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Cindy McNary's avatar

Until I started teleworking last month, I had never watched or heard in real time a Trump covoid 19 presser. I heard one such press conference last week, and I told my husband to turn the TV off or change the channel. (He went to the bedroom to finish watching the hot mess just because.) The amount of crap that came from his mouth just blew me away.

I think I know why the press loves to cover Trump 24/7, even before covoid 19 hit this country: It's because of his unpredictable nature and the wild things he's bound to say. It's exactly like that scene in the Howard Stern biopic, "Private Parts," where the WNBC producer (who was gloriously played by Paul Giamatti) wants to fire Howard. An associate tells the producer that Howard's ratings are very high. When the producer expresses shocked by the high ratings, it is explained to him that the ratings are high for two reasons. One, half of the audience are actual Stern fans. Two, the other half of listeners tune in to hear the next outrage. President Obama would of course never behave this way, hence his ratings didn't include folks who turned in to see a shitshow, unlike Stern and Trump. It's breathtaking to see - and not in a good way at all.

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Scott Smith's avatar

I couldn't read much of the Albuquerque article, it's behind a paywall. But, the little bit I could see made me happy I couldn't see the rest. No, newspaper editors, not showing trump's daily rallies in real time is not censoring him. It's stunning that you have to tell people that, you would think, have a grasp of the first amendment since their profession is named in it, would know what it means. But, I guess they skipped that day in journalism school.

I have a hard time watching or listening to that idiot anyway, so I tended to turn it off and then just catch recaps later on. But, now I won't watch a network that shows an empty podium in anticipation of his ranting - it's almost like they didn't learn the lesson of 2016.

Networks never want to show a calm, reasonable, intelligent 5 minute talk from Obama. They want a 90 minute plus train wreck. They don't want to show cars on the highway getting from point A to point B safely, they want the 10 car pile up. Les Moonves should never be forgotten for saying that trump may be bad for America, but he sure is good for CBS.

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