CNN’s townhall slash Maga rally with Donald Trump was a terrible idea poorly executed. The notion that the hour of familiar lies and a reintroduction to the DSM’s greatest hits of mental disorders was newsworthy is laughable, self-serving hogwash. You don’t need to waste any time watching it or reading outtakes (or CNN’s follow-up efforts to explain why it had news value and went well). Charlie Sykes sums it up: “Critics had worried that giving the indicted, twice-impeached, coup-plotting, chronically lying sexual predator an unedited, live television forum might turn out badly. The reality, however, was far ghastlier: a sh*tshow for the ages, and a moment that captured the thorough degradation of both our politics and the media.”

What’s critical to remember is that CNN really isn’t a news network at all. It used to be, when anchors threw it to far-flung reporters and attempted to cover as many big stories as possible. Now CNN is just a combination of opinion panels and freakish sideshows designed to entertain and inflame. That’s why they gave Trump the free informercial last night (and why they covered every second of his campaign leading up to the 2016 election).