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Join NowWatch now: How does Trump keep winning?
Last night, hate-fueled candidate Donald Trump overwhelmingly won the primary elections in five different states. Now, he is 284 delegates away from being the Republican nominee for president.1 How does this keep happening?
Amy Goodman, producer of “Democracy Now!,” recently sat down with AJ+ to explain the media’s role in this election. See the segment below:
Amy Goodman: How the Media Ruins ElectionsAmy Goodman of Democracy Now! tells us about Trump-land and how the media is ruining this election.
Posted by AJ+ on Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Watch and share this video, so friends and family understand how much Trump is benefitting from free media attention and how much the media’s one-sided reporting impacts our elections.
The media’s disproportionate attention to Donald Trump is, as Goodman calls it, “manufacturing consent.” Trump has been given more airtime on TV than all of the other candidates combined, giving him an estimated $1.9 billion in free advertising.2
That $1.9 billion in free advertising is making sure Trump is seen and heard by millions of people around the country. In 2015 alone, Trump dominated the nightly news cycle for 327 minutes––more than all other Republican candidates combined! No wonder he became the front-runner—he was being presented that way.3
As Goodman mentions, the media has betrayed its duty to talk about issues of war and peace, life and death, and instead has highlighted the antics of a reality TV star—in many cases barely scratching the surface. It’s important we understand this and demand that the media do better as we move into a general election that will affect the lives and livelihoods of everyone in this country and of people around the globe. Let’s keep the media accountable for the role they are playing in propping up Donald Trump and the hate that he’s spreading.
Sources:
1. 2016 Delegate Count and Primary Results, The New York Times, updated April 27, 2016 http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results
2. “Measuring Donald Trump’s Mammoth Advantage in Free Media,” The New York Times, March 15, 2016 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html
3. Campaign 2016 Coverage: Annual Totals for 2015, The Tyndall Report, accessed April 26, 2016 http://tyndallreport.com/comment/20/5773/