Donald Trump‘s election fraud trial has made two things crystal clear. First, it doesn’t matter what Michael Cohen says. Every other bit of evidence says Trump willfully misled the American electorate about who he is. Of course, the jury will have the final say in the matter. Having served on two juries, I have faith that they will take their oaths seriously. The hard evidence is irrefutable and says Trump knew his candidacy would not survive the Stormy Daniels story getting out. The second thing Trump’s trial has already revealed: the news media screwed this up horribly.

What else is new?

We’re getting breathless updates from inside the courtroom via a game of “media telephone”. But, the news media covering the story – and giving us these breathless updates – are (many of them) the same people who gave us breathless updates back in the day. In 2015 and 2016, lots of these journalists were covering Trump’s initial candidacy.

They covered “Mexicans are rapists” and then – even when they should have kept their heels dug in over that – they whipped to “pussy grabbing”. Because how can you not? But, in chasing “pussy grabbing”, the news media dropped “Mexicans are rapists”.

The instant they stopped asking about it? They normalized it! For real! Suddenly “Mexicans are rapists” was just another part of the Trump landscape. Take it or leave it.

The Trump camp themselves, we’re learning, knew “pussy grabbing” was potentially lethal. Everyone aware of all the other “female trouble” circling Trump knew what it meant. As Keith Davidson – the LA lawyer who repped both Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal – put it in a text to National Enquirer editor, Dylan Howard, in the wake of the “Access Hollywood” tape coming out: “He’s fucked.”

That was October 2016.

Next thing ya know, James Comey puts “But, her emails!” back on the table. And that superseded “pussy grabbing” and “Mexicans are rapists”.

Hey, News Media – how’d that work out in the end?

Not so good… “But her emails”? Turned out to be horse shit on steroids. No there there. But “Mexicans are rapists?” That did matter. Trump’s racism mattered greatly. So did his lying! It took the news media 30,000 more lies before they finally decided they could call a liar “liar”.

And, as for “pussy grabbing”… That, in the end, brought us the Dobbs Decision and the end of Roe v Wade. It brought us women dying in red states where abortions are now illegal.

Yeah, that all flows – directly – from “pussy grabbing”.

And it flows directly from a candidate desperate to hide things the news media already knew about him: that he regularly cheated on his wives!

When this is all done and dusted – many many years from now – I sure hope a few clever people focus in on how completely America’s news media failed America. Imagine – having the story of a journalistic lifetime on the table in front of you – and you hack it to pieces rather than savor the meal.

Corporate media created “both sides do it”. It’s pure conservatism – cynical and utterly full of shit. It falsely equates political action (what Democrats mostly do) with criminal action for a political end (what Republicans do by and large). Both sides do not do “it” now (whatever “it” is) and never ever have.

To this day, our news media don’t know how to handle Trump. Even when they sit on talking head panels themselves – and discuss how hard it is covering Trump – there’s one thing they never talk about doing. Saying “no” to the man.

Journalist Mehdi Hasan – formerly of MSNBC – understood how to do it. You dig in your heels. You do not allow the interview to go forward until this question has been answered.

“What do you mean ‘Mexicans are rapists – can you back that up with data or receipts?’ is how a real journalist would put it to Trump. And while we’re there, how come not a single journalist has EVER asked Trump to define the word “perfect” – as in “that was a PERFECT phone call”.

Our news media has not served us well. They’ve failed to live up to their Constitutionally mandated obligation to hold power to account. Instead, they’ve sold their souls for access.

I believe America’s voters will save America’s democracy. But, the job of saving our democracy will run far, far beyond just this election! This is going to be a generational battle. An actual struggle.

We’ll need the news media to do their jobs better. At the very least less cynically.

Having perspective would help, too. Perspective would hip them to the fact that “There’s two people I think Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!” matters way more than “But, her emails!”

If our news media can’t figure that out? There’s every reason to believe that when the next Trump comes along, it’s America who’ll be “fucked”.