• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 20, 2016

Is the election, the media, or perhaps other institutions rigged?

Maybe if one presidential candidate owns and designs a TV news network, all kinds of rigging goes out the window.

Still other parts of media world remain rigged. Apparently those iffy TV award shows.

Republican nominee Donald Trump said years ago that the Emmys were rigged because, you know, “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice” keeps losing out in the unscripted TV category to CBS’ “Amazing Race.”

Trump says the election is rigged. Analysts say that's because he is losing. When he was winning all those primaries, nothing seemed rigged. Was the media “rigged” then?

Trump wants to “drain the swamp,” in addition to “building a wall” and unrigging the media. He has an idea about who is going to pay for the wall — but what the cost of the pumps for that swamp thing?

Reports now suggest Trump might want to start a TV network, which could be the far right of Fox News Network, according to some analysts. All this to explain the rigging.

But it would cost at least a $1 billion for a traditional linear TV mid-size cable network. A smaller one? Those deals might be long gone. Al Gore sold the Current TV news network for $500 million to Al-Jazeera a few years ago.

Does this Republican “billionaire” have the wherewithal to do that? He’ll need to get some big investors -- similar to those he pulled in for real estate and casino deals.

What will a Trump TV news network look like? First, we’ll need to have a cable news channel with a different kind of reporters/anchors/journalists. And, echoing Donald Trump, they should start off every news report this way:  “I’m hearing...”

But that would actually be a good thing. Viewers/potential voters will need to work harder, to dig deeper in finding out information, from all kinds of media -- linear TV, digital media, and fringe media. And then they’ll have to find ways to bypass weak journalism.

Can’t wait. I’ll tune in and write about it -- and keep the rigging to a minimum.