In the "On the Media" podcast episode entitled "Imagine That," the hosts reflect on how the media got the idea of a Trump presidency so wrong. On of the most interesting points of the podcast was the fact that the President's real power lies in rhetoric. There's an intricate system of checks and balances in place to make sure the commander in chief can't get too powerful. Becasue of this, the hosts of "On the Media" said that Trump will mostly be running into dead ends to accomplish what he wants to accomplish and will be instead spending his time blaming the media and others for his shortcomings.
The media was so sure that the GOP nominee would be someone like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio. But because the dismissed the even idea of Trump being president, that allowed material for Trump to build on. Now that Trump is president, the media is trying to figure out what happened. While it's very possible that fake news may have contributed to the rise of Trump, if the media had treated Trump like any other presidential candidate and not reported on him every time he made a crazy comment or criticized someone on Twitter, Trump wouldn't have gotten the attention that allowed him to ride the wave to the presidency.
Now that Trump will be president, we have to start treating him differently. If the media continues to give him attention for saying outlandish things, Trump will continue to be able to blame the media for his mishaps. If the media goes forward in 2017 and reports on Trump's specific policies instead of finding the sensational headlines for Trump, Trump will begin to lose the attention he thrives on. By media taking a back seat and doing less of what it does best - generating clicks- this Trump phenomenon will move on like a bad dream come 2020, or even sooner.
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