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It was July 2018, and Michael Avenatti was considering a presidential run. Anyone can consider running for president, I suppose. It was only when Stormy Daniels’ lawyer and cable news anchors did it that important — at least theoretically important — people in the press took it seriously.

CNN’s Jim Scuitto has Avenatti on to talk about it, and make a bit of a campaign pitch for himself, on July 4. The next day, CNN editor-in-chief Chris Cillizza, one of the website’s most prominent writers back then, published a piece of analysis with the headline “President Michael Avenatti? Never say never!”

And sure, why not. Avenatti was riding high at the time. A few months earlier, he was being offered, according to the New York Times, for a show similar to “Crossfire” with Anthony Scaramucci, the former communications director of Trump who has been quickly defended, by the mega agent Jay Sures, which represents the best CNN talent. like Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper. Perhaps that’s why Avenatti became so ubiquitous on the network to begin with—embarrassingly so, in retrospect.

But if we look back to April, almost exactly six years ago, that’s when Avenatti burst onto the national scene. On April 9, 2018, the FBI raided the office of Michael Cohen, the long-time “fixer” and business associate of then-President Donald Trump. The next day, Avenatti was on Cooper’s CNN show to break it all down – from Stormy Daniels, his porn actress client, to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy, to Cohen himself. It was Avenatti’s chance to shape the narrative for the media, and the media was happy to oblige.

The whole ordeal was portrayed a few weeks later in a shocking “Saturday Night Live” cold open, with Ben Stiller playing Cohen, Jimmy Fallon playing Jared Kushner, and Stormy Daniels playing himself. (She struggled to nail the line “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” at the end.)

It is worth reflecting this week on this strange moment in 2018, as it is a prelude to the first (and possibly only) trial of Trump in 2024. The case that officially began on Monday is not relating to “rebellion” or “espionage” or classified documents or RICO. Oh no. This reality TV, trashy tabloid garbage about porn stars and Playmates – stuff that belongs more to the National Enquirer than the National Broadcasting Company.

Which is ironic, of course, because the first witness in the case was David Pecker, the former executive in charge of the National Enquirer. (It’s also ironic that Avenatti is now firmly on Team Trump, saying he’d be happy to testify for the defense, though of course he’s also currently in federal prison for wire fraud and tax fraud, so . ..)

It’s been more than six years since that initial FBI raid, and Avenatti’s original media sin. But buckle up, here we go. We get to hear about how Trump teamed up with the National Enquirer in an effort to boost his campaign in 2016. Much like how most of the establishment press today is teaming up with the Biden campaign to stop Trump in this cycle.

You know that story about Ted Cruz’s father possibly being involved in the JFK assassination? Totally done, to help Trump in the primary! This comes as no surprise to any discerning news consumer. But it allows the media to go on a proverbial rampage over “checkbook journalism” – as if the crusty old legacy press hasn’t been doing a version of it for decades, when ABC or NBC wants to ensure “get” big on their morning show. But the National Enquirer’s journalistic ethics are a red herring — distracting from the substance of the trial.

After Pecker, we will have Cohen, and Daniels, and McDougal as witnesses. Avenatti, it seems for now at least, will remain in prison, and unable to return to the limelight.

This trial is a circus. But the media chose them back in 2018. And now they are also on trial.

To get meta for a minute, when I decide to dedicate my weekly column to a topic, I’m not only deciding what topic to cover, but also what not to cover as well. On a much larger and more consequential scale, every single news organization makes choices every day about what to focus on, how to cover it and what gets left on the cutting room floor.

Back during the Trump years, the media spent a great deal of time dissecting every last detail of this tabloid journalism fodder that we are now seeing play out in a New York courtroom – which is meaningless to the lives of almost every American. The trial is the culmination of the trivial work that consumed so many hours of cable news, and occupied so much space in the most powerful media in America. So much time and energy and resources that could have been devoted to literally any other story, including many directly related to Donald Trump. And yet now, here we are.

This case must matter to the American press. If not, it invalidates their entire existence during 2018. But if the public sings out—and, can you even imagine if a jury in New York City actually finds Trump not guilty at the end of this thing — well, it’s as much an indictment of the Trump-obsessed Acela media as it is of the system that brought these strange accusations and the sickest case in the first place.

Steve Krakauer, a NewsNation contributor, is the author of “Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People” and editor and host of the Fourth Watch newsletter and podcast.