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My RedState colleague Nick Arama wrote Sunday about a ridiculous photo of failed 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams that appeared alongside an article published in Washington Post Magazine.

The picture has to be seen to be believed:

From the Washington Post Magazine profile of Stacey Abrams: pic.twitter.com/tTIU8gIllT

— John Sexton (@verumserum) May 16, 2020

The accompanying article was, of course, a puff piece – like many mainstream media articles written about Abrams have been. Freelance writer Jeryl Bier tweeted out one of the more noteworthy snippets:

"Pandemonium ensues as she walks to the far left of the stage, like a runway supermodel, stops on a dime, poses, tilts her head slightly and smiles. Camera flashes explode. She next pivots and walks slowly to the center of the stage, freezes there and repeats the pose." https://t.co/1LXzeMYMbD pic.twitter.com/nP3CqUCnxy

— jerylbier (@JerylBier) May 17, 2020

TV personality Carol Roth saw the photo and excerpt and in one tweet got to the heart of the matter of why the media doing this is so harmful, not just for their profession but even more so for America:

I am so sick of the media trying to create celebrity politicians. Public service should be about representing us as citizens, not creating stardom for the person in office. Nobody “deserves” to hold an office. The focus should be on policies, principles, experience, etc. https://t.co/0s8WoYtL3F

— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) May 17, 2020

This is so spot-on.

It seems like about every six months to a year the media finds another Democrat to declare as the next great thing. They have done this as far back as JFK, if not further back.

They also did it with RFK. In more modern times, they did it with Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Beto O’Rourke, and now Abrams. They even did it with porn star Stormy Daniels’ former lawyer Michael Avenatti right up until he was exposed for the fraud that he is.

Some would argue that they did the same thing with Donald Trump, but I disagree, at least as far as his presidential campaign was concerned. Before that, yes they did treat him like a celebrity because in many respects he was one.

But when he declared his candidacy for president, some in the media treated him as a spectacle who would never go far in the 2016 race, while others in the media promoted his candidacy because they felt he was the weakest of the bunch and would be easily defeated by Hillary Clinton. He also was very good for their ratings as people tuned in to see what he would say next.

In any event, Roth is right. Making “celebrity politicians” (and in many cases “gods”, as they did with Obama) out of political figures is not a good look for the mainstream media, because it further erodes their credibility in the minds of readers and viewers. Even worse, it’s bad for America, because it gets more people to favor style over substance, which is not how deciding who you want to be the next leader of the free world should work. At all.