I first heard it, very faintly, in 2017. At the time, President Donald Trump was accused of spying for Russia. If true, this would have been the biggest act of treason in American history, bigger than Aldrich Ames, bigger than the Rosenbergs, bigger than Benedict Arnold.

The New York Times and Washington Post published long articles that detailed Trump’s treachery, for which they shared a Pulitzer Prize. Adam Schiff, head of the intelligence committee, stood up night after night on cable news, claiming he had secret “bombshell” information proving that Trump was a traitor.

The charges were investigated and ultimately dismissed. Trump was not a Russian agent. He was not working for Putin. The greatest security threat in the history of the country was -- a hoax. And then I heard it: nothing. Very few outlets reported that Trump was innocent, that the attempt to rout him from office had failed. Schiff disappeared from view. There were no corrections, no apologies, no firings. The Times and the Post did not return their Pulitzer Prizes.

The sound of silence grew still louder during the COVID pandemic. The government fed the panic with a heavy-handed assist from social media. As revealed in the Twitter files and more recently, from Mark Zuckerburg himself, the security state worked with X and Facebook to quash any questions about the efficacy of the vaccine and ultimately, the need for massive government intervention in the economy. This cabal worked together to censor respected scientists like Jay Bhattacharya, who argued, correctly as it turns out, that special care should be given to the infirm, but the country could remain open. Shutdowns were not necessary. We did not have to crater the economy. The kids could stay in school. We didn’t need $7 trillion in runaway government spending. This was a gigantic story. But there it was again -- a curious absence of sound where honest reporting should be.

After Biden’s disastrous debate performance, we all saw what the media had denied: Biden was in an advanced state of dementia and clearly incapable of running the country. (You can stay in the basement, Mr. President, just don’t touch the big red button.)

The media expressed shock and outrage at having been misled about Biden’s decline, blaming everyone but themselves for the coverup. No one suggested that the fourth estate might have asked a few obvious questions about the president’s health. Instead, they bobbled their heads like Soviet commissars and told us Biden was just fine, sharp as a tack, in complete control of the free world. When the president’s condition could no longer be concealed from the public, the media had nothing to say about the whitewash, let alone their part in it. The sound of silence was deafening.

Out of this last silence came an epiphany, my red pill moment: the media never felt any remorse for these blunders because they didn’t think they did anything wrong. They never sought the truth, so they were not embarrassed when it eluded them. They were not crusading journalists checking the powerful. On the contrary, they were serving the powerful with pre-cooked narratives that obscured the facts. Notwithstanding their many self-awards for “advocacy journalism,” they were just flunkies.

After taking the red pill, I began to see things differently. I stopped reading stories for content and started parsing them for the angle. I became less interested in accuracy and more interested in what the writer was trying to get me to believe. Who were the people behind the reporters? What was their agenda? Who was getting paid? And for what? Why now? How is it they are all saying the same thing at once? Why does the message change so often? Am I supposed to just forget what they told me five minutes ago?

Yesterday, Kamala Harris was against fracking, against ICE, against the police, against private health insurance. Today she is in favor of all these wonderful things. Remember the Green New Deal? Well, you shouldn’t. Do you like Trump’s policies? No problem. They are now the policies of his opponents. Yesterday the Democrats slammed Trump as a threat to democracy. But after a thoroughly undemocratic backroom deal to anoint Harris, they are now all about “brat” and “joy” and “moving forward.”  At least for the moment.

The Democrats are not running on policy. They are running on memes that roll across your eyes momentarily like a Tik-Tok video, but never sink into your consciousness, images that change faster than the voters can comprehend. They have abandoned their own beloved woke beliefs in favor of Trumpian ideas that are more popular with the country. The Democratic base is not upset about the sellout. They don’t believe it either.

Such a campaign requires a compliant media, which is happy to cheer on the latest installment of an ever-fluid, ever-vapid narrative. They resemble nothing so much as a tight flock of birds, perfectly unconscious of their own perfect formation, swerving as one body, this way and that, to avoid any large, hard objects -- like the truth. I find this distracting and exhausting, which may be the point.

Meanwhile, Republicans are running the unchangeable Donald Trump. As noted by friend and foe alike, Trump is authentic. He doesn’t alter his clothes, his hair, or his views. It is impossible to imagine him changing his policies to support open borders, fracking bans, or the Green New Deal in the hope of picking off a few stray independent voters. There is no daylight between the man and his beliefs.

Still buzzing from my red pill, I sat down to watch the Trump-Harris debate in a dark, but vigilant, state of mind. I was not disappointed. The ABC moderators pandered to Harris and savaged Trump for 90 minutes. They allowed Harris to slip-slide away from any difficult questions, while turning their full fire on Trump. I saw Harris lie openly about “bloodbaths,” Charlottesville, and Project 2025 under the watchful eye of the fact checkers. I saw the same fact checkers try to bury Trump with false data

Like most conservatives, I went to bed angry at ABC, disappointed in Trump, and appalled by the nullity that is Kamala Harris.

The next day I woke up still irritated by the pile-on at ABC. It was just like the non-coverage of every other plot against Trump. The Russia hoax, the impeachments, the lawfare, the censorship, the deplatforming, the attempt to ban him from the ballot, and now, two assassination attempts -- all rationalized by prejudiced reporters who only managed to expose their own biases.

And then I had another red pill-fueled intuition: this latest attempt by ABC to cancel Trump would backfire. The media has been trying to destroy Trump for the last 16 years.  Not only have they failed, but their attacks have made him stronger. We all know how the news cycle works in the Trump era. Trump says something outrageous (and often funny). In righteous anger, the news outlets rise up with fact checkers and spin. Trump doubles down on his original comment. The talking heads spit nickels because half the country no longer believes them. The MAGA base sits back and enjoys the show. The media never get the joke because they are the joke.

I would like to see more people take the red pill. Yes, it can be quite stressful. Yes, it can unsettle your faith in institutions. But the truth is worth it.

Image: Chris Costes