Big media has had multiple obsessions during President Trump’s first term. From Stormy and Avenatti to the myriad tell-all books about Trump, his administration, and his family. From Russia and an innocuous phone call to Ukraine, to his taxes and how many scoops of ice cream he is served.

These are all red herrings, a way to pick at Trump while studiously avoiding serious policy issues, what he is actually accomplishing as president, promises made becoming promises kept.

The latest obsession is QAnon, in the media and recently at the NBC town hall event. Despite being billed as a question and answer session, it was more of a debate between President Trump and NBC’s partisan newsreader Savannah Guthrie.

Of all the issues facing America in 2020 and of concern to voters, QAnon is not on the list. Yet she laser focused on QAnon starting with. “Let me ask you about QAnon” to which Trump responded, “I know nothing about QAnon.” Rather than moving on to the economy or healthcare, she obsessively persisted, insisting that Trump denounce “the fringe conspiracy theory.”

Trump repeated, "You told me but what you tell me doesn't necessarily make it fact, I hate to say that. I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard but I know nothing about it."

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Why all of a sudden is the media obsessed with so-called conspiracy theories? They peddled their own fantasy of Trump-Russia collusion for years, despite the entire premise being cooked up by Hillary Clinton to distract from her email malfeasance, with the Obama administration playing along, promoting and weaponizing the hoax.

The Q movement began in the fall of 2017, named after “Q clearance patriot,” shortened to just Q. Q clearance is a real thing, the highest level of clearance in the Department of Energy, “Q Sensitive allow access to Special Nuclear Material category.”

No one in the general public knows who Q is or if it is even a single person. Some believe Q is a group of nine individuals, 6 military intelligence and 3 civilians. There is no official website, no membership roster, no tangible organization. It is, to borrow a term Joe Biden used to describe Antifa, an idea. Although described as “a cult” by CNN, there is no charismatic leader persuading by coercion, as is typically seen in a cult.

The Q movement’s goal is to make the public aware of deep state corruption, a process described as “The Great Awakening.” Trump outlined this corruption in a little known speech shortly before the 2016 election. Q drops hints about upcoming events, careful to avoid unlawfully releasing classified intelligence. Q also strategically drips disinformation since deep state actors also read the posts. Sometimes head fakes draw out opponents, causing them to react and expose themselves. Measures and countermeasures.

For example, Q first mentioned “Hunters become the hunted” in July 2019, over a year ago. This can have various meanings, hunters possibly being Comey, Clapper, and Brennan who may soon face their own reckoning. It could also have a literal meeting, specifically “Hunter” Biden who has become quite the October surprise, now being hunted despite media efforts to bury the story.

Coincidentally, or not, Trump tweeted a few months later about Biden email problems. There seems to be coordination between Q and Trump.

Q also frequently mentioned “Red October”. There is a movie title of similar name, but it’s also October now and the “Hunt,” as in Hunter, may be turning the electoral map red. Hints and clues, word games and puzzles, hallmarks of Q, are part of the attraction to many Q followers.

Movie themes play Q’s messaging. Aside from “The Hunt for Red October”, the movie “White Squall” is cited, especially a line from the movie which has come to be a tagline for the Q movement, “Where we go one, we go all.”

Q posts on anonymous message boards, starting with 4chan, then 8chan, now 8kun. Anons are anonymous individuals who read, dissect, and analyze every Q utterance looking for deeper messages, posting their thoughts on the message board. Sometimes Q confirms or corrects, and other times Q must laugh at the rabbit holes that some anons dig into.

But whoever Q is or represents, they remain in the shadows. Q often posts messages at the exact same time that the President tweets, suggesting that Q may be part of the Trump inner circle. In Q lexicon, these are called “Q proofs.”

These message boards are anonymous and those posting are called “anons”. There is no “QAnon”, only Q and anons, a distinction the media has not figured out. Not all anons are authentic, some are posting simply to muddy the waters, an advantage of being anonymous. The term “QAnon” allows all anonymous posters to be lumped together, the real ones and the disrupters, the media focusing only on what the fake anons post or claim.

Trump was technically correct when he denied knowing about QAnon as it is a manufactured term. If I as a non-journalist can figure this out, surely Ms. Guthrie, Today Show co-anchor with a large research staff could have discerned this as well.

Stories critical of QAnon abound, from The Guardian to The New York Times. Social media accounts that discuss Q have been banned. Yet other “conspiracy theories” are not mocked or censored. Here are Facebook pages for the Loch Ness monster and one for bigfoot.

What is Q not about, despite media accusations to the contrary? Q posts are compiled on several websites and past Q posts can be searched.

Pizzagate, attributed by the media to Q, is a word never posted by Q, based on a search of past posts. Nor is the word pizza, only links to news stories discussing this. Pedophilia has been mentioned, including “Epstein Island”, first posted in November 2017, long before Epstein and his activities became widely known. Pedophilia is no conspiracy. Just search “pedophilia arrests” to see endless stories about investigations and arrests on a stunningly large international scale.

Claims that JFK Jr is alive are also attributed to Q, with a Twitter hashtag and predicted appearance at an October 17 rally as another internet myth. How many of these stories are spread by anons attempting to discredit Q? As anons are anonymous, it is easy to spread disinformation.

When asked on the message board in December 2018 if JFK Jr is alive, Q responded “No”. Plenty of conspiracy theories abound and it’s a clever trick by the media to tie these to Q and Trump.

The Daily Beast claims QAnon is obsessed with “adrenochrome” which Hollywood supposedly harvests from kids. Again, when searching nearly 5000 Q posts, the word “adrenochrome” does not appear.

Riots and protests are not organized or encouraged by Q, unlike what Antifa does. Q does not support violence, looting, murder, or mayhem as other groups do. Q signs appear at rallies, as do all manner of signs, but there is no such thing as a “Q rally.”

Q reminds me of a description of Russia, “A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Q asks questions and leave clues, breadcrumbs leading to revelations of crimes against humanity, corruption, and government malfeasance. It’s the anons who research and follow the threads, sometimes to the truth, other times to a blind alley.

“Not all posts are meant for Anons” as Q once said. Who else is Q communicating with? Unknown but it can create confusion for those trying to interpret messages meant for others.

If Q is a big scam, it is more elaborate than even the Biden crime family grift. If it is hoax, why isn’t the media ignoring it, just like the flat earth theories, which incidentally Q also debunked. Why didn’t Ms. Guthrie ask President Trump to denounce flat earthers?

Q reminds me of an old computer game called Myst, navigating a foreign landscape, finding clues, exploring a surreal world. If it’s all a hoax, it should be ignored, yet the media does the opposite, discussing it constantly, making it newsworthy, ironically advancing Q’s mission of a great awakening.

The media is not curious, they are afraid. Media sleuths could have learned as much as I have in a few hours of writing this article, yet they chose not to. As Q posted, “Research for yourself.” Why are the media afraid? Are they complicit in the crimes and corruption Q hints at, perhaps knowingly? Q foreshadowed as much, “Those with an agenda to silence will fail. Pain coming.”

What if Q is really a peek behind the curtain of Trump’s inner circle? As for me, I don’t know anything more than I have written. I live in flyover country, far removed from the halls of power in Washington, DC. Q provides an opportunity for political junkies to be a proverbial fly on the wall in the Oval Office.

If Q turns out to be fantasy, then it was a fun and harmless ride, like playing a video game. If Q is the real deal, those paying attention will have a front row seat to something of biblical proportions unfolding.

I find this topic far more interesting than the usual blather from cable news shows. We all have a choice, borrowing from “The Matrix”, the red pill revealing uncomfortable truths, or the blue pill of ignorant bliss. For the curious, learn more. And as Q often says, “Enjoy the show”.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a Denver-based physician and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, Rasmussen Reports, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn, Twitter, Parler, and QuodVerum.