While Trump has spent a year publicly criticizing the media for unfair coverage, most coverage has been anything but unfair. On September 9, 2016, Sarah Kendzior warns that Trump “may have bought” the mainstream media.
Excerpt from Sarah Kendzior:
Something more ominous seems to be guiding the skewed coverage. Mr. Trump has named the media his enemy, despite its history as his friend. He has banned multiple organizations from his rallies. He has a history of litigation, is currently suing several outlets over articles on his wife, and is backed by Peter Thiel, the billionaire who sued Gawker out of existence. He is also advised by Roger Ailes, the former Fox News chief who has compiled massive dossiers on journalists he despises.
Mr. Trump’s campaign is run by Steve Bannon, a veteran of Breitbart, a paramount right-wing website. On Aug. 18, Mr. Bannon’s employees told the Associated Press of their plan to “humanize” Mr. Trump in the media and “use the Internet to win a general election.” The AP went on that week to release a Trump puff piece ignoring all scandals, a widely debunked exposé on the Clinton Foundation, a fake map showing the candidates tied, and other pro-Trump coverage. The AP’s behaviour was so egregious that it was questioned on CNN, where AP editor Kathleen Carroll admitted they were printing lies, but shrugged off the complaints. (On Friday, The AP admitted they had erred in their election coverage.)
CNN, meanwhile, has hired Mr. Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as a paid commentator while he is still being paid by the Trump campaign. CNN is headed by Jeff Zucker, former CEO of NBC, which produced Mr. Trump’s reality-TV series The Apprentice. Today Mr. Zucker keeps a framed Trump tweet in his office.
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Photo: Gage Skidmore
