Donald Trump’s candidacy exposed a growing chasm in our mainstream news coverage and Trump was a master in exploiting it. Trump didn’t make them write about him. He just kept being outrageous week after week, and they covered it.
Trump’s running became a major story, in itself, because it sold.
Newsrooms started thinking more about how to sell a story as entertainment than as objective journalism. Most of the mainstream media did it to themselves. They went with what sold. Trump just kept feeding them the fodder they wanted for each news cycle.
In return for the almighty click, most news outlets were willing just “to give what their listeners wanted.” Their clicking was making money–more clicks equal more advertising dollars. Right?
Higher Ratings Mattered More
News outlets continued covering Trump’s candidacy from their own profit-biased viewpoint waiting for some other outlet to break stride in mid-profit and take on Trump. But none of them ever did. They all kept covering Trump. They found out that even making fun of him with outrageous fake news items also sold.
Covering Trump gave them higher ratings, higher profits. It was a match made out of profits.
Maybe we didn’t want to be informed, to have to think, this time around. Maybe we just wanted to sit back and be entertained. As it turned out, by having short-term ratings become more important than actually providing objective news coverage, the Fourth Estate broke its promise in covering this presidential election: They entertained us, not informed us
The election results prove that, without a doubt.
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
