CNN President Jeff Zucker, whose network gave Donald Trump more coverage than any other candidate in 2016, is saddened by the president-elect’s attacks on his company.
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Trump said at a recent press conference that CNN is not to be trusted, and he accused the media organization of pushing “fake news.”
Zucker has responded since to the incoming president’s remarks, saying he is unhappy that Trump is trying to undermine CNN’s credibility.
“It’s just unfortunate that the most powerful person in the world is trying to delegitimize journalism and an organization that plays such a vital role in our democracy. I think he’s entitled to his opinion, but it’s — to use one of his favorite words — sad,” the media mogul said in a New York magazine interview.
This is rather rich coming from a network president whose company gave Trump more earned media than any other candidate – Republican, Democrat, Independent or otherwise – in 2016. This includes the many hours dedicated solely to covering entire Trump campaign speeches, as well as all the time the network spent broadcasting live footage of Trump’s empty podium.
No one came even close to getting the kind of attention and coverage that CNN lavished on Trump, according to Internet Archive data rounded up by the GDELT Project.
Not Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Not Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Not even Hillary Clinton.
Trump is the exact same person today that he was during the general election and the GOP primary.
The more than $2 billion in earned media that groups like CNN awarded Trump isn’t the reason he won, but it sure helped. It’s hard to break out of an already crowded field when media focuses far more on one candidate than any other.
Where did Zucker think this thing was headed anyway?
