According to the most recent polls - Donald Trump is now leading Hillary Clinton in the critical swing states of
Ohio and
Florida.
And if their behavior in the primaries is any indication - the American media is about to deliver this nation into the hands of Donald J. Trump, and there's probably very little any of us can do about it.
The "how" of this has played out in front of us for a year: While Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were debating issues on the Democratic side - and being largely ignored - Trump was getting wall-to-wall coverage as he bullied his Republican opponents in the primary.
So the "how" was grounded in editorial and business decisions about who to cover and how.
The "why," though, is the part that confounds most people.
Why would the TV networks be so aggressively handing billions of dollars (quite literally) worth of free airtime over to a man who's patently unqualified to run our nation?
The answer to "why" can be summed up in one simple word: Money.
First, there's the money to be generated by ratings. The more people who watch a network or show, the more that network or show can make from selling advertising.
Ratings equal revenue. And spectacle outdoes policy in bringing in eyeballs every time.
Second, there's the money being made by the executives, stockholders, and highly-paid talent.
Republicans - including Trump - always push to lower taxes on high-income people like network CEOs and senior executives - and there's a huge array of think-tanks and affiliated charities that throw money at conservative radio and TV hosts who'll push their agenda on the air (as Ken Vogel and Lucy McCalmont pointed out 5 years ago in
Politico).
Third, there's the institutional bias that virtually every billion-dollar corporation in America has: "Cut taxes, cut regulations, and don't hold us accountable for the public interest while we're trying to make as much money as possible."
This is, of course, the core default Republican position. So whether Trump is crazy or incompetent or simply horrible, it really doesn't matter - if Trump is going to help corporate profits, who cares if he does it by pitting Americans against each other - or against more than a billion Muslims?
There's money to be made!
