Corporate media is back to “All Trump, All The Time” just like in 2016
We have to defeat Trump and corporate media in 2024
It’s beginning to feel like 2016 all over again. Donald Trump is locked in a heated presidential race versus a Democratic nominee who could make history as the first female President of the United States. Polls show a tighter race than expected—especially given Trump’s open racism, sexism and bigotry that many thought would sink his campaign. And when you turn on cable news or read an article about the race, it’s all Trump, all the time. Except, of course, when the media is criticizing the Democratic nominee.
All of this eerily and alarmingly conjures up 2016. And for good reason. At this time in the 2016 race between Hillary Clinton and Trump, the RCP average of polls had her up by 2.3%. Where are we now? VP Harris’s lead over Trump compared to this day in the 2016 campaign is almost identical with Harris up in the same average of polls by 2.1%.
As an unpleasant reminder, despite Hillary winning all three presidential debates versus Trump, being far more qualified—and even the infamous Access Hollywood tape being released on Oct. 7, 2016—Trump was able to win. A big part of the reason was the role corporate media played—and we are saying that happen again now with their wall to wall coverage of Trump.
How much did corporate media help Trump in 2016? As studies after the 2016 election documented, Trump was provided with more than $5 billion in free media coverage. For context, that was more free media than Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio received in the 2016 campaign COMBINED-- according to data from tracking firm mediaQuant.
Why was Trump gifted such a massive amount of free corporate media coverage? The then head of CBS Les Moonves candidly answered that during the 2016 campaign, telling us Trump “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” Moonves continued, “The money’s rolling in, this is fun…I’ve never seen anything like this and this is going to be a very good year for us.” The former CBS head honcho added, “It’s a terrible thing to say, but bring it on, Donald, go ahead, keep going.”
We are back to that same corporate model now—with a few notable differences. Today corporate media is dying—especially cable news. That means they need to squeeze every ounce of ratings out of Trump as possible. As NY Times best-selling author and fellow Substack author Andy Borowitz recently told me, “As the corporate media has been dying, they've needed Donald Trump more than ever.” He added, “unfortunately the rise of Donald Trump directly correlates with the decline of legacy.”
But it’s not just the media that has changed over the past eight years. The Trump of 2024 is far more dangerous than the one in 2016--making what corporate media is doing today truly unforgivable.
For starters, Trump attempted a coup—for which he is facing felonies—and incited the deadly Jan 6 terrorist attack. He has also defended the Jan 6 terrorists as “patriots” and pledged to pardon them. Trump was also convicted of 34 felonies by a jury just months ago for cheating in the 2016 election—good luck finding references to that in the current media coverage. Yet corporate media has normalized Trump to make a buck.
In addition, given Trump is facing criminal charges in other jurisdictions that could result in him spending potentially the rest of his life in prison if convicted, he is even more unhinged in this campaign—yet the corporate media sanewashes him.
For example, we are seeing Trump peddle non-stop lies targeting Black immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. Very disturbingly, Trump’s rally on Monday in Pennsylvania where he fearmongered about these immigrants sounded like something from early 1930’s Germany—just with a different scapegoat. Trump said the Haitian immigrants--who are legally in the nation--have “destroyed” the city of Springfield. He then bellowed to his supporters: “Do you think Springfield will ever be the same? You have to get them the hell out. You have to get them out.”
That is when the MAGA crowd angrily chanted in unison, “Send them Back!!” “Send them Back!!” It is bone-chilling. (See clip below.)
If corporate media were covering Trump as the threat that he is that would be one thing. Instead, we even see places like NPR with an article Tuesday about Trump’s speech filled with anti-immigrant hate where they sanewash it by calling his speech in the title “winding” as opposed to what it was: incoherent and dangerous.
In contrast, VP Harris held a massive rally in Madison, Wisconsin a few days ago where nearly 11,000 packed the Alliant Energy Center Coliseum. (Were you even aware of that?!)
At the rally, Harris spoke about Trump’s “immoral” abortion bans and specifically talked powerfully about meeting with the mother of a young woman who died of sepsis after being denied abortion care in Georgia. “Amber Nicole Thurman,” said Harris. “I promised her mother I would say her name every time.”
You would have thought VP Harris raising red flags about women dying by Trump and GOP abortion bans would get more press. Instead, the corporate media focused on Trump’s pledge to be the “protector” of women at his rally on Monday. While some of that coverage was negative, the reality was it sucked up all the oxygen driving Harris out of the media landscape.
The corporate executives “all Trump, all the time” strategy though is not just about ratings. Many of the wealthy corporate executives want tax cuts that Trump is promising, less regulations and an administration that will allow more corporate mergers that are bad for consumers—but great for their bottom line. (The Biden admin set a record for the most challenges to proposed corporate mergers.)
Comcast—the owner of NBC and MSNBC—went even further in their support of a right wing agenda by recently making a $50,000 donation to GOP Gov Ron DeSantis’s Florida Freedom Fund, the political action committee launched by the governor to block abortion rights initiative in the state. That begs the question of whether the corporate media’s support of Trump is not just about the bottom line but also in support of the GOP’s agenda from banning abortion to white supremacy?!
The difference though from 2016 is that we are aware that the corporate media is not our friend. And their corrupt coverage of the 2024 election I believe will hasten their demise and result in even more independent media outlets sprouting up to fill the void.
As VP Harris stated bluntly at her rally in Wisconsin, “We know this is gonna be a tight race until the very end.” A big part of the reason is that we not only have to defeat Trump--but also the corporate media. And we will!
Outstanding. Your truth and good writing made my day.
I only watch msnbc on tv, and read on substack, and check foreign papers, and the Meidas Touch (those boys are excellent and have a higher viewership than foxy Faux News!)
The analogy of 2016 really thumped me back to Earth. Thx for pointing that out.
I remain frightened but hopeful.
I have heard some good negative coverage of trump on MSNBC - like Nicolle Wallace talking to Michael Cohen yesterday. And Lawrence O'Donnell is always scathing. I have seen good conversations (again on Deadline Whitehouse) about the negative impacts of all the draconian abortion bans. And I do see some coverage of Kamala Harris, but it has seemed to decrease, even on the good shows. Hearing so much about trump leaves me feeling depressed. That means he is sucking all the oxygen out of the joy Harris is spreading. I hope and pray that we do not end up with a redo of 2016.