VIDEO: Is Trump’s Campaign a ‘Media Mirage’ Made in Ratings Heaven?

Donald Trump receives far more media coverage than any other candidate running for the presidency. As this video explains, his relationship with U.S. news outlets is symbiotic: He gets the exposure he needs and the outlets get the bombast and controversy, as well as the ratings, they crave. Discussing the media’s coverage of the Trump phenomenon, and what’s being missed amid the hyperbole, are Robert McChesney, a professor at the University of Illinois; Angelo Carusone, executive president at Media Matters for America; Kate Kenski, associate professor at the University of Arizona; and David Sands, politics and policy editor at The Washington Times.

From Al-Jazeera:

When Donald Trump announced he was running for the US presidency, the liberal website Huffington Post took an editorial decision that all coverage of his campaign would be posted in their entertainment section, because that’s what they said the story was. For other news organizations however, it’s been a different story, with many outlets including CNN, CBS News and MSNBC hanging on his every word. Having run a campaign full of controversial sound bites attacking minorities and the political elite, Trump has been getting the exposure he wants and the cable networks the ratings they crave. Some polls are suggesting that Trump is the Republican front-runner, which if true, is something he’s managed to achieve without the help of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News – traditionally the Republican Party’s biggest media cheerleader.

–Posted by Roisin Davis