While President Joe Biden was running the country, Donald Trump was on the campaign trail, talking about a “bloodbath” and sitting down with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz.
Let’s start with the latter.
I rarely quote Kurtz’s “MediaBuzz” on Fox News because it often is more about politics than it is about the media. It certainly doesn’t cover the media like the media-centric “Reliable Sources,” which was disappointingly whacked by CNN in 2022.
But on Sunday, Kurtz did have an interview with Trump. And there were some media mentions in their nearly hourlong conversation.
Mediaite’s Jennifer Bowers Bahney wrote the “5 wildest comments from Trump’s bizarre Fox News interview Sunday.”
They were:
- Trump doubled down on rhetoric about migrants “poisoning the blood” of America.
- Trump waffled on questions about Vladimir Putin.
- Trump ramped up his feud with Jimmy Kimmel.
- Trump didn’t back down when asked about threats against network broadcast licenses.
- Trump reupped his “rigged” election claims and all but dared Fox to cut them out.
Let’s focus on the media aspects of the interview. Once again, Trump pulled out his old favorites, using phrases such as “fake news.” Kurtz asked Trump, “After the Iowa caucuses, two networks didn’t carry your speech. I was very critical at the time. But you said, ‘CNN and NBC should have their licenses, or whatever they have, taken away.’ Sounded like you were threatening to go after television outlets whose reporting you don’t like.”
Trump answered, “I guess it was ‘Fake Tapper’ or somebody turned it off, he said, ‘Turn it off.’ I think, actually, MSNBC did do it — ‘MSDNC’ — but they did do it. But I think it was CNN that didn’t cover it. Jake Tapper, who I used to know and actually sort of liked him, actually, but he hurts himself very badly when he does a thing like that. And he hurts the ratings, too. You look at CNN ratings, they’re so bad. So, you cover, though — I mean, think of it — you’re covering someone for a year, and this is the culmination, this is the big moment, and people want to watch it, and you say, ‘I’m not going to put his speech on.’ How can you do that?”
Interestingly, Trump knows his false allegations that the 2020 election was rigged are controversial. He said this at one point during the interview: “You can cut this if you want, but the election was rigged.”
My take: Cable and broadcast networks should definitely monitor Trump speeches, particularly after primary victories (as opposed to rallies), but they are smart to not air them live. That’s because you never know what Trump might say, including outright lies about things such as the 2020 election and Jan. 6, not to mention dangerous rhetoric about those he doesn’t like.
Then again, news organizations are in a precarious situation when it comes to Trump. On one hand, maybe they feel an obligation to show the American people exactly what he is thinking and saying, no matter how dangerous or irresponsible it is at times. In fact, one could argue citizens need to see it. By not showing it, are they actually protecting Trump? By not airing what he’s saying, are they sanitizing his speech to a point where voters might think that Trump has toned down his lies and troublesome speech?
Then again, you can understand a news organization being hesitant to amplify a lot of what Trump says because it simply is not true or potentially harmful.
So there lies the conundrum.
Maybe the best way to do it is to do what Bahney did in her Mediaite piece. That is, show some of the outrageous things Trump said just to remind voters who Trump is, what he believes and what he is saying.
