Would a Trump loss in November be bad for the media business?
President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference on Monday. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Early in his presidency, Donald Trump insisted that he was the best thing that could happen to The New York Times and other media outlets. Since then, he has often repeated that when he is done being president — whether that’s in January or four years from now — the media will miss him and they will suffer without his presence.
Trump certainly creates plenty of news, but make no mistake, the media will carry on regardless of who is president come next year. Journalism, particularly local journalism, will continue its commitment to being a watchdog for its audience. Despite what you might think, that really hasn’t changed with Trump in the White House and it won’t change no matter who wins the election.
And The New York Times most certainly is not going anywhere.
But what about some of the national political outlets? What about CNN and MSNBC and Fox News, especially their primetime punditry programming?
Would a Joe Biden victory in November be bad for business?
In a story by Digiday’s Steven Perlberg, former CNN president Jonathan Klein said. “What would go away is the bad guy in the story. There’s no antagonist. So what are we tuning in for? Grandpa is a nice guy. Everybody might be relieved to not watch as much cable news anymore and go find a book to read, a garden to plant, or a socially-distanced walk to take.”
I’m not sure that is true. For starters, Fox News will continue to motor along. It’s already the most-watched cable news station with Trump in the White House. Without Trump, it will have a target to criticize nightly in Biden. Meantime, the other networks won’t be obsessing over Trump, but there will still be news. Plus, there’s a chance that viewers currently suffering Trump fatigue might be more engaged in the news again.
But there’s also a good possibility that if Biden does become president, there won’t be nightly conversations about the president’s latest tweet. There might not be a daily question of, “Did you see what the president did today?”
One reporter who currently has a TV deal with one of the networks told Perlberg, “There isn’t going to be an arms race for Joe Biden TV analysts.”
But speaking of Trump fatigue, when Jeremy Barr, now with The Washington Post, was still with The Hollywood Reporter last May, he wrote a story talking to some media about what it would be like to cover a Trump second term.
A senior CNN producer told Barr, “I don’t know anybody who wants to do another four years of this news cycle.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean the media is rooting against Trump because of his politics.
The producer told Barr, “As journalists, I don’t think anybody cares about what party the president of the United States is. What they care about is being able to live their lives normally again. I think there’s mental exhaustion around this presidency, and I don't know anybody who is enjoying it.”
Could the same be said of the audience?
Either way, the news will carry on regardless of who lives in the White House.
The future of college football
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence in last season’s national championship game. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Is the college football season going to get canceled or what?
Monday was a dizzying cycle of news. Nationally syndicated sports radio host Dan Patrick said he heard from a source that the Big Ten and Pac-12 were going to cancel their seasons as early as today. Then a massive pushback by college football players and some coaches gathered steam as the day went on and it appeared as if other conferences — the SEC, Big 12 and ACC — were leaning toward playing. Then came word that the Big Ten and Pac-12 hadn’t decided anything, with some reports suggesting that the season might not be canceled, but postponed until spring.
President Trump weighed in with several tweets. First, he retweeted a tweet from Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and wrote, “The student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled. #WeWantToPlay.” Then, later, he simply tweeted, “Play College Football!” Then came another: a video supporting #WeWantToPlay.
Particularly noticeable, especially on Twitter, was the number of media members advocating for college football to go on as scheduled, regardless of the risks. The sentiment: Let’s plow ahead because there’s danger in everything and, doggone it, we want our football.
My theory on this push to play even though it seems incredibly risky and unnecessary: People badly want it because they desperately need to feel some sense of normalcy and they see college football as hope — that things are OK. By not playing, it's an admission that we are NOT OK, that things are NOT normal. And that’s a tough pill to swallow.
Fauci speaks
Dr. Anthony Fauci. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP)
A tweet went viral last week — a photo taken inside a Georgia high school. It showed students packed in a hallway, most not wearing masks. The student who took the photo was, at first, suspended, and then that suspension was rescinded. Now, at least nine students/staff members at the school have tested positive for the coronavirus.
That image was, apparently, in the mind of Dr. Anthony Fauci during an interview with David Muir that aired on ABC’s “World News Tonight.”
“There should be universal wearing of masks,” Fauci said when asked about reopening schools. “It is disturbing to me.”
As far as President Trump’s assertion that the virus is disappearing, Fauci told Muir, “No, it’s not. … I mean, all you’ve got to do is look at the data, David. The virus is telling us what it can and will do if we don’t confront it properly.”
Fauci also told Muir that we might have a “very difficult time” this fall and winter, but that “we can turn that around.”
It was good to see Fauci on a major network and being interviewed on what has been the most-watched news broadcast on TV — and, in many weeks, the most-watched show on all of TV.
Tweet of the day
CNN Trump fact-checker Daniel Dale tweeted this following Trump’s Monday press conference:
“They’re all at least pretty bad, but that was one of the worst Trump press conferences in a while from a truth standpoint. Fast and furious lying.”
|
