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March 28, 2024

How the media has boosted Donald Trump’s rise

By EMILIE HOFFER | November 3, 2016

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U.S. Department of State/Public Domain Mika Brzezinski (center) is the cohost of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, along with Joe Scarborough (right).

As the daughter of two journalists, I have been surrounded by the media since birth. And I mean that quite literally. Two hours after I was born, the photographer at my mother’s station had a video of me on air during the 11 p.m. broadcast.

To be frank, I personally have little interest in the media and no desire to follow in my parents’ footsteps. However, I cannot ignore the profound effect the media has on the current American political landscape.

As someone who knows nothing different from a world encased in the media, this election season has even had me stunned because of the all-pervasive role of the media.

The most obvious consequence of the media’s increasing presence is the selection of Republican nominee, Donald Trump. A businessman, television personality, author and now presidential nominee, Donald Trump’s campaign, for many, started out as what they thought was a silly publicity stunt. However, slowly, Democrats and Republicans alike watched in awe as the candidate gained popular support, one profane and racist outburst at a time.

For me, it is obvious how someone as unqualified as Trump is currently the Republican nominee for president of the most powerful country in the world. Trump did not grab voters’ attention because of his charismatic personality or his promising economic policies. Rather, Trump’s rise was all thanks to the media’s fascination with the outspoken and unlikely candidate.

Trump outstripped all of his Republican rivals in media coverage during the primaries. The millions of dollars worth of free media coverage was a gift given to Trump by American media, which aided his eventual nomination.

Most Americans unconsciously consume media content every day, and as a result do not even realize the role it plays in their lives and in the current election. The implications media had in the primary elections are indisputable. Even now, as we inch closer to what will inevitably be a defining moment in the nation’s history — the election of the first woman commander-in-chief or the election of the first Twitter-obsessed misogynist-in-chief — we need to recognize the constant presence of the media’s bias in our lives.

Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s political talk show Morning Joe (and my mother) commented on Donald Trump’s most recent claims about the media conspiring against him.

“There is little doubt that in the final months of the campaign, the percentage of negative stories written against the Republican nominee will far exceed the number of negative pieces produced about the Democratic nominee,” she said. “One could argue that Donald Trump is only getting the press coverage that he deserves.”

That being said, Brzezinski suggested that the excessive coverage of Trump, although negative, could ultimately work in the candidate’s favor if he entices enough outrage in American voters who are tired of Washington not working for them and leads the public to believe that the media is secretly campaigning for Secretary Clinton.

Brzezinski, who has worked in the business for three decades now, admits that the overwhelming number of journalists who claim “objectivity” are, in reality, either liberal or democratic in their world view.

“I say that as someone who has never voted for a Republican in my life, so my observation is not based on resentment,” she said.

Truthfully, the socially liberal rhetoric emphasized in media is the result of the business’s lack of diversity. Most journalists come from similar backgrounds and upbringings and therefore have had similar life experiences.

Brzezinski pointed out that most reporters these days come from the same schools along the eastern seaboard. The result is a definite lack of ideological diversity within the media.

Media’s built-in bias has become so overwhelming that the implications of a left-leaning media in the 2016 election could be misconceived. Already, Trump’s nomination, despite the negative media attention, suggests the counterintuitive nature of media output. Backlash, enticed by Trump himself, threatens to counter the media’s liberal bias.


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