Say what you want about President Donald J. Trump, but he has been a master of manipulating the media since he launched his campaign in 2015.
From not having press conferences for months, to tweeting his administration's policies from his personal Twitter account - Trump has been one step ahead of the mainstream media at every turn.
Here's a list of the ways Trump has used the media to his advantage, partially controlled his own coverage and ultimately used them to help win him the election:
1. He came out of the gate strong - and shocking
In his very first speech announcing his intention to run for President on June 16th, 2015 - Trump called Mexicans rapists and drug dealers.
The media went crazy - and Trump was given millions of dollars in free advertising.
No one could understand how Trump was getting away with saying these things - and gaining popularity.
There were seventeen Republican candidates running for President last year and Donald Trump destroyed them all.
How did this happen?
Simple - exposure, name recogniton and shock value.
From day one.
2. Distract, distract, distract
When Donald Trump was in the middle of a scandal during his campaign, he always had a way of comparing it to something his opponent had done - but framed it not nearly as bad as what they did.
The Donald also has had so many scandals that it seems like he uses a head turning story to detract fallout from a more serious issue he's facing at the time.
Think about him attacking the cast of "Hamilton."
While Trump was attacking a Broadway play - he was also settling a lawsuit against Trump University for 21 million dollars.
At the same time, the White House was dealing with the fallout from Donald Trump’s financial conflicts of interest and it seems like Foreign diplomats are booking rooms at Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, DC to this day - which raises a lot of questions.
None of which were asked very loudly by the public or mainstream media - because we were all too busy focusing on Trump ripping into actors.
Through all of this, President Trump has made an art out of distraction.
You look here in disgust - but he's doing something worse over there.
3. He doesn't stop putting on the pressure
When Donald Trump attacks something - he goes 100%.
In a world of 24 hour news cycles, content always needs to be provided. Trump always provides content.
Even if it's him bashing the news outlet that's covering him.
And yes, he does that a lot.
The constant berating of news outlets and anything Trump dislikes has left the media scrambling to make new rules.
While mainstream media was trying to figure out how to cover Trump - he was giving them too much news to handle.
As CNN talked about how to approach Trump attacking a former Miss Universe - he gave them the "pu**ygate" story that week.
Obviously Trump didn't want the Access Hollywood video to be leaked - but even that dulled other terrible things that happened to Trump that week. Things that would end any other candidate's campaign.
Trump understands that no publicity is bad - and he doesn't give us a choice but to hear about things he has done or said almost every day.
4. Physically controlling where the media is when they cover him
In his campaign rallies, Trump put all journalists in a special section so his supporters could pick them out and tear into them.
This is a scary scenario for a young journalist. It definitely affects someone's ability to cover an event - which makes it just a little harder for a news outlet to get a real story and not get bogged down in filming outlandish statements Trump supporters have said to reporters.
If you write a story about how a journalist was treated during a rally - you can miss other big issues that pop up in that time period.
Since taking the White House there's also been talk that the press corps will not have a designated room for work in the White House.
This is a tradition that's existed for four decades - since the Nixon Administration.
If this does end up happening - it lines up with the way Donald Trump works with the media.
During the campaign the Democrats were the opposition. Now that Trump's President - the media is the opposition.
An official from the Trump administration is quoted saying just that:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/15/media/white-house-press-corps/
One more way that Trump has stayed ahead of the media by controlling where they are physically happened right after the election.
Every president has what's called a "Press Pool". This is a group of reporters who follow the President everywhere.
Well, every other President.
The week after Trump was elected he ditched the press to go to a restaurant.
This may not seem like a big deal, but a president needs the press to be close in case something terrible happens - so the public can be aware of the president's movements in a time of crisis. (During 9/11, President Bush's press pool was crucial - they were the public's unfiltered look into how Bush was responding and a way for him to communicate with the world in real time.)
Once again, Trump controlled the media and ultimately what they covered.
All of the major news outlets covered Trump breaking another tradition - from the sidelines. It's subtle, but it's an example of how Trump is constantly forcing news organizations to adjust to his new America.
5. Confrontation... And not backing down
It's been said a million times - Trump is one of a kind.
From slamming a Civil Rights icon to proposing a ban on all Muslims entering the United States - President Trump has broken the mold for what's considered "Presidential."
By definition - everything Donald Trump does now is presidential.
Can you imagine President Obama calling CNN "Fake news" in a press conference? Or knowingly spreading stories from dubious sources on Twitter?
No, you can't - because it's unheard of.
Obama handled personal attacks by laughing at them or showing he's above it all.
Trump doesn't do that.
He doesn't laugh and he isn't above anything.
He'll go down into the dirt and fight. He doesn't pull punches, lies and will do whatever he can to "win."
This is no doubt jarring for the mainstream media.
While dealing with the barrage of stories coming from Trump that require delicate handling - a few news outlets also had to put extra time into objectively covering stories of Trump attacking their organization.
That really slows things down in a time of instant information.
6. A little help from his friends
Finally, you have to give a shout out to the supporting cast:
Melania Trump and the kids (Even Tiffany)
Kellyanne Conway
Steve Bannon and the Alt-Right
Rudy Giuliani
Almost 63 million voters
Trump supporters are die hard. That includes the powerful and famous ones.
His family members are in both of those categories.
There's no way Trump could have won without the rest of the Trump clan.
Melania and the rest of the family humanize him - Ivanka (and Tiffany) in particular show that Trump has what seems to be well adjusted, successful children (some of them, anyway.)
They also help Kellyanne Conway and Rudy Giuliani with their duties of constantly defending Trump to the press on TV and every other medium.
Okay - finally, finally.
Steve Bannon and Donald Trump supporters go hand in hand.
When I say Trump supporters and generalize over 60 million people, it sounds like a Hillary Clinton "basket of deplorables" comment - but it's not.
The reason Donald Trump won is because people believe that Trump was better than Clinton - for a lot of different reasons for a lot of people.
The public rejected mainstream media in droves and Steve Bannon founder of Breitbart News was there to fill the gap - along with The Druge Report, Trump's own Twitter account and a few other alt-right sites.
"Fake news" and news outlets that leaned towards Trump or bashed Clinton were an alternative to organizations like Fox or CNN.
Trump, with a little help from his friends convinced millions of people not to trust where they get their information - in an age that's already crowded with obvious fake stories being shared millions of time on social media.
At the moment, despite accusations that range from sexual assault to the Russians hacking the DNC and influencing the election in Trump's favor - Donald Trump is teflon and has made the media catch up with the way he does things since he decided to run for President of the United States in 2015.
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the simplest reason that Trump has beaten the media is that they are liars.
From Journolist to a nonexistant critical coverage of Obama to seeking approval from the DNC before running stories, the media has proven itself to be nothing more than the cheerleading wing of the Democratic Party.
Once people lost their jobs, and were then scolded as being "racists" for complaining about the policies that created that unemployment, people started looking at the lies that they had accepted previously. Had the same people calling them "racists" now and lying about their unemployment lied to them before?
Why yes...and they were STILL lying to them. Hillary at + 10% in polling? Laughable, and the breakdowns of those polls...when they were actually released...revealed how over weighted the D sample was.
Any discussion of Trump's dealing with the media should include the Ministry of Truth level of "narrative" that simply does not jibe with reality.
Absolutely.
I agree - integrity is everything and big news outlets have proven countless times that they can't be trusted the way that a free press should be.
I was more so going for Trump's tactics in how he handles the media without digging too much into my opinion of the media itself.
I'll keep the media in mind for another article.
we can't trust a free press. now that sounds like I'm advocating all sorts of control, but I look at this in a different fashion.
We all have biases. Me? I'm so rightwing I think Attila the Hun is a liberal ;>
So a free press means that any specific press outlet has it's own bias (not accounting for groupthink within the industry).
People with biases can't be trusted...not even me ;>
So we shouldn't trust any press. We need to fact-check, then fact-check the fact-checkers. We need to go to the source docs. We need to triangulate various news stories against each other. We need to understand our own biases when we do all this.
Most people don't want to do this, and pick a news source or two and rely on that source for their info.
Post a comment on one of my posts when you write your media blog; I'd like to read it!
I really agree with a few of your points.
And I guess I lean more left than right - but I especially advocate fact checking.
You really can't read anything without taking it with grain of salt - or real research.
Absolutely bias creeps in - I worry about it with everything I write.
It's tough to write with a personality but still be objective..ish.
But I absolutely will get in touch - maybe for your opinion on some topics to have two sides of a story.
I appreciate the fact that you admit being more left leaning than right (maybe center). But I really appreciate the fact that you tried not to show a bias in the way you framed your story. Having a bias leaning one way or the other discredits journalist and has driven millions of Americans away from the Mainstream media. Thanks, Well done!
Thanks, that means a lot!
I really believe there's a spectrum on most issues - including Trump.
I also don't want to be misleading with where I stand on issues so Steemians can judge for themselves if I have a bias in a story I write - feedback helps everyone, I think.
Thanks again!