Statistics on media coverage of the 2016 presidential race reveal how Donald Trump has managed to dominate the race. He did by commandeering media coverage and using the time to promote his brand of racist demagoguery.
The media has been complicit, of course, because it turns out that inflaming race hatred in America is good for ratings.
Amy Goodman laid it all on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday.
So, joining me now to continue the conversation, Amy Goodman, the co- host and executive producer of “Democracy Now”, and back with me, political analyst Jeff Greenfield.
Amy, let me ask you first. We’ve heard people on this show before in the summer and the fall say, actually, Trump should have gotten more coverage early in his campaign because he’s such a dominant force. What do you say to that?
AMY GOODMAN, CO-HOST & EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, DEMOCRACY NOW: I mean, I just say, look at what’s happening today. Let’s look at Super Tuesday 3. You had major coverage here at CNN, at MSNBC and FOX, all the networks all through the night as the polls are closing. You see the concession speeches and the great victory speeches. You see Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Kasich.
You see Donald Trump, you’re waiting. You’re waiting here at CNN, and MSNBC. They said he’s going to hold a news conference. Of course, it didn’t end up being one.
STELTER: Right.
GOODMAN: And that’s it. Where was Bernie Sanders?
Well, in fact, Bernie Sanders was in Phoenix, Arizona, before thousands of people, and as the networks were waiting on Donald Trump and the pundits are weighing in, they don’t even say that Bernie Sanders is about to speak. This was the moment that night —
STELTER: Is that because he was the biggest loser of the night?
GOODMAN: No, because they did not know that at the point. At that point, it looked like he could take Illinois and Missouri. And CNN was very good at stressing this. They said they didn’t know Hillary Clinton came in early, afraid maybe the she might lose her own state, Illinois. So, everyone was waiting. This is when Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper saying, you know, we don’t know, we don’t know and he gives a speech. But they don’t only — you know, a few weeks ago, it was holding on to
Hillary Clinton’s speech for an hour news conference of Donald Trump as he sold his stakes and his magazines and his water and everything else he had on the stand. This time, they didn’t even record and show afterwards Bernie Sanders. He was completely absent.
STELTER: But to play devil’s advocate with you, hasn’t Clinton essentially clinched nomination, who’s very likely to be the nominee and perhaps that’s been the undercovered story for —
GOODMAN: What about John Kasich? I mean, he won one state, at all together. But every single — I mean, that was the night Rubio pulled out. But at that point, they didn’t know what would happen. Would it be a 3-2 split, so you just ice out this candidate?
But it’s not only the networks. “Washington Post”, March 6th-7th, they had 16 articles in a 24 hour period against Bernie Sanders. And the recent “New York Times” —
STELTER: Yes, I saw that —
GOODMAN: “The New York Times”, a positive story recently about Bernie Sanders’, you know, record against Congress.
STELTER: But all these candidates should get tough coverage, all the coverage.
GOODMAN: No, no, there was a positive story. They did a positive story. And in a very stealth way, it was edited ultimately to be a negative story. The public editor wrote a column about it and everything.
I think it’s very important to understand the media manufactures consent. In this case, their manufacture, this as Noam Chomsky says, manufactures consent. We, right now, this is the anniversary of the Iraq war.
STELTER: What is the consent? Right, the 13th anniversary.
What is the consent that’s being manufactured?
GOODMAN: I think this exposure for Trump is very frightening. Yes, there is now some critical coverage.
[11:20:01] But for the year 2015, as the snow bowl rolled and got larger and larger, he got 23 times the coverage of Bernie Sanders.
