People, Personas, and Politics 32 – News:Business::Business:Usual
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): People, Personas, and Politics
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/20
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: The original question was about the news being a business to make money.
Rick Rosner: That’s what it is. You have Jeff Zucker running CNN. Zucker was the head programmer at NBC for many years, I believe. He was the guy who picked what shows made it to broadcast. Now, he’s running a news network. His lieutenant is Jeff Gaspin who was his head of—no, I’m getting that wrong. Anyway, Zucker and Gaspin are the ones who put “The Apprentice” on the air, which ran for 14 seasons under Trump.
It took Trump from being a New York famous loud-mouthed real estate guy into being a national symbol of aggressive business. So to some extent, you can argue Zucker is the one responsible for Trump being president. Now, Zucker runs CNN. The statistics on how much free coverage Trump got from CNN and other news stations is astonishing and disheartening. It is estimated. You can estimate the news value–
You can estimate the PR value and the equivalent cost of appearing on the news. That if there’s a 30 second spot on you on the news that is viewed by x million people that you’re getting for free. That you’re getting so many people’s attention. That if you were buying that air time. It is cost you x millions of dollars. It is estimated that during the 2016 campaign Trump got $5.8 billion worth of free publicity of news coverage.
It is almost exactly double or almost exactly double of what Hillary Clinton got, almost $3 billion more than her because he pulled eyeballs. He says a bunch of loose cannon shit that either inspires people or scares people or makes them want to tune in to see what crazy crap he says next. He makes news channels money. So they’re complicit in him becoming president.
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