By Harold Pease, Ph. D

Doctors assess ailments and maladies and sometimes offer prescriptions. I feel very comfortable in doing the same with respect to the unanticipated Trump election as president and the resultant reaction of Clinton supporters and many Independents and Republicans who also did not like Trump. My diagnosis is called the “over mediated syndrome.”

We all witnessed a drastic mood swing, for and against Trump, on all news networks between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Election Day a month ago. That mood turned to indescribable despair on most television news outlets as Trump won state after state as the evening progressed, and open sobbing of Hillary supporters, unlike for any presidential candidate in modern times, as she went down in defeat. The media elites in all networks except Fox were themselves a show as they stumbled to explain why the win they had almost prophesied failed to occur.

This was followed by several events not characteristic of previous elections, all within a month of the election, and all attributed to the “over mediated syndrome.” The first, well-organized street demonstrations of mostly young voters caring signs, “Not My President,” in major cities throughout the country through Thanksgiving. Next was the sanctuary cities’ rebellion. Mayors lined up by the dozens to announce that they would purposely hide illegal immigrants from deportations. Universities followed too declaring themselves off-limits to federal law.

Next, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who got only 1% of the vote, demanded a recount in three states projected by the Democratic Party news outlets, everyone but Fox, to be Hillary wins: Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Over-night they gathered $6 million to cover the cost of the recount. Jill Stein could not hope to benefit from the count so no one was fooled by this extreme Stein effort to undermine or reverse the election and the Clinton encouragement for her doing so.

Finally, thousands of threatening messages (some death) were sent to Electoral College representatives if they do not change their vote from Trump to Hillary on December 19. Blaise Ingoglia, Florida Republican Party Chairman, received as many as 4,000 such messages.

The difference between this presidential election and those before is that the media no longer veiled their open support of the Democratic Party; they became the Democratic Party. It must be noted that 55 of 57 of the nation’s largest newspapers endorsed Hillary; only two endorsed Trump. The Gods of paper news, the Washington Post and the New York Times, and perhaps a hundred other papers who consistently reprint their editorials, became Hillary outlets as had the Gods of the antenna: ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN.

The major problem was their lack of issues. Hillary would duplicate personally popular Obama whose programs were being rejected, notably Obamacare and his executive orders on illegal immigration, which conflicted with the Constitution. She had no real successes as a legislator or as Secretary of State, and Republicans were nipping at her heals on the deaths attributed to her leadership in Benghazi and the 33,000 bleach-bitted emails allowing enemy nations to know our security secrets—the disclosure of just one for anyone else would have been imprisonment.

Donald Trump gave them their only real issue FEAR—scare voters into supporting Hillary. Virtually ignored by them was the hard evidence against her provided by Wikileaks, the FBI, and the discovery of 6,500 Hillary emails, evidence thought disposed, on Anthony Weiner’s hard drive. Clinton supporters knew little of this evidence because it did not contribute to the fear Trump narrative.

No one in modern-day politics has put his foot in his mouth more than Trump and the Democrats easily turned such statements into fear of what he would do based upon his rash or reckless statements. Not one of these news outlets, however, mitigated this fear by telling their readers or viewers that the Constitution would prevent many of these actions. For those getting their news only from the Democratic Party press, virtually all but Fox and talk radio, they were intentionally over-dosed on fear of Trump rhetoric.

Let me be bold. The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and MSNBC have shown themselves to be the media arm of the Democratic Party and thus have discredited themselves as neutral or fair news sources. They are directly responsible for the “over mediated syndrome” that led their readers or viewers to participate in the activities previously described.

The outcome of this blatant media bias was predictable, a distorted fear of Mr. Trump and the belief that the only reasonable next president would be Clinton. When the election went so differently and those opposed to Trump, believing their sources credible but betrayed by their being denied all the information, they contracted the “over mediated syndrome.” They were conditioned to react as though a fascist dictator had been elected. They had been over exposed to one side.

My prescription to this serious malady is simple—select but one of the above noted media outlets for the Democratic Party view and Fox news or the Washington Times for primarily the Republican view, then balance this with some established Internet news sources. They too may be biased but the Internet remains the only truly free press. Otherwise the malady will persist.

Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.