The media licensed the mountebank for his latest star turn, upgraded
him, credited His Fraudulence with a talent for lying when they were not
marveling at his blunt originality. They presidentialized him, accorded
him their most fulsome praise (interesting!), oo-ed and ah-ed at the
spectacle of his shiny performances, surely (you have to admit!) a
little bit different from the boring same-old-same-old policy proposals
(and wasn’t that refreshing!). There were the favors of commission, like
granting him a wad of unpaid broadcast time greater than that received
by all the other candidates put together; the puffball “interviews”
which he deigned to phone in to slavering “news” personnel; their
fascination with his appearances even as their cameras showed — Breaking
News! — crowds staring at empty platforms.
