Keith Olbermann, whose dormant career as a liberal commentator was revitalized this year by the rise of Donald Trump, thinks the news media is giving the Republican nominee a pass for the sake of profit.
In a column Wednesday for the Hollywood Reporter, Olbermann accused the national press of declining to ask Trump “tough questions” because it could mean risking access to the candidate and that would then mean a decline in revenue.
“If he is scheduled to do 20 Trump town halls for you between now and the election, thus saving you about a month’s worth of production costs for your average cable news show (a million or two, depending on how much you pay your meat puppet), you don’t examine what’s going on inside of a man who could first pretend to be his own media spokesman, then boast about his own sexual conquests in the third person, then admit the deception to a reporter, then again admit it on the legal record, then deny it on national television, then when pressed about it by the Washington Post simply hang up the phone,” Olbermann wrote.
Trump has proven to drive ratings and readership during a time of increasing financial instability in the news industry. His presence in the race has particularly provided a boost in advertisement rates for TV news.
However, the vast majority of Trump news coverage is negative, according to a study released this month.
And in recent weeks, Trump’s relationship with the national media has become increasingly combative. During a press conference on Tuesday, where the businessman released the names of veterans charities he had raised money for (under pressure from the media), he repeatedly called the press “dishonest” and singled one reporter out as “a sleaze.”
