Donnie Trump picks up the phone and calls Today. And they put him on the air. Then he calls ABC. And they put him on the air. Then CBS… Then…
Every weekday, every Sunday, seemingly every minute, Trump is on television to tell you about his best words or highest IQ or greatest people. And somehow, the networks always have room for Trump, even if that means they have room for no one else.
Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has become a daily fixture on influential programs, startling producers by even personally calling control rooms to shape coverage. ...
For broadcasters, turning down an interview with a candidate is anathema to a news culture trained to pursue maximum access. Yet the starkly different strategies of the candidates are straining the industry’s bedrock notions of evenhandedness.
The idea that Trump is simply more available so they must broadcast him is convenient… but completely at odds with that little thing called “the truth.” Going back into 2015, Trump was already being given many times as much free airtime as any other candidate, and despite pleas from other campaigns that felt they were being shut out, that margin didn’t decline. In fact, while other candidates were fruitlessly offering themselves up for interviews and appearances (and even *gasp* paying for advertising), Trump was receiving $2 billion worth of free exposure.
As we move into the general election, here’s an example of how the networks are really playing it.
Last week, none of the three major cable news networks — CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC — carried Mrs. Clinton’s speech to a workers’ union in Las Vegas, where she debuted sharp new attack lines against Mr. Trump.
Instead, each chose to broadcast a live feed of an empty podium in North Dakota, on a stage where Mr. Trump was about to speak.
Go back to the first quote in this article. Trump is “startling producers by even personally calling control rooms to shape coverage.” Yes. That is startling. Not that Trump is calling, but that producers are taking that call. They are talking to a candidate about how that candidate should be covered. That should be startling to everyone.
He’s getting on the air when he wants, and he’s getting exactly the coverage that he wants. And that’s not Trump’s fault.
The same discrepancy occurred earlier this month, when the cable networks aired Mr. Trump’s address to the National Rifle Association live from start to finish. A speech by Mrs. Clinton in Detroit days later, to a labor union, did not receive the same coverage; all three networks skipped the speech, with Fox News airing a lighthearted segment about a nationwide backlog of cheese.