Donald Trump is right. The primary process was rigged unfairly, helping one candidate over another. This advantage was worth billions of dollars in unreported contributions, and totally changed the nomination.
No, I’m not talking about the RNC’s primary and delegates processes — which have been basically the same for decades.
These delegate selection process empower the local grassroots activists and Republicans to chose our nominee, versus allowing Democrats into our nomination processes. Trump had the activists who could have joined local parties and organized, like Cruz’s campaign did. He didn’t. That’s not rigged; that was a choice.
What has been unfairly rigged is the constant media coverage of Donald Trump.
A study from MediaQuant, a media data research firm, measured the monetary value of Trump’s free media coverage: nearly $2 billion.
That’s more than all other candidates on both sides combined. Hillary Clinton was a distant second at $746 million.
Looking at the Republican side alone, the media gave Trump six times more free coverage than Ted Cruz, who has gotten a measly $300 million — despite winning the Iowa caucuses and earning enough delegates to likely be in contention to win the convention on the second ballot.
Imagine if any of the candidates had a $1.6 billion Super PAC fundraising advantage. Imagine if that money was from some of America’s least trusted corporations.
That is exactly what has happened in 2016. Media as an industry polls almost as low as Congress in approval surveys, yet their influence has driven this election. If Wall Street gave $1.6 billion more to one candidate over another, that candidate would rightfully be labeled as ‘bought and paid for by Wall Street.’
Trump is bought and paid for by the media.
For Republicans, this should be disconcerting. While Trump is calling grassroots RNC delegates (including a 20-year-old) “party bosses,” he is relying on liberal-leaning media outlets for his advantage. And, while Trump knew the RNC rules from the beginning, no one is enforcing “fairness” rules on the media.
Conservatives should rather have locally elected Republican delegates choosing our nominee — versus thousands of liberal, viewer-hungry media executives rigging the nomination for Trump.
