CBS chief Les Moonves exposes the Trump media game

[Valin]

National Review:

Stephen L. Miller

March 3, 2016

 

Heading into this week, Donald Trump had spent merely $1.6 million to run ads in six Super Tuesday states.

 

For any other primary candidate, this would almost assuredly have been political suicide unless he proved able to harvest media attention from somewhere else. Yet Trump manages to not only survive this media environment but thrive in it.

 

Fox News granted two nights of town-hall coverage to GOP’s primary candidates to fight over. The night before, MSNBC’s Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski had allotted a full primetime hour to Trump.

 

On the eve of Super Tuesday, Trump sat down in person for an interview with Sean Hannity. On the same night, Trump’s wife, Melania, was sitting down for an interview with Anderson Cooper; this was fresh off the heels of her interview with Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe.

 

The Sunday-morning news shows allow Trump to call in for interviews, something practically unheard of for presidential candidates. Yet Chuck Todd, George Stephanopoulos, and Chris Wallace all allow Trump to do so. And last year, CNN even shelved its long-planned tenth-anniversary Hurricane Katrina special hosted by Anderson Cooper. In its place, they aired a post-Trump-rally special with Don Lemon.

 

TMZ, both online and on their television show, routinely run segments on Trump, as does ET! Greta Van Susteren has frequently invited Trump’s sons on as guests, either in the studio, via satellite, or on the phone. CNN and MSNBC carry Trump’s campaign rallies in full — and Fox, too. Media outlets breathlessly hang on his every word and insult and bombastic threat or incitement, and then they become instantly appalled when one of their own is choke-slammed to the ground by Trump security guards. Such reactions from them are telling.

 

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H/T Hot Air

 

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