What will the big media outlets of America do when Joe Biden is officially sworn in as president? For those on the Right, like Fox and Newsmax, there’s little question. Biden can be every bit the foil Barack Obama was, and right-wingers have new progressives to vilify, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. The script has already been written: radical socialism is taking over America, and only God-fearing Republicans stand between you and violent anarchy.

For the other cable TV networks, Donald Trump was the hard drug they could not quit. In the Obama years, CNN and MSNBC were also-rans, trailing badly behind Fox News in the ratings wars. CNN, a twenty-four-hour news network that could not subsist without a daily crisis, seemed to bottom out around 2014, posting disastrously low ratings. Then, in 2015, Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN, would air Donald Trump rallies live and uninterrupted, fueling the candidate’s ascent in a crowded Republican primary. Zucker knew a good story when he saw one.

In 2017, MSNBC, unable to marshal much of an audience during Obama’s presidency, became a place where every Trumpian outrage and conspiracy could be parroted and expanded to maximalist proportions. Ratings soared. Rachel Maddow became one of the biggest stars in television, rivaling the reach of any Fox host. CNN, too, made a fortune on liberal angst and rage, branding for the Resistance.