TV news should've known better than to give President Trump unfettered screen time

Variety

The president's brief pre-taped statement Wednesday showing far more affection than condemnation for his supporters taking over the U.S. Capitol building shouldn't have been surprising. As Caroline Framke points out, "throughout his career, whether as a reality show host or as the President of the United States, Trump has very rarely used his time on TV to do anything other than incite a strong reaction in his audience." Framke adds: "It’s undeniable that Trump’s quest to be the world’s most famous man wouldn’t have worked without television, a medium that’s allowed him to deliver his bravado and rambling thoughts with barely any filter. Even on The Apprentice, a show that underwent plenty of editing to heighten its dramatic stakes, producer Mark Burnett helped Trump fine-tune his persona as a successful businessman who doesn’t compromise or tolerate any bullshit. That onscreen process gave Trump some semblance of gravitas and a crash course in how to grab attention — the foundation, in other words, on which he’d later run his successful presidential campaign. The more exaggerated his speech, the more news networks scrambled to make room for it. The more 'unbelievable' his statements, the harder comedy shows worked to satirize them. He lies, knowing the truth doesn’t particularly matter as long as the falsities go live first. The Trump Show is an all-consuming beast, and as Trump well knows, it would starve without TV. Over the last several years, it’s been both fascinating and terrifying to watch other politicians learn that same lesson to the point that today, when contesting an election with no evidence of fraud, Senator Ted Cruz referenced the 'viewers' instead of 'voters.'"

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• Finally, TV news is starting to learn from their mistakes of covering Trump: They are "slowly realizing that feeding a beast who thrives on ratings is a gradual way to get eaten alive," says Ben Travers. "Or perhaps they’re a bit quicker to call out a lame duck president, knowing they won’t have to put up with him for four more years. (Major networks cut away from his election week speech, when he baselessly tried to undermine the results they’d already recognized as accurate.) Or, and this is entirely possible, it just feels like national pundits are putting Trump in their rearview because we’re all eager to do the same thing."
• CNN saw the highest total day viewership in its history during the U.S. Capitol riot
• NBC beat its network competitors with its U.S. Capitol riot coverage in primetime
• Olive Garden fans slam Anderson Cooper for saying the U.S. Capitol rioters should celebrate at the chain restaurant