For nearly 75 years after 1945, reporters were one thing and politicians another. Journalists were imagined to be objective in their reporting on politicians, no different from E.O. Wilson’s relationship to ants.

If you needed any more proof that the older paradigm was dead you had it Wednesday night when former president Donald J. Trump debated, sort of, Kaitlan Collins, during a CNN Town Hall meeting in New Hampshire.

We say “sort of” because it wasn’t officially a debate nor structured like a debate nor as fair or as entertaining as a debate. It was more like a Trump fan fest occasionally interrupted by a media fact-checker.

But what made the event remarkable was the pure obliviousness of CNN. Did they really think Collins would be able to stand up to Trump? Time and again he just steamrolled the 31-year-old Collins to the approval of the audience.