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Donald Trump May Hate The Media, But They Are Both Winners This Election

This article is more than 7 years old.

"If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%,” President-Elect Donald Trump tweeted earlier this year.

Well, he won, and the “disgusting and corrupt” media won right along with him – at least in terms of dollars and cents. The election and its shocking conclusion have proven fantastic business for media, particularly television networks, as the contentious race boosted both eyeballs and ad dollars.

“It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS,” CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said in February of Trump’s candidacy.

While broadcast news networks have seen a modest ratings increase of about 4% across NBC, CBS and ABC since last year--when the country was at the height of the primaries--cable news saw immense growth and record-breaking ratings. Total primetime viewership was up 50% from last year across CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, and viewership in the lucrative 25-54 demographic was up 55%.

This increased viewership translated directly into ad dollars. SNL Kagan, a media analytics company, predicts ad revenue for cable news networks to reach almost $2 billion in 2016, which is up 15% from 2015 and 25% from 2012, the year of last presidential election. CNN will reportedly see almost $1 billion in gross profit in 2016, which marks a 14% year over year increase. According to SNL Kagan, Fox News will also have a record-breaking year, with gross profit topping $1.67 billion.

Though Fox News remains the leading cable news for the entire year--it even became the top-rated basic cable network this year for the first time in its history--CNN has seen the biggest in viewership growth this election cycle. The network even managed to topple Fox News to become the most-watched network in the 25-54 demographic for the month of October--a rank it has not seen in 15 years.

Unfortunately, this increased viewership did not result from an increased discussion of policy or issues. Instead of focusing on what candidates stood for, the networks played Trump and Clinton up as caricatures, knowing a dramatic and scandalous race would boost ratings. Donald Trump's volatile personality and even hand-size was inquired about, but he was rarely pressed for details about his policies (he said his plan to fight ISIS was a secret). Clinton, who has an entire history of foreign and domestic policy decisions, was often viewed through the lens of her husband's former affairs or the resolved email scandal.

Through mid-October, the average amount of time spent across the broadcast networks’ nightly newscasts discussing issues was 32 minutes. In the previous 7 presidential election cycles, this average was 156 minutes, and in 2008, the last presidential election with two new candidates, this total was 220 minutes. Another point of comparison: A total of 100 minutes of time were spent discussing Clinton's emails across the three networks—over three times the amount of time dedicated to issues.

Though Trump may disagree, many observers felt the news networks puffed him up as they would any celebrity, rather than examining him under a rigorous journalistic microscope. Various networks and personalities, including Matt Lauer, Jimmy Fallon (who could forget his tousling of Trump’s hair?) and the majority of Fox News anchors, have been criticized for playing softball with Trump or making excuses for the president-elect.

His candidacy, as well as the xenophobia and authoritarianism that accompanied it, was not treated with the seriousness it deserved (something that even Trump-supporter Peter Thiel recently pointed out). There was little scrutiny of the lawsuits against Trump University and the allegations of shady business practices, he was routinely left unchecked when telling blatant falsities during debates or interviews—including his assertions that he opposed the Iraq war and donated millions to charity which went unchecked on air for months—and he was never held accountable to his promises, such as his vow to release his tax returns. NBC did not make the infamous lewd tape of Trump and Billy Bush known as soon it was discovered.

Out of all the networks, CNN seemed to give Trump the most air-time and treat his campaign like a reality show. The network featured near round-the-clock coverage of Trump and his campaign since the primaries, even hiring former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, despite the fact that he was being paid by the Trump campaign through September. (The network also hired Clinton supporters and Democratic operatives, such as chair of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile, who was fired last week for providing Clinton with primary debate questions).

Lewandowski's bias toward the Trump campaign was perhaps most obvious on the night of the election, when he rubbed Trump's victory in to fellow CNN commentator Van Jones until Jones retorted. "Corey, you're being a horrible person right now."

Though Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide and a former reality show producer, acknowledged the excessive coverage, he defended the network. “This is the best year in the history of cable news … for everybody. We’ve all benefited,” he said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter last month.

Debates proved to be among the most-watched events of the election, with a record-breaking 84 million viewers tuning into the first Clinton-Tump debate in September. 66.5 million people watched the second debate, and the third garnered 71.6 million viewers.

The events were also big for the moderators: NBC’s Lester Holt gained 8,000 Twitter followers in the days after the first debate. CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz, who were praised for fact-checking and following up with Trump, gained 12,000 and 14,000 Twitter followers, respectively, after co-moderating the second debate. (Chris Wallace, the Fox News broadcaster who moderated the final debate, does not have a Twitter account.)

Cable networks also recorded more growth than broadcast networks when it came to late night. Trevor Noah, who has struggled to garner high ratings since taking over as host of The Daily Show, finally hit his stride thanks to his election coverage. The Comedy Central show saw its most-watched month in October. Still, Noah hasn’t been able to compare with fellow Daily Show alum Samantha Bee, whose TBS show Full Frontal had consistently garnered more viewers during the election season.

HBO’s men of late night, Bill Maher and John Oliver, have also had election booms. Real Time with Bill Maher is enjoying its most-watched season since its premiere 13 years ago. Oliver has achieved virality numerous times this cycle; his “Make Donald Drumpf Again” clip has garnered over 30 million YouTube views.

The late-night exception in the broadcast world is Saturday Night Live, which can boast its most-watched season in 24 years, with an average of 11.4 million viewers per episode.

Political ads, too, have resulted in boosted revenue. On an earnings call last week, Moonves said CBS saw “spending like we’ve never seen before” on campaign advertisements.

The campaigns have spent a total of $336 million on TV ads according to Kantar Media/CMAG data. Clinton has far outspent her opponent on this aspect of campaigning, putting up $245 million compared to Trump’s $91 million.

That being said, Trump received hundreds of more minutes in free advertising than Clinton. Across ABC, CBS and NBC, Trump's campaign received 822 minutes of airtime between January 1 and Labor Day, according to the Tyndall Report, while Clinton attracted just 386 minutes. During the primaries. Trump got an estimated $2 billion of free airtime.

Prior to Trump's victory it was thought that the media's bubble of viewers and money would pop after the election, leaving the all media players, particularly cable news networks, hoping for the smallest losses, not the biggest gains. But now that the unpredictable and controversial candidate has made to the White House, it remains to be seen if the networks will scrutinize him like a politician or continue celebrity puffery

Certain members of the media seem hopeful. "I do think that what happened with Trump will have a lasting effect," Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post recently said.

"We cannot go in there with a sense that we think we know better,” said Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, on Wednesday as NBC executives vowed to focus more on issues going forward. “We’ve got to go in with a total open mind.”

As Andrew Lack, the chairman of NBC News and MSNBC told the New York Times last week, “Is anything in 2017, politically speaking, going to be as sexy as it was in 2016?”

The country can only hope the next four years won't be.

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