ROGER SIMON: Donald Trump and the high priests of the press.

“It came slightly ahead of schedule,” The Wall Street Journal gleefully wrote last week, “but Donald Trump’s inevitable self-immolation arrived on the weekend when he assailed John McCain’s war record.”

Uh. Hold the fire extinguishers. Because Trump did not burst into flame. His poll numbers actually went up after he attacked McCain, a man whose political base is largely made up of Sunday TV show bookers.

The Huffington Post was also in a snit. It declared it was not going to report on Trump’s campaign in its political section, but rather in its entertainment section. . . .

But The Des Moines Register nearly came down with the vapors. . . .The paper went so far as to demand that Trump drop out of the race, a decision, I always thought, the American people should make at the ballot box rather than a newspaper on its editorial page.

But what is the real problem? The rodeo clown or the people coming to the rodeo in order to see the clown? And if the people are gathering, should the press keep that a secret?

The mainstream media is also making a clown of itself by its indignant tone regarding Trump, emanating from both the political left and right. Has anyone watched MSNBC lately (to ask the question is to answer it, I know)? The level of discourse there is no more dignified than one would hear in an insane asylum. The editorial page of the New York Times is little better, and its opinion editorials offer virtually no balance.

So why is the mainstream media on both the left and right in such a tizzy over Trump? Because he is winning, and they hate that. The political left hates it because they are insanely afraid that Trump has awakened the silent majority, and they aren’t going to take the progressive agenda anymore. The establishment political right hates it because they are insanely afraid that Trump will beat their preferred “insider” candidates, and they consequently won’t have as much power and influence anymore. Others on the political right are simply not convinced that Trump is truly a conservative.

Whatever the reason for the apoplexy, as I’ve remarked before, it’s fun to watch. And I think it’s actually healthy for the country.

UPDATE [From Glenn]: This is the other Roger Simon, not the PJ Media one.