Does President Trump have a plan to hurt CNN and other media this year? One report from New York magazine says Trump
's tweets will come fast and furiousin the 2020 presidential election season.
Perhaps Trump doesn’t understand that much of his missives -- regularly revealed as misleading,
factually wrong, and/or incendiary -- are having the opposite effect.
But more importantly, for advertising executives, you might call this premium content. Though ratings in 2019
slipped a bit across the board — Fox News (down 2% in total day ratings); CNN (off 8%); and MSNBC (losing 1%) — advertising dollars have grown.
And for CNN -- Trump’s big
time target? Back in September, a spokesperson on Twitter said the company is having “the most profitable year in its history.”
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No doubt 2020 will see a rise in viewership versus
2019. Fueling this will be Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate -- or whatever it may be called once it gets going -- which may well extend into the election season. And the dangers with Iran?
Whoa.
Manipulation of the TV news cycle by the leader of the free world has its benefits and advantages. But for the historic record, Trump's lies and mistruths now total 15,413, according to
The Washington Post.
If Trump really wants to hurt these networks, he should play dull and silent, offering a shrug of the shoulders at best. Think long-term, not short tweets.
In 2018, New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer wrote that Trump called Gary Cohn, director of his National Economic Council, and ordered him to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner --
trying to put some dings into CNN. Cohn wouldn’t follow the order. Later that year, the Justice Department tried to block the merger, though it lost in court.
So what will Trump do next
in the face of a heated election season, the impeachment and higher tensions and/or conflicts with Iran?
More tweets. And separately, some real actions and serious consequences. In that
regard, follow the news. And TV news' advertising revenues.