Early in the pandemic my favored news source was Trevor Noah on The Daily Show. His lightning-quick insight and boyish energy are the perfect antidote to mounting fears. And his stable of comedian correspondents – particularly Dulcé Sloan – add high notes of anger and absurdity.

Then, as we moved into the 2020 election, I turned to Jake Tapper on CNN. A former White House journalist who’s known for being prepared, persistent, and a pain-in-the-neck, he has become the face of genteel outrage. He’s handsome, old enough to project anchorman gravitas and young enough to inspire daydreams. His resting face is a perpetual frown so magnificent that he seems, already, before he even opens his mouth, displeased. When he is very displeased he tilts his head to one side, squints, and holds it there for a few beats, as if trying to understand an abstract sculpture. His face alone expresses quiet outrage on behalf of an audience too tired to be outright outraged at a time when there are fresh sources of outrage every day.

The last time I watched the news this fervently was in 2007, when Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination. It was the talk on MSNBC that attracted me then, particularly the nerdy punditry from Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow, whose long-winded soliloquies vented curiosity, cynicism and joy. Each Friday Olbermann announced the The Worst Person in the World, shaming a notorious political figure from that week’s news cycle. It was an innocent time, when bad behavior was outstanding.

What does it say now that audiences – both conservative and liberal – turn to media for emotional assurance in addition to news? We’ve had four years of national political news so brazen and so base that it needs no commentary; it serves beautifully as its own satire. We already know the news, what we want is an icon.