Riddle me this, if Trump did not have wall to wall coverage on MSNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS

[Agnosticsherbet]

where would he be in the polls?

Yes, I am asking for an opinion.

I have never seen such focus by the media on a single candidate. After a survey of the news, FOX news is the only channel not fixated on Trump 24/7. (Now I need to take a bath)

the News/entertainment media generally divide their important stories and give the most important story more minutes. They've become like sharks in a feeding frenzy.

Why should Trump spend any time on ads when he is on all the time?

[arcane1]

1. He sure does get a lot of free publicity n/t

[Agnosticsherbet]

8. More than everybody else put together.

[arcane1]

11. The one guy who doesn't have to fund-raise.

Funny how that works.

[immoderate]

2. Indeed. Trump provides oxygen for the breathless perpetual news outlets.

--imm

[Agnosticsherbet]

9. Yes, the breath money, and money comes from advertising.

But, damn, I'm sick of him.

[yodermon]

3. Imagine if Bernie had gotten commensurate coverage n/t

[Agnosticsherbet]

10. It would not have made up for everything, but he would be doing better.

Sanders should have ignored New Hampshire and Iowa and spent all that time in the South.

[hifiguy]

17. Why?

And why should those states have such a large effect this early?

NO Democrat is ever going to win them in any remotely conceivable GE. Florida's the only one that's in play. Alabama? Mississippi? A Democrat is lucky to hit 40% in a general election. They contribute ZERO electoral votes to Democrats and that won't change for decades.

[Agnosticsherbet]

19. Because those states reflect the Demographic nature of the Democratic Party.

We are a multi ethnic party. African Americans and Hispanics make up critical constituencies. Women are another core constituency. Sanders needed to spend far more time understanding them.

These are statements by Kos posted in this thread. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1374963

Democrats, South Carolina, and wrapping up our primary season
Saturday we all saw what the “demographic ceiling” looks like, and for Bernie Sanders, it wasn’t pretty. Iowa was all white, and the candidates effectively tied. New Hampshire was all white, and Bernie Sanders won big. But it’s been downhill for Bernie as the states have gotten browner—first Nevada, and now the South Carolina near-50-point blowout.

I keep coming back to this again and again—imagine if Sanders had half a year camped out in South Carolina and Nevada, getting to know Latinos and African Americans as intimately as he got to know white farmers in Iowa? The primary calendar does a disservice to Democrats, and this has to be the last year Iowa and New Hampshire lead the pack.

You know who did turn out given the opportunity? African Americans in South Carolina. That’s the Trump effect. So yeah, white Bernie Sanders supporters might not be feeling the Clinton, but that’s because you don’t have Donald Trump challenging your very right to exist. If you are a Sanders supporter and can’t understand that, perhaps that’s why you weren’t able to help expand Sanders’ support beyond his white base.

The big takeaway? If you want a revolution, find a candidate/leader that looks like the Democratic Party, or has done the hard work of building credibility in communities of color.

[hifiguy]

20. So push them back in the calendar.

West coast states - and noplace is more diverse than California, the most populous state in the entire country - are Democratic bulwarks in general elections. Why not give California and the Pacific NW pride of place? Those states are states Democrats WIN in general elections. There is NOTHING to be won in the old Confederacy in any GE for the foreseeable future. They should not have a disproportionate effect on selecting delegates by being so early in the process.

[G_j]

16. as opposed to the virtual blackout?

good question

[Matrosov]

4. Probably not too far from his current position

The major difference is that he'd have to spend much more money on publicity. The media is giving him a great deal of free publicity right now.

In a way I actually understand it. The news business is in the business of selling news, and Trump's participation is turning this election season into a cross between American Idol and Jerry Springer.

[Agnosticsherbet]

12. Add mud wrestling and I wold agree.

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. I think he would have been out of the race long ago; but for, the free coverage ...

"What? ... I have to spent MY money to run ads? Screw that! ... Call a meeting of the sales team. We're cashing out."

[Agnosticsherbet]

13. He has managed this coverage better than anyone.

I suspect future candidates will use this a model.

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. Yes. He has. He is a master (self) promoter. I will give him that ...

though, I doubt anyone else could have pulled it off.

[lame54]

6. maybe - but he would have to spend his own money to do it

[Agnosticsherbet]

14. He has played the media like a Stradivarius nt.

[imanamerican63]

7. I guess that is why he is so rich!

[Agnosticsherbet]

15. I suspect it helped that he was born with it.

[Hoyt]

21. He has wall to wall coverage because a lot of right wingers want to see him, and tune in.

If people didn't watch, they would broadcast something else.

[Xolodno]

22. Because...

...Trump knows how to manipulate the media.


You might say he is the "Howard Stern" of GOP politics. People who liked Stern listened to him because...they wondered what he would say next. And people who hated him...wondered what he would say next.

For decades the GOP has been doing the nod and wink...Trump is just unzipping his pants and dropping his dick and balls for everyone to see and daring everyone else to do the same. He's just reaping the crops the GOP sowed....despite the fact the GOP never wanted to harvest.

[Uncle Joe]

23. This is precisely why Trump is not an "anti-establishment" candidate,

the corporate media conglomerates damn sure wouldn't be promoting him virtually 24/7 from the day he announced and even before if they ever thought he would challenge the corruption of money in politics or the establishment order.

It's all Kabuki Theater.

Thanks for the thread, Agnosticsherbet.

[PoiBoy]

24. This article nails it pretty much...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027629295

http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/02/06/suspicions-confirmed-trumps-campaign-was-a-pre-planned-con-job/

“‘I’m going to walk away with it and win it outright,’” a long-time New York political consultant recalled. “Trump told us, ‘I’m going to get in and all the polls are going to go crazy. I’m going to suck all the oxygen out of the room. I know how to work the media in a way that they will never take the lights off of me.'”

[dembotoz]

25. crying over spilt milk....trump is a master showman. he knows how to make news better than others

show biz merged with politics and we are the worse off for it

bread and circuses?
well we have the circus where is the bread.

[blm]

26. NEVER before. It's crazy and demeaning to the whole country, imo.

.

[Stellar]

27. We would probably be watching PBS. Everyone else has been corrupted by big money.

eta: You people will vote for who I want you to vote for and nobody else.

[underpants]

28. The contrast with the complete lack of early Bernie coverage is telling

But let's not forget - Trump was allowed to prep their battlefield with weekly call ins to Fox n Friends.

[Svafa]

29. It's a vicious cycle.

The media talk about Drumpf's wild positions and comments. Then the "car crash" mentality sets in--as horrifying as what he does/says is, people can't help tuning in because of the spectacle. The media get more viewers, so they put out more Drumpf coverage. And so it goes. Of course the huge downside (other than having to see his awful face and hear the garbage he spews all over the place) is that the constant attention both gives him exposure to people who may be swayed by his rhetoric and legitimizes him in the eyes of his followers. A vicious, and disturbing, cycle that is getting out of control.

[0rganism]

31. worst part is, eventually people will get bored with Trump's antics

all those "wild positions and comments"? in a few months, we the people will not be outraged, but rather bored
in this campaign season, the Trumpster is likely DOA
but the next Republican to come along spouting those "wild positions and comments" will not be greeted with outrage, but simple boredom -- "ho hum, we've heard this all before somewhere, just more politics as usual".
if we're lucky, their fortunes will be comparable to boring nasty old Pat Buchanan, marginalized and largely ignored.
what scares the shit out of me is that Trump's "wild positions and comments" could become the "new normal" for one of our major political parties that, frankly, has embraced ideas of comparable "wildness" over the last 50 years.

[Svafa]

34. Excellent, and very frightening, point.

[ProfessorGAC]

32. #1

The people who are supporting him don't all watch the news. They know what they know and they're minds are already made up.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. This is why FDR had congress pass a few laws

to prevent precisely what you are seeing... after the rise of Hitler. We had small versions of that in the US before those laws were passed. History will not be kind to Bill Clinton... and the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

By the way, not only do you have a point, but when even Newt tells Fox, the least of the offenders, that they are creating this frankestein (And let's not start on his role), you know there is a problem. I often do not agree with the former speaker. but on this one, he is a student of the rise of Hitler and he, and incidentally I, agree on that very point.

[bigwillq]

35. At the top, probably

It seems like folks like what he's saying

[Blue_Tires]

36. I kept saying if people stopped watching in record numbers

and feeding the beast, the cable news would have found some other angle to cover...

[RussBLib]

37. they wanted a circus

and they got it. Shameless, pandering whores.

[hollowdweller]

38. I think he would still be high in the polls.

The GOP has always got the working class to vote against their economic interests by exploiting their fears and prejudices.

Trump gives them a populist agenda AND caters to the fears and prejudices!

Not only will he get the grassroots GOP but he will get a LOT of the independants who might vote democrat but would never vote for Hillary.