I was surprised to see the editor of "The Nation" magazine, Katrina vanden Heuvel, as part of a panel on MSNBC's "Meet the Press Daily" recently. She appeared with the moderator Chuck Todd and two other guests (one was chief political correspondent for "Time" I believe and someone else whom I've completely forgotten). Katrina hadn't generally been appearing much on main stream media, and I was wondering what she might be up to. And, sure enough, when it was her turn to comment on whatever they were offering up at the moment, she quickly did so and then segued into what she had apparently really came there to say. And it was good. She was lamenting the lack of real policy coverage by the media during this election, in favor of reporting almost exclusively on "character" issues. But she went a bit further and said that everyone knows Donald Trump is "ratings bait" (I love that), and she then reported that CNN had just made a billion dollars so far this year, etc. Mr. Todd and the others quickly just dismissed her comment saying that they were all just covering the news and, blah, blah, blah, and then really completely shut Ms. vanden Heuvel out, unwilling to even fleetingly consider such garbage.
It was a very memorable, and telling, scene.
This brought to mind the head of CBS, Les Mooves's recent comment, "Donald Trump may not be good for America but he sure is good for us" (heeheehee)...
But even more to the point, I also recall something that Michael Moore once said. During an appearance in a documentary called "The Corporation" (which he didn't direct) Michael shared onscreen that these corporate businessmen were so greedy that they'd sell you the rope you are going to hang them with, if it made them money.
To some extent, I think this sums up a good part of my perspective on the election of Donald Trump as President. Trump indeed told a group of people years ago with whom he was discussing his possible candidacy that he would not need to raise a lot of money to do so because he knew how to manipulate the media in order to get unending amounts of free coverage. And he has proved to be a master at just that. He has apparently won the primaries and the presidency with barely a fraction of the money his rivals had to raise- for them just to lose!
And now, after Trump making network news companies rich beyond measure, most are now coming up with all kinds of explanations for his victory, which of course don't include the staggering free ride they have given him ($2 Billion Dollars of Free Media for Donald Trump").
Unfortunately, their greed and recklessness must be recognized as a major reason for our now being left to twist slowly in the wind, right alongside those oh-so-smart & savvy newsfolks...
(Article changed on November 9, 2016 at 09:15)
(Article changed on November 9, 2016 at 09:17)
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