Postman died in 2003, but his prophetic work lives on with a number of his annoyances becoming industry standards within political media. (For example, one passage in the book remarked on the unfortunate focus on style over substance in the 1984 presidential debates.) If he viewed the election of “a former Hollywood movie actor” to the presidency to be a logical outcome for a world in which we are primarily informed via entertainment-driven media, the election of a reality TV game show host surely wouldn't have come as too much of a shock to him these years later.

The press will continue to operate as part of the entertainment business in the run-up to this year’s election. Here’s why.

It’s easy to find scapegoats for flawed journalism. In the wake of the 2016 election, many media outlets seemed all too eager to blame the misinformed public on internet hoaxes emanating from Macedonia or Russian influence campaigns. The truth is that editorial decisions made by many of these same media companies were geared to appeal to our desire to be entertained more than our need to be informed. Scandal quenched the thirst for entertainment much more effectively than policy coverage ever could, and in Donald Trump, American media outlets found themselves a politician light on policy but with a natural flair for the dramatic.

In April 2017, The New York Times Magazine published a lengthy profile of CNN President Jeff Zucker. In it, one paragraph about on-air panels devolving into shouting matches stands out as emblematic of the current media landscape.