Patterico's Pontifications

6/16/2016

Trump News Network On The Horizon?

Filed under: General — Dana @ 11:21 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Back in March, former Trump strategist Stephanie Cegielski penned an open letter to Trump followers explaining why she left the campaign and why she came to believe that it wasn’t possible for Trump to be anybody’s champion but his own:

What was once Trump’s desire to rank second place to send a message to America and to increase his power as a businessman has nightmarishly morphed into a charade that is poised to do irreparable damage to this country if we do not stop this campaign in its tracks.

I’ll say it again: Trump never intended to be the candidate. But his pride is too out of control to stop him now.

He doesn’t want the White House. He just wants to be able to say that he could have run the White House. He’s achieved that already and then some.

Trump acts as if he’s a fictional character. But like Hercules, Donald Trump is a work of fiction.

No matter how many times he repeats it, Trump would not be the “best” at being a president, being in shape, fighting terrorism, selling steaks, and whatever other “best” claim he has made in the last 15 minutes.

He would be the best at something, though. He is the best at looking out for Donald Trump — at all costs.

Given that, along with his compulsion to make money and expand his brand, there is an article out today suggesting that the nominee may be looking to capitalize on the massive audience he has managed to captivate for the past year by possibly creating his own cable channel:

Trump is indeed considering creating his own media business, built on the audience that has supported him thus far in his bid to become the next president of the United States. According to several people briefed on the discussions, the presumptive Republican nominee is examining the opportunity presented by the “audience” currently supporting him. He has also discussed the possibility of launching a “mini-media conglomerate” outside of his existing TV-production business, Trump Productions LLC. He has, according to one of these people, enlisted the consultation of his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who owns the The New York Observer. Trump’s rationale, according to this person, is that, “win or lose, we are onto something here. We’ve triggered a base of the population that hasn’t had a voice in a long time.” For his part, Kushner was heard at a New York dinner party saying that “the people here don’t understand what I’m seeing. You go to these arenas and people go crazy for him.” (Both Kushner and Ivanka Trump did not respond to a request for comment.)

Trump, this person close to the matter suggests, has become irked by his ability to create revenue for other media organizations without being able to take a cut himself. Such a situation “brings him to the conclusion that he has the business acumen and the ratings for his own network.” Trump has “gotten the bug,” according to this person. “So now he wants to figure out if he can monetize it.”

Hope Hicks, Trump’s spokeswoman, adamantly denied that such conversations have occurred. (“There is absolutely no truth to this whatsoever,” she told me. “This hasn’t been even uttered. Not even thought about.”) Then, after conferring with Trump, she issued a subsequent statement clarifying her point: “While it’s true Mr. Trump garners exceptionally high ratings, there are absolutely no plans or discussions taking place regarding a venture of this nature.”

As Jim Geraghty points out,

“Some candidates just get a television contract after quitting the race; Mike Huckabee got his own show. Talk about raising the bar, if you can turn a presidential campaign into a cable television network.

Such a venture would be completely consistent with all that we know about Trump.

But when one considers the latest poll numbers, this new venture may be getting underway sooner rather than later. In addition to the not-encouraging poll numbers, just yesterday for the first time, CNN, Fox and MSNBC all cut away from Trump’s speech at a rally in order to air Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy concerns. I guess if there is a media blackout on Trump, he’ll take matters into his own hands and look out for the Real Donald Trump.

–Dana

62 Responses to “Trump News Network On The Horizon?”

  1. The MSM and Trump so richly deserve each other.

    Dana (995455)

  2. How hilarious if Fox News loses so much of that component of its audience and ratings because of the monster they greatly helped create.

    Look at how effectively he excludes conservatives, bashes our favorite leaders, and says he doesn’t want our support. He wants to cash in, not do the tough job of being president. Why would he be bothered if Hillary won? He’s donated to her, been on all the TV shows saying she would be great at various high offices, and before his primary flip flops, they were very similar politically.

    Dustin (2a8be7)

  3. Ted Turner did it.

    Trump, this person close to the matter suggests, has become irked by his ability to create revenue for other media organizations without being able to take a cut himself. Such a situation “brings him to the conclusion that he has the business acumen and the ratings for his own network.” Trump has “gotten the bug,” according to this person. “So now he wants to figure out if he can monetize it.”

    Why would we need a person close to the matter?

    Trump has been irked by his ability to create revenue for other media organizations out loud in his own words. at every debate except the first one.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  4. oops do not trust content from stephanie cegielski

    Okay, the woman that wrote the Trump story. What is her name? Stephanie Cegielski, a little research. She never worked for the Trump campaign. She worked for a distant PAC. She portrayed herself as… Well, it’s titled, “Open Letter to Trump Voters From His Top Strategist Turned Defector.” She never was his top strategist. She was never close to the campaign. She was never part of it — and even the leftist Snopes.com fact-checked it and came to that conclusion.

    happyfeet (831175)

  5. oh kooky

    so “bloomberg” has Mr. Trump down 12 points?

    at this exact same time in the 2012 cycle bloomberg trumpeted a poll showing food stamp was THIRTEEN points ahead of pervy mitt romney

    so Mr. Trump is actually doing better than pervy pervy Mitt was at this same time in 2012!

    happyfeet (831175)

  6. the not-encouraging poll numbers

    actually these numbers are pretty encouraging for Mr. Trump

    hillary is actually down FIVE points since the last garbage bloomberg poll while Mr. Trump has gained a point!

    this is good news for people what want to make America great again

    sounds like bad news though for people who can’t wait for Hillary’s partial birth judges to start doing court stuff on the wee baby fetuses

    happyfeet (831175)

  7. Well it’s one thing to start a TV network, but it’s another thing to run it. Zero viewers without cable and satellite coverage and those cable TV media moguls don’t like startups.
    Trump won’t be able to buy television stations and get must carry/retransmission rights because soon there will be very few TV stations, (FCC Spectrum Auction will remove about half of the TV stations in the US, particularly in major markets).
    Trump probably could have bought defunct Al Jazerra network and picked up their cable carriage, but the cable companies likely would drop him like a hot potato at the first contract negotiation.
    It was the strength of the Fox Network TV stations that enabled the startup Fox News Network to get cable and satellite carriage. Those times have changed.

    PineBaroness (b5e264)

  8. so no named sources, from a reporter who was reporting breathlessly a few years ago, that murdock was going to be indicted,

    as to that borscht, you were ladeling,

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3640880/Clinton-gets-primary-bounce-wrapping-nomination-leads-Trump-7-points-pollsters-talked-7-cent-Democrats-Republicans.html

    narciso (732bc0)

  9. There will be no media blackout regarding Trump. His image as a clownish buffoon totally lacking in self control will be reinforced whenever possible. The media made him and the media will very generously aid and abet him in his self destruction. If he misses a day in providing self revealing truths regarding being unfit to serve, the media will shift to stories regarding Herculean efforts on the part of incumbents trying to increase their distance from the Trumpstink.

    Rick Ballard (534b65)

  10. vanity fair was also the publication that traded in trig denialism, who whitewashed huma’s ikwan affiliations,

    http://opinion.injo.com/2016/06/256993-im-former-nypd-heres-why-i-suspect-there-was-more-than-one-shooter-in-orlando/

    narciso (732bc0)

  11. 5 – So its a pesky 1 percent of the populace for whom, all other things considered equal, will not support a Mormon over a Protestant. Wonder if that was concentrated in VA-FL-IA-OH in 2012?

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  12. The libertarians will come in ahead of Trump this election.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  13. “Some candidates just get a television contract after quitting the race; Mike Huckabee got his own show. Talk about raising the bar, if you can turn a presidential campaign into a cable television network.

    Didn’t Al Gore already do this?

    Tim (d2d3d9)

  14. This makes sense. Trump is a master at branding, especially media branding, and with a new brand he can claim to have doubled or tripled his net worth. Using his brand to inflate his net worth is the only thing he’s successfully and consistently done in his business dealings.

    DRJ (15874d)

  15. At the time of the Brussels attacks, he called that city a “h–lhole”. Now he thinks it is a “beautiful city” (unless he really thinks Belgium is a city). Brussels has not changed, so why has he.

    (I want to make a reference to the famous fountain in Brussels, but can’t think of anything sufficiently funny. )

    kishnevi (a1a81b)

  16. There are already some blogs that might as well be Trump branded. Daily Pundit and Gateway Pundit to name two. Bill Quick still calls himself a Libertarian, too.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  17. whereas the libertarian candidate, is actually confused about liberty,

    narciso (732bc0)

  18. Trump’s campaign is imploding. Republicans are fleeing from his crippled campaign. There’s always hope he can save it but I don’t see how. It makes sense that he would be looking at ways to make a profit from a losing venture.

    DRJ (15874d)

  19. Well, if he can get his new network up and running in the next few weeks, he’ll have a platform to weigh in on the Clinton-Romney campaign. On Clinton’s side, of course.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  20. Even if he can’t start a network, he can follow Glenn Beck’s model online or he can start a Rush Limbaugh-style show but do it on TV. Someone would pick that up. He could demagogue to his heart’s content.

    DRJ (15874d)

  21. 16.
    Linguistic poking around suggests the Farsi document mentioned in that link was really Dari, the Afghan dialect, although the differences are apparently minor (like the differences in American and British English)… unless he was aiming it at Iranians.

    But the linkages seem to keep pointing to Mateen supporting the Taliban, not ISIS, despite his phoned in allegiance.

    kishnevi (a1a81b)

  22. they work with each other, against the infidel,

    narciso (732bc0)

  23. Or he can just take a controlling stake in the existing OANN channel – that was Trumpist before all the tri-staters on Fox started drooling over their favorite son.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  24. Yes. So did Saruman and Sauron.

    But in the end state both envisage there can only be One.

    kishnevi (a1a81b)

  25. Trump has never had an actual campaign so I fail to see how it could implode. Polling is just showing a reversion to the mean support level which he had within the GOP throughout the primary season. There has been some fall off in attendance at his carnie events, probably due to the fact he no longer bites the heads off of live chickens with the frequency he once did.

    How many time would you show up to watch a one trick pony, even for free?

    Absolutely nothing not completely foreseeable is occurring. The media have their selected target bracketed but they’re just maintaining desultory harassing fire until after the convention while stocking ammo for the full barrage.

    Rick Ballard (534b65)

  26. clearly, his rivals had less of a campaign, except for cruz who went nine rounds,

    narciso (732bc0)

  27. They had campaigns, they didn’t have a decent carnie act.

    Rick Ballard (534b65)

  28. yet the medici and rubio’s managers admitted in retrospect, they were norwegian blue by labor day,

    narciso (732bc0)

  29. Rick Ballard (534b65) — 6/17/2016 @ 9:18 am

    while stocking ammo for the full barrage.

    Here is the ammo the Democratic National Committee had on December 19, 2015 – stolen and released to the public on June 15, 2016 by the Russian government of Vladimir Putin, using the very thin cover of Guccifer 2.0)

    http://thesmokinggun.com/sites/default/files/assets/djtdncgucc.pdf

    Sammy Finkelman (7ea384)

  30. even if you assume half was right, it’s still an overcount

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/06/uncovering_the_biases_in_statelevel_polling_data.html

    narciso (732bc0)

  31. yeah there’s no sourcing here i think this is poppycock

    happyfeet (831175)

  32. All of this data needs to be corrected prior to averaging, and if that is done, it becomes abundantly clear that Trump is likely leading Hillary Clinton by at least several points at the national level, and statewide data is shaping up consistent with a possible Trump landslide.

    yes yes this strikes me as being pip pip spot on the money

    happyfeet (831175)

  33. seriously you all are going to be in that special breathing chamber in avatar before long, there is no story there,

    narciso (732bc0)

  34. If I know Mike Huckabee like I think I do, he’ll have a show on the Trump channel on day one.

    L.N. Smithee (b84cf6)

  35. but lets play devil’s advocate, one needs a media platform to support the administration, fox could not carry all the water for w, against abccbsnbccnnmsnbctelemundounivisionviacombetmtv

    narciso (732bc0)

  36. yay Mr. Trump!

    happyfeet (831175)

  37. narciso (732bc0) — 6/17/2016 @ 10:02 am

    With a normal GOP candidate, that would be right.

    But one of Donald’s main claims is that he will get at least some of those Obama voters to vote for him. Which means even in a Democrat-skewed poll, he needs to do better.

    But I think all polling will be less than reliable this years. You will face people who intend to vote for Trump, but not willing to admit it, people willing to vote for Clinton but not admit, and people who won’t decide which brand of poison to kill themselves with until the morning of the election.

    kishnevi (870883)

  38. First of all, this leaks looks like it is a lie, besides being implausible in the first place, because the leaker is not who she says she is.

    But there may also be a slight tinge of accuracy
    to it, in that maybe somebody was trying to interest Donald Trump in this idea.

    Put together, this indicates a Democrat party/Hillary Clinton campaign operation.

    Maybe for teh purposes of doscouraging a few possible Trump voters by getting them to think that Donald Trump is not interested in the presidency anyway. Well, maybe they thought it might be worth trying.

    Sammy Finkelman (7ea384)

  39. ROGER SIMON: They call Trump a narcissist, but his enemies are worse…

    http://nypost.com/2016/06/17/they-call-trump-a-narcissist-but-his-enemies-are-worse/

    Colonel Haiku (b4548f)

  40. the leaker is not who she says she is

    she’s a liar and a deceiver

    happyfeet (831175)

  41. “All of this data needs to be corrected prior to averaging”

    Of course it does. If it’s not re-weighted and given a very heavy dose of deep data massage, the results will continue to show Trump in the 36-42% range as they have from the very beginning. A simpler yet equally meaningful method is to just add five points to Trump’s number in every poll.

    I would suggest Trump supporters also ignore his lack of campaign staff in battleground states, the fact he has no money to speak of, the unwillingness of incumbents to appear with him and the thinner audiences at the carnie events as well. Above all, keep your gullibility and credulity at the levels which have made Trump what he is today.

    Rick Ballard (534b65)

  42. 31. 38. There’s always biiases in pollling, and in national polls, it tends to be biased in favor of the Democrat. People who intend to vote for a Republican are simply less likely to answer or complete surveys.

    What supposed to be proof that the polls are off by at least a few percentage points is the answr to the question:

    In the last presidential election, did you vote for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?

    Too few people are saying that they voted for Romney.

    Now, famously, in 1973 and 1974 more and more people kept saying in polls that they had voted for McGovern and not Nixon, to the point where eventually, McGovern carried Texas, but there’s no reason opinion of Romney and Obama should have changed in this fashion. (There are also probably a lot of people also who didn’t vote in 2012 who say they did, and maybe there there is a bias in favor of who won. Not so much the Democrat.)

    Assuming an unbiased sample would give you an accurate result this would give presidential polls in general a bias of about 4% in favor of the Democratic candidate. Maybe you could just split the sample and multipl the number of people who say they voted for Romney by 1.04% and the number of people who say they voted for Obama by 96%. And hope that’s a little bit more accurate.

    Sammy Finkelman (7ea384)

  43. Of course a poll taken in mid-2016 skews toward a later date of birth than the general election of 2012, but that probably does not explain a consistent 4% or 5% overreporting of the percentage of the vote Barack Obama got vs a vs Mitt Romney.

    But you know the polls were wrong in 1996. They were off by 8 points on or near Election Day, if I remember right. But they weren’t wrong enough for Bob Dole to win.

    Sammy Finkelman (7ea384)

  44. Nugent on Trump T.V. would be a boom.

    mg (31009b)

  45. If conservative comics had balls they could do hours of politically incorrect skits on Trump T.V.

    mg (31009b)

  46. Golf coverage on Trump T.V.

    mg (31009b)

  47. This, from the politics thread of the music forum to which I belong, might be of interest.
    http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,24159.msg978039.html#msg978039

    The author of the comment is a professed Democrat in his late twenties who finished grad school about two years ago, but secured a job immediately. I don’t remember if he said he voted for Bernie, or just expressed strong sympathy. At any rate, he attended a Trump rally in Dallas yesterday, and posted his impressions today.

    Whoops! Too many Trump buildings to keep track of.

    As far as sociopathy – the other common media diagnosis of narcissistic personality was certainly on display when I saw him last night. His main stump speech is a bizarre thing; much of it now consists of recapping his previous successes and bragging about how he has defied the odds. He talked about the media saying his “ceiling” was only 30% of the vote; he talked about getting updated poll numbers and how happy he was each time; he spent so long (10+ minutes) narrating the story of Coach Bobby Knight’s endorsement that, halfway through the endorsement story, he sidebarred to mention that America has the highest taxes in the world (false) and that Hillary will raise your taxes by 50% (dubious). And then he said “okay, back to Bobby,” as if that was the important thing.

    Which, of course, it was. This is a cult of personality. Trump made no attempt to connect his bragging to his audience. It wasn’t like he’d say, “Our poll numbers kept rising because of the support of people like you.” He never used his personal stories to pivot to something of audience interest. Instead, it was just, well…he likes talking about his own successes. That’s all.

    And the audience is there for that. The “Trump! Trump! Trump!” chant is used to indicate to security where a protester is, so the protester can be removed; but the chant also serves an important rhetorical/symbolic purpose, an essential part of the rhythm of Trump’s speech. Trump embraces that rhythm, using the protesters to stop, pepper in a few jokes, praise his crowd effusively (gotta butter ’em up), and then return to the rambling subject. By the way, whenever any of the opening speakers mentioned his name, they used his full name – Donald J. Trump – and the crowd chanted the full name right along, J. and all. The contents of those opening speeches couldn’t have been more explicit about how essential Trump’s persona, wealth, and general self are to his campaign – it’s not about issues, it’s about Trump.

    By the way, the opening speakers were unimpressive minor functionaries, though one spoke with the fiery style of a great Baptist preacher. Another was an Asian-American immigrant, and the friend who came with me, also Asian-American, dwelled on this a lot afterwards. Usually at this point you’d expect a major surrogate to speak for Trump, like one of Texas’s congressmen or senators or its governor. But the event was chaotically organized at the last minute (thus the small dance hall venue) and Trump has not met with strong support among Republicans, even here in TX.

    P.S. Some of his policy comments were downright bizarre. You can see them on my Twitter link above. He decried our subsidization of the Japanese military and said maybe North Korea is none of our business and we shouldn’t be helping them with Kim. He said that we have battered old fighter jets while we send brand new warplanes to our enemies (??). He railed against the Iraq War twice, to a silent room, because many Texans fought there; he also took a moment to praise gay bars as a “sanctuary” for the “LGBT community,” which also left the crowd obviously confused.

    He also tweeted away during the rally, with a couple of photos included
    https://twitter.com/bgreinhart

    kishnevi (870883)

  48. His main stump speech is a bizarre thing; much of it now consists of recapping his previous successes and bragging about how he has defied the odds.

    Judging from news coverage, that’s the way hs speeches have been all during the campaign. He’s probably got nothing else to say. (except a few unique talking points)

    I didn’t know about the “J”

    Sammy Finkelman (7ea384)

  49. The reference to LaGuardia is what Joe Biden said about LaGuardia Airport.

    Don King used to be in the numbers racket. It was in connection with his business that Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961), was brought, one of two important cases the Outfit (organized crime) won in the United States Supreme Court (it extended the exclusionary rule to the states) The other one was Katz v. United States 389 U.S. 347 (1967) which said the FBI couldn’t wiretap without a warrant even if they had no intention of using that as evidence in court.

    Only later did Don King become a boxing promoter. Al Sharpton was associated with him.

    Brian Reinhart
    @bgreinhart 18h
    Trump says “our opponents” are buying “our beautiful new planes”??? What?? #TrumpInDallas

    Maybe a reference to planes the Shah bought in the 1970s, for which Iran just got a refund? He’ll probably repeat it again somewhere, so we will figure out what this is.

    I see he’s still for letting Japan defend itself (with nuclear weapons if they want) He always has the caveat they can pay more for teh United States to do it.

    Sammy Finkelman (7ea384)

  50. Al Sharpton and Trump have a lot in common. They’re both loud, brash, NYC hustlers who make unfounded accusations in public and double down when they’re proved wrong.

    L.N. Smithee (b84cf6)

  51. Wall to Wall coverage of illegals being declined entrance to the U.S.A. Only on Trump T.V.
    And Live Sharia Law coverage from a city near you. Only on Trump T.V.

    mg (31009b)

  52. i LOVE trump tv!!!

    happyfeet (831175)

  53. Trump will not win the election.

    He will not found a Cable News Network.

    Those endeavors require discipline, dedication and work. Trump is ADD, and incapable of at least two of the three.

    Steve Malynn (4bc33a)

  54. I have a 100% guaranteed plan to prevent Donald Trump from winning the presidency. Pay me $29.95 or contribute the same amount to Patterico and I’ll reveal my 100% guaranteed plan which will absolutely prevent Donald Trump from winning the election. Money back guarantee, if after payment you don’t agree that my plan will produce the results promised, I’ll refund your money, Patterico is under no such obligation.

    ropelight (596f46)

  55. Some history of Al Sharpton and Donald Trump:

    http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/al-sharpton-and-donald-trump–best-buddies–518370371795

    Sammy Finkelman (c5cea5)

  56. It’s interesting to watch Fox News panic and fire their lesser Trumpists. When they dump Hannity we’ll know that Trump is toast.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  57. actually hannity has won the slot over megyn, who lost them their 18-54 demographic,

    narciso (732bc0)

  58. You have to wonder what kind of person watches Hannity. I’d say that “bloody-minded” was invented to describe him.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  59. toast is awesome!

    and especially with Mr. mg’s tasty ghost pepper jelly

    but you knew that

    happyfeet (831175)

  60. the cinnamon raison are among the best,

    narciso (732bc0)


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