Much has been made of the extraordinary amount of free publicity that newspapers, networks and cable news channels gave Donald Trump early in his 2016 presidential run. When he was due to appear at a campaign rally, CNN would train a camera on the empty podium for what seemed like an interminable length of time and speculate about what Trump would say when he finally appeared. Every outrageous, convention-breaking thing he said or did was covered ad nauseam. With considerable chagrin, journalists subsequently allowed as how all that free press was one of the reasons Trump won the Republican primaries.
Of course the media’s intense coverage continued when Trump became president, with news outlets contending they had no choice but to cover his inanities because, well, he was the president. But of course, he was also good for their bottom lines. Covering Trump meant attracting audiences on both the right and the left. The ratings for cable news networks, and their profits, have soared in the time of Trump. Whether motivated by delight at his latest provocation of godless libs, or fury at his latest norm-busting outrage, readers clicked and viewers tuned in.
Soon, those same news outlets will have a tough choice to make. Once Trump is out of office, will they dial back the attention they pay to him to a level commensurate with his reduced station, or will they continue to chase the clicks and eyeballs that Trump coverage ensures?
I suspect that some self-serious print publications will rein in their coverage, while many broadcast and cable outlets will continue to keep Trump front and center. Their justification will be that we can’t afford to take our eye off of Trump as long as he has a stranglehold on the Republican Party — democracy dies in darkness and all that. And besides, they’ll say, the conservative media will be covering him 24/7, so he already has all the access he needs to his die-hard fans; we’re just helping to ensure that the rest of the country remains aware of whatever he’s trying to get away with. And what’s more, he could run for president again in four years; we have to keep an eye on this guy.
That’s a tidy excuse, but I’m afraid that news outlets who continue to put Trump in the limelight will only be playing into his hands. A media ecosystem that’s addicted to alarm and outrage is one that continues to foster divisiveness and elevate demagogues like Trump. We need to move on, and that means giving Donald Trump all the coverage that’s due to someone who is no longer President, which is to say, very little.