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And afterwards, they were angry at themselves that they were facing a truth that could not be admitted; because they were so wrong, so incompetent at telling the story of the most dramatic election of their time.

So it was Trump’s fault he won, and his fault, too, they failed. And out of that, they fashioned a massive specious excuse from the manners of President Trump for adopting “needful” activism — slanted and fully distorted coverage, selective reporting, choosing viewpoints and speakers to air (and not air). The relish, the vigour with which they have abandoned standards and conscience in the profession when dealing with reputation-destroying allegations in the Kavanaugh nomination was — to use their favourite malediction — more Trumplike than Trump.

So when Swetnick’s “story” arrived on the doormat, enough to kill the man’s reputation, and his family’s peace and honour beyond all hope of redemption, they went full bore on the instant. And, as in the whole of this sage jump in with the #MeToo vigilantes, dread Rose McGowan and her ilk, with their spiteful chants of “men are trash” and “men shut up” and all men are rapists and “believe the victim” and “feel her pain.” Of this new, dark liturgy, the greatest anathema of all, however, is the racist and ageist super-cry of “old, white, men.” Believe them? Patriarchists, molesters and liars all. Kavanaugh is one of them — so off with his judicial head.

Thursday in the committee room was only a fragment of this hearing. The hearing, I’d almost say the real hearing, has been also “out there.” It is as much all the frothing panels, the shoddy and irresponsible reporting, the corrosive, numbing extreme hostility to anything or anyone President Trump does or knows. That’s where things really get decided, opinion carved, judgments made, politics calculated. What chance in that forum did Kavanaugh have? No better than in the gang-up from the slander campaign of the leftist Senators. No wonder, finally, he was angry.

The journalism of the Trump era is no better than the politics. But even those who despise Trump even to hating him will admit his one mixed virtue: he does not hide what he is. And in that, even if it is only a sliver of difference, an atom of distinguishment, he may claim to be the superior of so many big names and outlets covering him.