How late-night comics helped pave the way for President Trump

Volokh Conspiracy  "Late-night comedy is more political than ever. It both reflects and influences our politics, but not always in the ways its hosts and producers intend. 

"In the Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan has an exceptionally perceptive (if also dispiriting) essay on how the increasingly shrill, partisan and cruel smugness of late-night comedy helped fuel the cultural resentments that facilitated Donald Trump’s victory last fall." . . .

Though aimed at blue-state sophisticates, these shows are an unintended but powerful form of propaganda for conservatives. When

Republicans see these harsh jokes—which echo down through the morning news shows and the chattering day’s worth of viral clips, along with those of Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers—they don’t just see a handful of comics mocking them. They see HBO, Comedy Central, TBS, ABC, CBS, and NBC. In other words, they see exactly what Donald Trump has taught them: that the entire media landscape loathes them, their values, their family, and their religion. It is hardly a reach for them to further imagine that the legitimate news shows on these channels are run by similarly partisan players—nor is it at all illogical.

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