HOW DONALD TRUMP PLAYS THE MEDIA:
One producer at a cable news outlet said the process of covering Trump is like being held captive against your will.
“He’s absolutely exploited the media environment to his advantage,” the producer said. “He understands every single tendency that producers of this business have and he tailored his strategy to hold us hostage.”
The producer, like many media professionals interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity because the campaign still needs to be covered. But also because there’s evidence that speaking even remotely critically of Trump will incite the candidate and may spur him to retaliate by either blocking access to him or by publicly ridiculing the source of the criticism.
So in other words, Trump believes in arguing with his neighbors, getting in their faces, and punching back twice as hard when crossed. He doesn’t bring a knife to a gunfight. Which politician popularized those phrases? How is he covered by the media?
The northeast corridor DNC-MSM overculture has been a cesspool for decades — it’s not surprising that somebody finally figured out how to best them at their own game. (Of course, he could take the GOP with him if and when he implodes, but not all detonations can be controlled.)
Related: “Rubio Tangles with CNN’s Bash in CPAC Question and Answer Session over Media’s Trump Obsession:”
Before finally moving away from Trump (until she snuck in a question about Trump’s flip-flops on torture), Bash earmarked one more question for the state of rhetoric in the campaign:
BASH: Just to follow up, but the rhetoric has been, I mean, I understand you’re saying that you are trying to answer him in some of the things he has been saying, but you know, I can’t explain to my kid about the you’re talking about hands and things like that.
RUBIO: Well, look. I’ll be more than happy to answer another Trump question. I don’t — Donald Trump, he might have grown up the way he did with a lot of money, going to boarding schools. I can tell you this where I grew up, if someone keeps punching someone in the face, eventually someone has to stand up and punch them back.
If Bash wants to have a debate about the level of what’s appropriate rhetoric for cable news, it should be noted that she laughed back on New Years Eve in 2009 going into 2010 at co-host Kathy Griffin’s suggestion that then-Senator Scott Brown’s daughters were whores.
And the MSM wonders why Trump does so well in their environment.