Important questions. No doubt you already have read plenty of answers to them. Culprits have been identified, causes traced, theories proffered. There are few innocent parties. But let us not forget, as we read the postmortems and autopsies and think pieces, that Donald Trump is a creation of the American media and entertainment industry.

For decades, that industry publicized him, coddled him, mocked him, profited from him. It built him up. Allowed him to spread the myth of Trump, of the strong, successful, decisive, take-no-prisoners business tycoon. And then, once Trump approached the Oval Office, once he was the sole obstacle between Hillary Clinton and the White House, these same networks and outlets turned on him. Abandoned him. Revealed to the world what they had known about Trump all along. It wasn’t Trump who changed over the course of this election. It was the media.