Should he be invited in this way? A broadcast on CNN starring Donald Trump, provoking and informing, would have been enough to start the debate about the place the media will give him in the Republican primary and perhaps the 2024 presidential election. to get going again.
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It was his return to prime time on the cable news network, which he often showered with insults, and he didn’t let the opportunity slip. At 1:10 a.m. Donald Trump, answering questions from a group of Republican or undecided voters in New Hampshire, attacked Joe Biden on inflation and immigration and portrayed America as “a third world country.”
But he also repeated – without evidence, journalist Kaitlan Collins reminded him – that the 2020 presidential election had been “rigged” against him and downplayed the violent invasion of the Capitol by thousands of his supporters, who denied defeat on January 6, 2021 .
Most often to the applause of his followers, downright hilarious as the seventy-year-old called former journalist E. Jean Carroll “insane” whom he must pay $5 million in damages for sexually assaulting and defaming her in 1996, a ruling says , which was decided by a citizens’ jury in New York on Tuesday. Verdict, against which he officially appealed on Thursday.
megaphone
“Catastrophic”, “total madness”, “shame” … criticized before the show, especially from the ranks of the Democrats, CNN has been reaping a flood of allegations since Wednesday evening, who are accused of having stretched out the megaphone to inform the Republican primary favorite for hearing.
According to the broadcaster, the show attracted 3.3 million viewers, the second-best result for such a format since 2016 on CNN.
“It’s hard to see what benefit America has brought from the show of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday night,” even begins the analysis of one of the channel’s journalists, who follows the media, Olivier Darcy.
“It’s not news, it’s noise,” said Matthew Jordan, associate professor of media studies at Penn State University.
For him, the mere idea of live dismantling the lies of Donald Trump, who was banned from Twitter and Facebook after January 6, 2021 until recently for inciting violence, is a challenge.
“Strategy”
“The problem is that Trump’s strategy as an authoritarian demagogue is to wage a war on the truth with a barrage of lies so that fact checking doesn’t work…he keeps lying,” Matthew Jordan asserts.
On the contrary, through a spokesman, CNN assures that this verification work was carried out “in real time” by its journalist, who asked “difficult, fair and insightful questions”. The day after the show, many media outlets devoted articles refuting certain claims made by Donald Trump.
Aside from the odds potential the 76-year-old candidate could still represent, it’s hard to imagine being without whoever is currently dominating the polls for the Republican primary in the coming months.
“What happens if he wins the primary? Shouldn’t we broadcast the Republican Convention?” asks Rutgers University history and journalism professor David Greenberg.
“In a democracy you have to allow people to make their own judgements,” he added to AFP.
“No Blackout”
The professor even thanks CNN for “reminding him who Donald Trump is” and “the emotional bond he has with many Americans,” which he says is a cautionary tale.
Ever since Donald Trump burst onto the American political scene with his recipe for success as a businessman and reality TV star, he has sparked heated debates about his place in the media.
Most importantly, it was an undeniable ratings factor for the news channels amid stiff competition between Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.
His indictment for accounting and tax fraud in New York in early April had sparked a media hype about the ex-president, who had always benefited from it.
“In 2016, the networks and especially CNN gave him too much airtime. Because they thought it was spectacular,” recalls David Greenberg. “But that doesn’t mean the alternative is just a blackout,” he adds. For him there is no other solution than “to question him and confront him with the facts”.