Les Moonves, then CBS chairman, famously said during the 2016 presidential election that “it may not be good” for America but “it’s damn good” for CBS. This statement epitomized the toxic relationship between media and Trump. They knew he was a threat to democracy but as long as his ratings boosted, they would give him any amount of coverage.
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Fight misinformation by subscribing to Mother Jones Daily’s completely newsletter and keeping up with important news. They knew Donald Trump was an existential threat to democracy, but as long as he raised their ratings, no amount of coverage was considered too little. CBS chairman Les Moonves reportedly said about Trump during the 2016 election, eloquently capturing the toxic relationship between the media and Trump.
Five years too soon, after Trump’s election lies incited the uprising on January 6, it appeared that the majority of the media had finally learned their lesson. He was kicked off Twitter and Facebook platforms. He stopped speaking with the main networks for interviews. According to reports, Fox News also imposed a” sweet ban” on having him about.
But it was short-lived. Trump’s accounts were reinstated by Facebook, Instagram, and X( as Twitter is nowadays known ). In May, CNN hosted a fatal town hall with him where the former president and an unmistakably MAGA crowd persistently harassed moderator Kaitlin Collins. Chris Licht, the CEO of CNN, was ultimately fired as a result. Trump handled the media as they believed it could, but he actually handled them.
Trump joined NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, giving his second broadcast network interview since leaving office. It went according to plan: Trump says a lot of absurd and untrue things, the interviewer( in this case Kristen Welker, who is hosting for the first time ) pushes up severely, and in the interim, Trump’s supporters only hear lies and not fact-checks. We’ve witnessed this occur over and through.
After watching one clip, NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen wrote,” I plan on watching the Meet the Press interview Sunday, but this is not stimulating.” He overflows the area. She gives a head nod. And they use it to create dull, repetitive content for various NBC shows. Banal and meaningless.
Trump’s” Meet the Press” interview was the subject of five stories on NBC News’ website. Certainly that the interview wasn’t significant, though. He all but conceded defeat in the 2020 election, claiming that all he had to do was garner” 22, 000 votes” in battleground states( he continued to make the false claim that” I won”). He criticized Republicans for pushing for blanket abortion bans for rape, incest, and mother’s life. He declared that he would not seek reelection for a third term and that it was” very unlikely” that the man would pardon himself. Based on the interview, NBC News posted five stories on its website.
I have no doubt that NBC will merely assert that it has a editorial duty to cover Trump because he is the front-runner for the Republican nomination. The mainstream media argued the similar thing in 2016.
To her credit, Welker addressed the criticism of Meet the Press for hosting Trump. On the panel that followed Trump’s interview, New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker said,” This is a huge challenge for American journalism.” It is impossible for someone to run for president of the United States, be the front-runner for his party’s nomination, and potentially win without ever facing a difficult, impartial interview.
Trump, however, has even been charged with inciting an uprising and has received four indictments. The media is required to cover him, but never to provide him with a focal point from which to spread additional lies.
Today’s ratings for Meet the Press are probably going to increase. The network will boast about how objectively they covered Trump. And the last laugh will go to the previous president, as he so frequently does.
They knew Donald Trump was an existential threat to democracy, but as much as he raised their ratings, no amount of coverage. CBS chairman Les Moonves reportedly said about Trump during the 2016 election, eloquently capturing the toxic relationship between the media and Trump.
Les Moonves, then CBS chairman, famously said during the 2016 presidential election that “it may not be good” for America but “it’s damn good” for CBS. This statement epitomized the toxic relationship between media and Trump. They knew he was a threat to democracy but as long as his ratings boosted, they would give him any amount of coverage.
Respectfully, NBC.
All due respect to NBC. Subscribe to the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and stay updated on the information that matters. Don’t let yourself be fooled by disinformation– it may have been beneficial for CBS during the 2016 election because of the ratings, however the media should have seen Donald Trump as an attack on democracy way before the January 6th insurrection that he provoked with his false statements. Twitter and Facebook removed him from their services. He ended his interviews with the major networks. Fox News is said to have applied a muted prohibition to having him on-air. Nevertheless, it didn’t last long. Trump’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profiles have been reactivated following a period of suspension. X (renamed from Twitter) is the platform that lifted the restriction. At a town hall event in May sponsored by CNN, former President Donald Trump faced off with Kaitlin Collins, the moderator, while a heavily Republican audience jeered and taunted her. The gathering was, in the words of many observers, a disaster. The result was that Chris Licht was forced to leave his position as CEO of CNN.
