than virtually any major institution in American life. It is a well-deserved ignominy.

It is also a tragedy for a free nation that we have a press that barely functions.

Journalists probably tell themselves that they are not appreciated because they tell the truth without fear. But it is far more likely a referendum on their deception.

There was never any accounting for the Russian collusion hysteria that enveloped the nation, nor for the concerted effort to censor us and put us in the spotlight over the laptop story by Hunter Biden.

Nor will there be any accounting for the years spent fear-mongering about coming Nazism.

Also remember how we got here. By the time of the first presidential debate, most of the media had spent four years covering up President Joe Biden’s mental and physical degradation.

It was perhaps the most staged presidency in history, and no major media reporter with access to the White House considered it important enough to let us know that the commander in chief could barely work.

This is more than just another pedantic fact-check of Trump’s hyperbole, which is why we need journalists.

When the Wall Street Journal finally published a well-researched article detailing Biden’s slip-up, the paper was widely criticized by left-wing media outlets, which feigned deep concerns about the veracity of the story’s sources.

Moreover, these are the same people who treat the anonymous successes of the Atlantic as an incontestable truth.

Those who shared video of Biden moving around aimlessly have been accused of spreading conspiracy theories themselves.

When Biden’s fragile mental state could no longer be hidden, the political press immediately focused, and without any explanation, on ousting the president and installing Vice President Kamala Harris.

This is not just bias: it is corruption.

Then came “Kamalot,” the shameless, sycophantic, contrived campaign aimed at persuading voters that a woefully inadequate candidate, who had never won a primary, was actually a generational political talent.

She went a month without giving a real interview or offering any off-the-cuff comments. In a properly functioning liberal democracy, the press would never have accepted this.

When Harris finally began speaking her swirling sentences full of platitudes, it became clear that she was in over her head.

Once-respected institutions like “60 Minutes” threw away what was left of their reputation, turning one of Harris’ rambling ramblings into a coherent response. CBS News has not yet released the transcript of his interview.

There is no doubt that rationalization saved democracy.

However, most media not only refuse to debate, but do not admit that there is East a debate.

Most of the time, there isn’t a single person on MSNBC, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, or on the editorial pages of most of the nation’s largest newspapers who can articulate their positions. owned by half the countrylet alone agree with any of them.

And no, filling your panels with former conservatives who hate Trump and defend every left-wing political position imaginable doesn’t count. The zeal of the liberal convert really serves no one.

On election night, I watched MSNBC’s Joy Reid, Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow deal with losing to Trump. These were the people who analyzed the media coverage.

Really, a satirist would have a hard time replicating some of the amazing crack pottery I’ve heard. Reid, as an example, used the word “fascist” with how often a normal person might use pronouns.

There is a preternatural lack of self-awareness in most established media. Not once, for example, did any member of the MSNBC panel discuss the possible downside of recklessly accusing everyone who disagrees with them of being “fascists.”

Rather, they simply wondered how all these Americans could vote for Hitler.

Even the day after Harris’ defeat, cable news panels were turning into wrestling sessions and group therapy. The situation will almost certainly get worse before it gets better.

In fact, Trump’s presence promises higher audiences in these media.

With each debacle, the institution gets worse.

There is a more unbearable self-aggrandizement. No more chilliness. No more complacency. A greater unearned sense of moral superiority. It is extremely unlikely that much will change.

The bright side, however, is that most people I stopped listening.

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at the Washington Examiner.