{"id":43414,"date":"2023-10-06T08:39:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T08:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cabanesetcompagnie.com\/?p=43414"},"modified":"2023-10-06T08:39:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T08:39:04","slug":"all-trump-all-the-time-former-presidents-legal-problems-a-bonanza-for-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cabanesetcompagnie.com\/world-news\/all-trump-all-the-time-former-presidents-legal-problems-a-bonanza-for-network\/","title":{"rendered":"All Trump, all the time? Former president\u2019s legal problems a bonanza for network"},"content":{"rendered":"
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n
During a recent Morning Joe<\/em> discussion of another development in the four indictments of former President Donald Trump, NBC News reporter Ken Dilanian predicted, \u201cwe are in for a real show next year.\u201d<\/p>\n MSNBC is not just counting on that to be true. The network is built around it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MSNBC is cashing in as former President Donald Trump deals with legal troubles.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n The news outlet is hyper-focused on Trump\u2019s legal jeopardy, with a team of experts ready to dissect every ruling, every filing, every comment. The approach has seen success \u2014 even with some Republicans \u2014 with potential for more and the obvious questions of what happens when the bubble bursts.<\/p>\n \u201cMSNBC has pretty well-established themselves as the leading anti-Trump network, certainly of late,\u201d said Jon Klein, a former CNN president and news analyst. \u201cOnce you\u2019ve chosen your lane, you may as well go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Certainly, the recipient of its attention has noticed.<\/p>\n In a late September post on Truth Social, Trump complained about \u201cone-sided and vicious coverage\u201d on NBC News and, particularly, MSNBC. He said they should be investigated for \u201ccountry-threatening treason\u201d and said MSNBC\u2019s endless coverage of Russia and \u201cother things\u201d amounted to a campaign contribution to Democrats.<\/p>\n The network would not make anyone available to talk about its strategy. MSNBC\u2019s prime-time viewership was up slightly over last year in the third quarter, while CNN and Fox News Channel saw double-digit declines, according to the Nielsen company. So far this year, Fox has averaged 2.18 million viewers, MSNBC 1.51 million and CNN 639,000.<\/p>\n Without making clear how many of its viewers are Republicans, MSNBC said its GOP audience increased 24 per cent this spring, compared to 2022, and 37 per cent in a middle America region that includes Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa.<\/p>\n The rapid advancement of cord cutting has shrunk the number of available viewers for cable networks, and it\u2019s still uncertain where news streaming will settle. That makes it more important than ever for a network to identify a specific audience it wants to serve. Fox News has made billions of dollars through that strategy.<\/p>\n Emphasising one story to the near-exclusion of others has happened in spurts before, such as CNN\u2019s all-consuming attention to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight in 2014 and MSNBC during Trump\u2019s impeachments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MSNBC\u2019s coverage of Trump is all-consuming.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>MSNBC<\/cite><\/p>\n This story is unlikely to fade from the headlines anytime soon.<\/p>\n During the first day of Trump\u2019s civil trial in New York on fraud charges Monday, it was the lead story on each one of MSNBC\u2019s shows from 3 pm to midnight. Nicolle Wallace discussed it for a half hour in the afternoon, capped off with some caustic commentary from a regular analyst, former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill.<\/p>\n Joy Reid predicted the trial would \u201ccompletely shatter whatever remains of the myth of Trump as an extremely wealthy and successful businessman \u2014 you know, the original big lie.\u201d<\/p>\n Half of Jen Psaki\u2019s prime-time show was devoted to the topic, with former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and former New York US Attorney Preet Bharara as guests. Rachel Maddow, as is her wont, took a circuitous route to the story, comparing former President Jimmy Carter\u2019s effort to eliminate the guinea worm with Trump\u2019s ex-presidency.<\/p>\n \u201cDonald Trump went to court today, and once again New York did not care,\u201d said Lawrence O\u2019Donnell, who nonetheless made the story his chief topic.<\/p>\n It was par for the course on a day Trump\u2019s legal issues made headlines. While not all topics of cable news fascination merit the attention, that\u2019s not the case given the unprecedented nature of what a former president who is seeking that office again is facing, Klein said.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a need to explain complex legal manoeuvres, and \u201cthe better job you do of it, you\u2019re going to engender loyalty from your viewers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n To that end, Ari Melber\u2019s 6 pm Eastern show, The Beat<\/em>, is often the most-watched on MSNBC. The Emmy-winning NBC News legal analyst with a penchant for rap lyrics is a lawyer who specialised in First Amendment cases and brings a methodical, \u201cfollow the facts\u201d style to the issues he addresses.<\/p>\n Like other MSNBC opinion hosts, he\u2019s hard on Trump. Yet Melber is respected enough as a lawyer that some figures in Trump world, like Peter Navarro and lawyer Joe Tacopina, have appeared on The Beat<\/em> to tell their stories.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sun is shining on MSNBC with these indictments, and they\u2019re going to make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n MSNBC has assembled a team of legal experts that has appeared throughout its lineup and gained trust through familiarity.<\/p>\n They include law professors Andrew Weissmann, former lead prosecutor in special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s office, and Mary McCord, who worked at the Department of Justice and was an attorney for the District of Columbia for two decades. Together, they host the podcast, \u201cProsecuting Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Chuck Rosenberg, who worked at the FBI and was acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration at the end of the Obama administration, also hosts a podcast called \u201cThe Oath.\u201d<\/p>\n Other regulars are Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general who frequently argued before the US Supreme Court and co-authored the book, Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump<\/em>; Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney in Michigan; and Joyce Vance, a former US attorney in Alabama.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MSNBC commentators, from left, Rachel Maddow, Ari Melber, Joy Reid and Nicolle Wallace.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n During a recent appearance, Weissmann worried that he was getting lost in the weeds discussing a judge\u2019s options to sanction Trump for speaking out on one of the cases against him.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re in a safe space, Andrew,\u201d host Psaki said. \u201cThis is a safe space for nerds.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s all very reminiscent to Ariana Pekary, a former MSNBC producer. During the Trump impeachments, the network would leap on any morsel of news, sometimes blowing it out of proportion. Occasionally producers would leave the first segment of a show\u2019s rundown open until the last possible moment, recognising something about Trump will probably come up, she said.<\/p>\n Ratings, available in 15-minute increments, proved it\u2019s what the audience wanted to see, she said.<\/p>\n She worried that it was becoming an obsession, and corrosive to the democracy, and said so publicly when she resigned in 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably wise as a business model,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I think it\u2019s terribly unwise for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n To some extent, MSNBC has also benefitted from wheel-spinning at CNN, which is about to get its third chief executive in less than two years. Viewers have flocked away from CNN in alarming numbers.<\/p>\n During big moments in the story this year, when indictments were announced, MSNBC assembled its top team for special coverage, and the anchors lapsed into the kind of giddiness you\u2019d see from children on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fine line you walk is in not overreaching,\u201d Klein said. \u201cThere\u2019s enough in the actual facts that you don\u2019t have to gild the lily and go overboard. That\u2019s when they might risk turning off the independent-minded viewers who don\u2019t like Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s little chance these legal actions are going to be resolved anytime soon and, of course, there\u2019s still a presidential campaign ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is their time to make hay,\u201d Pekary said. \u201cThe sun is shining on MSNBC with these indictments, and they\u2019re going to make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n AP<\/strong><\/p>\n The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. <\/i>Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/i>.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\nMost Viewed in Business<\/h2>\n
From our partners<\/h3>\n