This is Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. I did not alter this photo.

I’m getting real tired of defending Donald Trump, off all people. However, when taking on the BS of old media, it’s a difficult thing to avoid.

This time, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong made the news by comparing Donald Trump to Voldemort. That’s right, the bad guy from the fictional universe of Harry Potter.

What’s the scandal? What’s the event? Was there some major occurrence that makes this newsworthy? Nope. There was none. Just some washed up old musician firing his mouth off, and we’re supposed to give a care what he has to say.

That’s it. That’s the entire news story.

Surely this couldn’t have come from a news site that’s professional and relevant, right? There’s no way that a news outlet that’s been around for decades could have deemed this newsworthy and passed it along as news, right?

Wrong.

That someone from the mainstream entertainment industry is expressing a view that’s so left-wing that he falls off the side of the plane isn’t really new. That the same guy thinks his audience is so witless that they’d nod assent with big stupid grins as he conflates real-life political climate with a fictional narrative isn’t exactly new, either (considering the people who actually still like Green Day, I wouldn’t put it past them). It’s also not new that he would directly compare someone he doesn’t like to the worst bad guy he could think of, consistent with someone who has never faced a true hardship.

So, what’s new about this? Absolutely nothing. And that’s exactly why it doesn’t belong in the news.