Trump has helped make money for the ‘fake news media’ he so abhors

Ever since Donald Trump descended from his Fifth Avenue tower to declare his run for president, he has dominated the daily news cycle all-day-every-day. And why not? In the language of the newsroom, the billionaire, real estate tycoon is good copy.

His unconventional antics through the primaries and the general election made it nearly impossible for any of the other candidates to gain attention. It can be argued the media he so enjoys attacking as purveyors of “fake news” actually helped him be elected president when few felt that could actually happen.

{mosads}And there he was, the essential Trump again at his campaign rally in Phoenix, devoting a significant portion of his angry speech attacking the media, especially naming the Washington Post, the “failing” New York Times and CNN, setting off a crowd chant, “CNN Sucks.” He often gets the crowd so riled up that it provokes threats at the media covering him.

That wall-to-wall coverage of the not ready for prime time president still dominates the daily news cycle. Jeff Brooke, a friend and a careful reader of daily newspapers, picked up the Washington Post on Aug. 21 and pointed to a story about the Trump Administration’s disbanding of a federal advisory committee on climate change. “Why,’ he asked, “is that story buried on page A-15?”

The easy answer is that the words “climate change” are anathema to the Trump administration, but frankly the subject isn’t as good copy as the Trump daily sideshow. On that same day, however, the solar eclipse, an oil tanker accident with the loss of ten sailors, and the deaths of comedians Dick Gregory and Jerry Lewis dominated the Post front page. The front page was surprisingly void of Trump. It may have been a first since the election.

What Jeff noticed was that all the Trump antics, fun and easy to cover, was fogging the more significant and important news. Also in the Post that day, was an op-ed column by Jackson Diehl under the headline: “How Trump is enabling famine.”

He wrote that relief organizations were unable call attention to “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II”, with 20 million people at risk in four countries. He attributed that partially to the lack of news coverage of this vital story to make room for “the continuing Trump circus.”

The media, especially the 24-hour cable news channels, find little interest in famine in third world countries or global warming when the Trump daily antics and tweets are so colorful that readers and viewers are drawn in and the advertising dollars follow.

The irony is that Trump has helped make money for the fake news media he so abhors. The New York Times isn’t failing, because Trump’s antics are helping their increased circulation.

The media has played into Trump’s hands. He is impossible to ignore. It must also be remembered that newspapers and cable television are businesses that like all businesses need to make money, and coverage of this outrageous president and his continuous outrageous behavior makes good copy.

For some time the media has been intimidated by all the years of accusation of the “unfair liberal media” dating back to Vice President Spiro Agnew and his describing the press as the “nattering nabobs of negativism.” It was especially obvious on CNN with anchors carefully avoiding pointing out the Trump lies and inaccuracies and struggling to find “on the other side” comments so as not to be accused of anti-Trump bias.

That attempt for balance, often emphasized by upper management forced the media to give more emphasis to Trump’s hammering presidential campaign accusations against Hillary Clinton, on Benghazi and the 3,000 missing emails from her private computer. That has changed, and even cautious CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer has been more willing to question Trump’s excesses.

Jeff, the media now knows that it inadvertently helped elect Trump. Actually, as Trump showed once again on his rants on Charlottesville and at the campaign speech in Phoenix, he remains good copy, so don’t expect to find stories about global warming or famine getting more attention. It isn’t going to change. Trump, as frightening as he is, captures the attention of newspaper readers and cable viewers. He is good copy.

Chuck Conconi is a vice chairman at Qorvis MSLGROUP, an international Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm. Conconi has over 40 years of experience in television, radio and print journalism. He also was a civil rights reporter for the Washington Evening Star.

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