The working assumption lately among media and politics watchers is that if Donald Trump loses in November, he’ll follow his true passion: media stardom.
Vanity Fair’s Sarah Ellison reported in June that Trump was already discussing plans for a “mini-media conglomerate” that would presumably leverage the supporters he’s drawn to his presidential candidacy over the past year.
On Wednesday, The New York Times added to the growing speculation about Trump’s post-election agenda. Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, publisher of the New York Observer, “have quietly explored becoming involved with a media holding, either by investing in one or by taking one over,” the Times reported…
Throughout the campaign, Trump has bragged about his social media following, TV ratings and ubiquity on magazine covers, while complaining that the networks are getting rich off his candidacy. Trump’s media obsession was evident in a June interview with The Hollywood Reporter: He appeared stumped by a question about Brexit, just weeks before the vote, yet offered opinions on specific executives at CNN, NBC, CBS, Fox News, Viacom and 21st Century Fox. (Now, of course, Trump is declaring that he’ll one day be known as “Mr. Brexit.”)
Here’s a better move the Clinton campaign made: going out to Utah for a sit-down with the editorial board of the Deseret News. Yes, this was largely driven by the way this unique race has somehow made Utah look like a battleground state. Typically it’s a waste of time for a Democratic nominee to pitch themselves to America’s largest Mormon population, who typically vote very conservatively. But in August 2016, Clinton’s playing with house money, so why not take a shot?
But what I find to be the most appealing part of this play is just getting out in the field and spending time with local newspaper reporters and editors. In the media landscape, these are the people who are most likely to demonstrate substance and sobriety. They’ll be thoughtful, probing and challenging in their own right, but they’ll also be much less likely to find excitement in all the superficial stuff that the cable nets gorge themselves on ― hype and gaffes and lapsus linguae. If Clinton’s campaign is smart, and tailors a local-first media approach to the concerns of these papers’ constituency, the coverage will be sparkling and substantive ― and the campaign will learn more about how people outside of the Acela corridor are living.
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