Without question, CNN — AKA: The Most Trusted Name in News™ — is hands-down the most ridiculous cable “news” network on the planet. Sure, MSNBC nonsensical “journalists” — Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace, Rachel Maddow, & Co. — are unmatched in their hyperbolic partisan world of stupidity, but CNN genuinely fancies itself as a legit news organization, which is off-the-charts hysterical. Need proof? Five words:

Stage 4 Trump Derangement Syndrome.

CNN has been beyond obsessed with Trump at least since he and Melania rode down the Trump Tower escalator on June 16, 2015, to announce Donald’s candidacy. That obsession continues as we speak and if anything, has only worsened since Trump left office. CNN “journalists” are not dissimilar to Captain Ahab in the iconic scene in “Moby Dick,” as the all-but-ruined captain meets his final fate — with good cause:

CNN’s miserable Post-Trump ratings have continued to swirl down the toilet at least as fast as those of hapless Joe and clueless Kamala.

As ridiculous as CNN’s on-air “talent” is, nobody better exemplifies that silliness than CNN hood ornament Brian Stelter, host of the hilariously misnomered “Reliable Sources.” Quintessential case in point:

On Stelter’s first 2022 episode of “Reliable Sources,” he again went all TDS, this time focusing on the notion that “Trumpism” is now “moving toward fascism,” as reported by NewsBusters.

Brian Stelter again stated the tired old liberal attack about conservatives falsely "moving toward fascism."

A reminder that Stelter very recently claimed that the media weren't biased at all. https://t.co/IMojVgkG0o

— NewsBusters (@newsbusters) January 3, 2022

During a segment with Atlantic senior editor David Frum — a piece of work in his own right — on the bizarre opinion piece Frum wrote in July 2021, There’s a Word for What Trumpism Is Becoming.

As is Stelter’s M.O., he asked Frum a leading question to get exactly the answer he wanted:

You wrote about halfway through the year that as people try to justify January 6th, as Trump allies try to justify it, we’re moving toward fascism, that Trumpism is moving toward fascism. Do you still feel that way now, about a year later?

Like one of Pavlov’s dogs, Frum responded appropriately, with tripe like “fascism is a popular movement that justifies violence in the name of some kind of overthrow of outdated institutions and to create some kind of national regeneration,” before going off on a delusional rant about Republican voters no longer horrified by “violence anymore; they’re increasingly accepting it.”

Uh-huh. Just like Democrats and their lapdog media weren’t horrified in the first place by night after night, week after week, month after month of violent Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots — “peaceful protests” —as cities burned and untold numbers of lives and businesses were destroyed in cities across America.

Stelter then went full-metal arrogant Stelter, as transcribed by NewsBusters.

So, certainly, there are conversations about that here on CNN and on MSNBC but do you think the rest of the national news media is taking the aftermath of January 6th seriously enough? Is there enough focused coverage on this?

“Well, it’s difficult to keep up,” Frum responded. “That’s been the story since 2015. I mean, there is a scandal and then another scandal and then another scandal.”

OK stop the tape. Which scandals?

The Russian collusion hoax? Trump inciting an “insurrection” on Jan. 6? The ridiculous charge that Trump corruptly sought election help from Ukraine in the form of investigations to discredit Biden and other Democratic rivals — along with Biden’s wayward son, Hunter? Please.

Frum finally suggested the “Trumpism is Fascism” canard has become “the new normal.”

This is not normal. But the truth is now we have to accept, this is now normal. This is now normal. And it’s not normal in the sense of justifiable or laudable or acceptable, it’s normal in the sense of this is our reality, this is what is going on.

And, and the central question, a central question of American politics for the future is going to be in 2022 and 2024 what — do you accept this and if you don’t accept it, what will you do to keep the country true to its democratic and liberal traditions?

Incidentally, Stelter nodded his head furiously. Like one of those silly bobblehead dolls.

I sooo want a Brian Stelter Bobblehead. 😎 pic.twitter.com/RQio0eqOGH

— Hold My Beer (@RealLibSmacker) January 3, 2022

The bottom line:

In a twisted way, Brian Stelter and CNN desperately need Donald Trump. Their ratings suck, their scandals continue to mount, and the original 24-hour news network’s relationship with honest journalism and truth long ago sank to the briny deep — just like Captain Ahab. Without Donald Trump to kick around, CNN’s legions of fellow TDS-afflicted liberals have no reason to religiously watch the network — nowhere near the numbers of them who obsessively tuned in throughout Trump’s presidency.

And try as CNN might, regular viewers’ hyperbolic fixation with all-things COVID-19 continues to wane, as more and more Americans declare the pandemic over, Joe “Winter of Severe Illness and Death” Biden delusional, and Anthony Fauci a self-absorbed power whore, as they continue to return to reality.

Related on RedState:

Brian Stelter Delivers a Deeply Important Lecture, but Ends up Condemning Himself Instead

Brian Stelter Flips on a Dime With COVID Messaging

This… Is CNN: ‘Fake News’ Network Falls to Embarrassing 17th Overall in Basic Cable Networks

CNN Trots out Carl Bernstein to Take ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ to a Whole New Level