A Post-Trump Media, Healthy Living in 2021, and an Updated Pound Cake Recipe
Plus, your must-reads of the week and more.
In this week’s mid-week wrap-up, let’s talk about how the media will operate in a post-Trump America. Also, Leigh Guidry and I discuss healthy living as the new year approaches, and then I undo all that healthy talk by telling you how to make a pound cake that’s sweeter and more flavorful.
The Post-Trump Media Landscape
Over the past five or so years, the media has shifted its business model to focus on making virtually every story about Donald Trump. From local news stories to every conceivable national scenario, Trump has been the feature.
“How did he influence this?”
“What do Republicans think about this tweet?”
“This is surely the end of the Trump administration!”
Years of this constant barrage. Nonstop. The biggest mainstream outlets - CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and the New York Times - as well as conservative outlets like Fox News and OANN have all based their readership, viewership, and clicks off making everything about Trump.
But now, he is on his way out and Joe Biden will be in the White House. The mainstream, left-leaning outlets are already slipping back into old habits, like running features on Biden’s incoming “all-star” administration. They are writing these glowing pieces about how Biden will make things better. All because he is Not Trump. There is no evidence that Biden will make things better, but that’s what the mainstream media believes.
Except… where’s the commercial success in that? They’ve spent four years chasing the Trump headlines and the Trump clicks. A post-Trump media landscape looks an awful lot like a bull market turning into a bear market.
There was a story that floated around for a bit suggesting Trump would run again in four years. If that is Trump’s intention, then he will keep himself in the media and play up the “elder statesman” role. He’ll make sure every news outlet comes to him seeking a quote on every little political issue. He’ll tweet about everything. It will be nonstop.
And that will probably keep the media going for a bit. They’ll keep their high and their traffic.
But… what if Trump decides to get out of politics? What if he decides to stick to private ventures now that he has his name in the history books, Secret Service detail for life, and can use the fame/notoriety for business deals (self-promotion, speaking gigs, you name it). He doesn’t have to be politically active anymore, and can focus on other things.
What does the media do then?
I don’t think there is any going back from this. The major outlets have gotten this taste of the high traffic life and they won’t give that up. There’s nothing coming up that’s nearly as exciting as Trump was, and that will make things difficult. You’ll see them try to turn the next Republican into the new Trump, but the American people are going to see through that in a heartbeat. It won’t work.
And they won’t learn anything from it, either. The media hasn’t learned from its mistakes over the past four years, and there have been no repercussions for their mistakes. But now that Trump is potentially gone forever, they won’t be able to survive playing by the same rules they used during the last four years.
Can they survive it? I’m not sure.
Must-Reads of the Week
A Stunning Passage from the Latest Court Rejection of Team Trump, by Andy McCarthy (NRO)
NBA Stays Quiet on NBA Slave Labor, by Jack Beyrer (Washington Free Beacon)
Activists Begin Doxxing GOP Officials for Assassination, by Erick Erickson
Trump Was Right About the Vaccines, the Fact-Checkers Were Wrong, by Becket Adams
Also, rather than list them all, I am just going to link to my RedState colleague Jen Van Laar’s author page. Everything she has been writing on George Gascon, the new Los Angeles DA, has been as stellar as it is dire.
Homestyle: Healthy Living in 2021
On this week’s episode of Homestyle, my co-host Leigh Guidry and I talk about how crazy this year has been and the little, healthier choices we’ve made that have helped us make it through.
We’re not talking fad diets or crazy exercise routines (though she has talked about running more marathons). It’s all about the small tweaks. Drinking tea instead of coffee, eating out less, cooking at home, and maintaining your mental health. These are all just as important, if not more so, than the big changes.
If you want to hear more, you can always go back and listen to previous episodes, and we’d love to hear your feedback. Subscribe, rate, and review the podcast here, and if you have cooking, crafting, or family activity ideas, you can find us on Facebook and on Instagram (@Homestylepod).
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The Homestyle Podcast is a joint venture between myself and one of my best friends, education reporter Leigh Guidry. Throughout each episode, we discuss cooking, crafting, and other hobbies as well as how we make sure to spend time with our families despite how insanely busy life can be. The goal of the podcast has always been to take a moment to focus on what’s really important because, at the end of the day, family and life is more important than whatever distractions are going on in the world around us.
Recipe of the Week: Honey Pound Cake
Before I begin, here’s my go-to pound cake recipe.
For a couple weeks now, I have been experimenting with replacing some or all of the sugar with honey, because it’s just as sweet (if not more so) and it adds a depth to the flavor.
Basically, I was just switching out a half cup of sugar for a half cup of honey, and incrementally increasing the substitution until I got it right. Finally, this past weekend, I nailed it.
The recipe I linked above calls for three cups of sugar. Instead, use 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1 1/2 cups of honey. Because honey tends to be sweeter than sugar, going any higher might risk making the pound cake too sweet. But, the consistency of the honey actually appears to have increased the density of the cake, which is the most important aspect of a pound cake.
You should definitely try it. You won’t be disappointed.
Final Thoughts…
A lot of Republicans are now loudly proclaiming they are leaving the Republican Party because they “don’t recognize it anymore.” This probably warrants a longer column, but let me just say that if you only NOW don’t recognize the party, you weren’t paying attention. Much more likely, you have realized you can’t win in the current climate within the party, so you’re just leaving.
That’s just dishonest and petty.