And what is this magic land where the inmates will consume anything they are fed? It is the conservative media bubble, the safe space created by a whole lot of conservative money, and led by the former guard of the chicken coop, Fox News.

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It has become such a closed and cozy system for some 33 percent of the electorate that President Trump can say whatever he pleases, and it will be reported breathlessly as true or nearly true. And if it is demonstrably untrue, in a sort of inescapable way, soon there will be Sarah Huckabee Sanders, looming at the very lectern that Sean Spicer used to drive, to report the exact opposite, and that also will be true. It’s all true!

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It’s all true except when a news organization outside the barn points out that it’s not even in the least little bit true, and then Trump tweets “Fake News!”, and, well, that’s that. The world outside the barn is understood as a dangerous world of all lies, and the cows return to cud-chewing in the blissful stalls where they are fed.

It’s all good, here in the barn, as they line up to be milked for votes at election time.

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It hums along quite smoothly, except for the occasional disturbance when the journalists who work for Fox occasionally notice that they are not working for a journalism organization. Shocked, shocked, are they, and dismayed! But then they are thrown their food, and their food … it ain’t hay! It’s delicious steaks!