Trump is going to win in 2020 because the media can't quit him

by Becket Adams

 

President Trump is going to win re-election in 2020.

I won't be so bold as to predict the exact scenario that will take him over the finish line, but I will say this: The national press will again be a key factor in his victory.

Trump dominated the 2016 election with more than $5 billion in free media, and that was even before he had proven to be a financial blessing for the news industry. The 2020 earned media numbers are going to dwarf current records because there’s no way the press surrenders its current, lucrative model of wall-to-wall Trump coverage to make equal time for his inevitably far less exciting opponent.


Michael Cohen was robbing big businesses — and that's typical swamp behavior
Watch Full Screen to Skip Ads
National newsrooms are not going to pay the same attention to someone as tightly scripted as, say, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The same networks that gave 30-plus minutes of uninterrupted coverage to Trump’s podium are not going to break away from one of his campaign rallies to cover even Sen. Bernie Sanders’, I-Vt., latest initiative to reel in corporate greed.

Barring economic catastrophe, and unless someone crazier than the president runs in 2020, Trump will have total control again of the presidential election precisely because covering Trump is good for business. In fact, things have only improved for media since he won the White House.

Consider, for example, this BuzzFeed report showing several political reporters are reaping the benefits of the industry’s insatiable appetite for all things Trump.


“Starting contributor rates for political reporters fall between about $30,000 and $50,000 a year. Top reporters can earn between $50,000 and $90,000 for their TV side-hustles, and some seasoned pros — boosted by loyalty and multi-year arrangements — make as much as $250,000,” the report notes, referring specifically to television contributorship deals [emphases added].

To be clear, that’s $90,000 and $250,000 in addition to their full-time salaries, meaning some reporters are easily making a quarter to half-a-million dollars per year. Not bad for an industry where the national salary average for reporters is $44,000 and mass layoffs are the norm, not the exception.

Hysterically enough, the BuzzFeed article quotes anonymous White House reporters who try to downplay their Trump era payday as some kind of noble burden.

“The money is nice, White House reporters say, but they point out that they work constantly and live under the threat of a morning-altering Trump tweet or an evening-altering scoop from a competitor, not to mention frequent attacks on their profession from the president and his allies,” the report reads.

It adds, quoting on White House reporter as saying, “The money also comes with a lot of misery.”

These reporters can say this administration is a special cross to bear, but they're only kidding themselves. Trump is a godsend for media, his very presence in the White House leading to unexpected windfalls for legacy newsrooms that have long struggled to address the problem of dwindling support from an increasingly distrusting public.

The president is one of the wildest, most exciting things ever to happen to this industry, and if you think there's a chance national media will dial back its 24-hour Trump coverage in 2020, willingly passing up the financial benefits that come with covering this circus, then you don’t know media.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trump-is-going-to-win-in-2020-because-the-media-cant-quit-him