Post-Trump happenings

[Syne]

CNN and MSNBC Fret Over Post-Trump Future
Ratings have hit new highs, but executives and journalists at both networks are uneasy about the year ahead.

CNN and MSNBC thrived during the Trump years, reaching new heights in ratings and revenue while devoting countless prime-time hours to criticizing a White House antagonist their viewers just could not quit.

Now faced with a Trump-less future, top executives at the rival cable news networks have summoned star anchors and producers to private meetings in recent weeks, seeking answers to a pressing question: What’s next?

People at both networks know that viewers who abhorred President Trump may no longer need their nightly therapy sessions with Rachel Maddow or Don Lemon. And President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. seems unlikely to generate the 24/7 grist of drama and scandal that resurrected cable news, taking it from a dying medium to a focal point of modern politics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/busin...trump.html



Journalists, it’s time for a cold-turkey breakup with Trump

And the paradoxical reality couldn’t be denied: Although he trashed us, he also helped us. Cable ratings skyrocketed, newspaper subscriptions soared, and podcasters never had to scrounge for topics. (Media columnists were busy, too.) There was even an inside-the-industry name for this audience increase: the Trump Bump.
...
Now the news media needs to do something every bit as challenging: Go cold turkey on Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle...story.html

So the good news is that legacy media may actually die without Trump to infuse it with relevance.

---

Never-Trump movement splinters as its villain heads for the exit
"Is there a market for an anti-Trump Republican Party now?” said one prominent member of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “I would say no.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/17...ext-447235

Another group that will be scrounging to find relevancy.

[C C]

[...] And President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. seems unlikely to generate the 24/7 grist of drama and scandal that resurrected cable news, taking it from a dying medium to a focal point of modern politics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/busin...trump.html

Well, they could backtrack and exhume any potential scandal material over the past election year that they flashed on the screen as a token gesture and then quickly ignored or buried. But after so many months of body-guarding Joe with their lives, it has surely become an ingrained habit that they can't reset without rehab.

[confused2]

You should have all voted for Crooked Hillary - she'd have been a safe pair of hands - instead you went for for Trump and look where that's got you.

[Leigha]

Maybe the news outlets will just report facts, after Trump vacates the WH? That might be a nice change. No one likes facts so the ratings will plummet?

[C C]

You should have all voted for Crooked Hillary

Bill did have that crooked wood that was always getting caught in White House interns and the occasional groupie at a party. But what was crooked about Hillary? Oh... the nose?

Boone sings 'the witch is dead' after Trump win: https://youtu.be/auEkagwFDhM

This guy apparently crossed the nose off his list at the 5:01 mark and went instead for... Makeup? Expression? Sheesh: https://youtu.be/2UESwoOPVOE

she'd have been a safe pair of hands - instead you went for for Trump and look where that's got you.

Ah, Manos: The Hands of Fate. Love those redundant titles. Fitting that there's a Satyr-ish character in it.

[Yazata]

Never-Trump movement splinters as its villain heads for the exit
"Is there a market for an anti-Trump Republican Party now?” said one prominent member of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “I would say no.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/17...ext-447235

Another group that will be scrounging to find relevancy.

If the never-Trumpers ever want to become a powerful force with the Republican electorate, they need to give that electorate some reason to vote for their candidates. And that will require that the never-Trumpers finally decide on what it is (if anything) that they stand for.

So far the only thing that's defined them has just been their own emotional loathing for Trump the man and by extension, for all of us who supported and voted for him. But loathing and disdain for the voters isn't going to win them political support from those same voters. They need to enunciate a positive vision and a practical program to realize it.

I guess that some of them are big-business corporate globalists, the very same people who have led the deindustrialization and off-shoring that have laid waste to so much of the country's former industrial strength and turned much of the country into a "rust belt". Others are "neo-conservatives" hoping to transform the world (into... what exactly?) with endless foreign interventions.

Others of them are the prep-school/ivy-league types who disdain Trump and his supporters because they aren't polished and elite enough. Just too... tacky.

So the first thing that these never-Trumpers need to do is decide on a coherent program. Their challenge is that many of the things they identify with aren't things that large numbers of voters support. Ironically, that's how many of them like it, since they see themselves as a higher class of person than the common herd.

But it does kind of condemn them to irrelevance.

I think that Trump-style blue-collar and middle-class patriotic American nationalist populist Republicanism is here to stay. But Trump himself was perhaps a flawed vehicle for what can clearly be winning politics (since it effectively cannibalizes the the former working-class Democratic base). So what I expect to see on the Republican side isn't a battle between the Trumpists and the never-Trumpers, because the latter are too weak and unrepresentative of anyone outside Washington DC lobbyists offices and a few little magazines that nobody reads. What we will see are a variety of candidates trying to sell themselves with a variety of personal styles as better and more effective vehicles for some variant on the Trump agenda that Trump had the genius to pioneer but not enough personal discipline to push to success.

The Republican party has been permanently transformed in my opinion.

[Syne]

[...] And President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. seems unlikely to generate the 24/7 grist of drama and scandal that resurrected cable news, taking it from a dying medium to a focal point of modern politics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/busin...trump.html

Well, they could backtrack and exhume any potential scandal material over the past election year that they flashed on the screen as a token gesture and then quickly ignored or buried. But after so many months of body-guarding Joe with their lives, it has surely become an ingrained habit that they can't reset without rehab.

Well, they could have done that for Obama too, but they didn't, which is why their ratings were in a slump pre-Trump. There were plenty of Obama scandals (Benghazi, Fast and Furious, IRS targeting Republicans, etc.), but even then, Obama didn't provide an endless supply of tweets to obsess over and misconstrue for click-bait headlines.

---

You should have all voted for Crooked Hillary - she'd have been a safe pair of hands - instead you went for for Trump and look where that's got you.

Yeah, we got record low unemployment, historically low minority unemployment, involvement in no wars and fewer foreign conflicts, four historic peace deals in the Middle East, etc.. What were we thinking? 9_9

---

Maybe the news outlets will just report facts, after Trump vacates the WH? That might be a nice change. No one likes facts so the ratings will plummet?

News without scandal is boring. Since legacy media gave up on facts, they've become addicted to manipulating and pandering to the emotional impulses of their audience.

---

Never-Trump movement splinters as its villain heads for the exit
"Is there a market for an anti-Trump Republican Party now?” said one prominent member of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “I would say no.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/17...ext-447235

Another group that will be scrounging to find relevancy.

If the never-Trumpers ever want to become a powerful force with the Republican electorate, they need to give that electorate some reason to vote for their candidates. And that will require that the never-Trumpers finally decide on what it is (if anything) that they stand for.

Like the left, they are only defined by what they hate.

I think that Trump-style blue-collar and middle-class patriotic American nationalist populist Republicanism is here to stay. But Trump himself was perhaps a flawed vehicle for what can clearly be winning politics (since it effectively cannibalizes the the former working-class Democratic base). So what I expect to see on the Republican side isn't a battle between the Trumpists and the never-Trumpers, because the latter are too weak and unrepresentative of anyone outside Washington DC lobbyists offices and a few little magazines that nobody reads. What we will see are a variety of candidates trying to sell themselves with a variety of personal styles as better and more effective vehicles for some variant on the Trump agenda that Trump had the genius to pioneer but not enough personal discipline to push to success.

The Republican party has been permanently transformed in my opinion.

Overall, I agree, but there are still states where never-Trumpers can still be elected, like Romney, Collins, and Murkowski.
Susan Collins joins Romney, Murkowski in recognizing Biden win - Nov 9th
They don't seem to think that will affect their reelection chances. And with the country split almost down the middle, those defectors are a huge fly in the ointment.

[Zinjanthropos]

Pretty simple. If CNN wants ratings then they’re going to have to make up shit about Biden. Loyalty only goes so far. Follow the money, and besides Joe should be good for some good material. Go with what got you there.

[Syne]

Pretty simple. If CNN wants ratings then they’re going to have to make up shit about Biden. Loyalty only goes so far. Follow the money, and besides Joe should be good for some good material. Go with what got you there.

Problem is that CNN is run and staffed by leftists, who are all willing to lose money to benefit their political agenda. "Get woke, go broke" is a saying because of how often they've proven they're willing to do it.

[Zinjanthropos]

Pretty simple. If CNN wants ratings then they’re going to have to make up shit about Biden. Loyalty only goes so far. Follow the money, and besides Joe should be good for some good material. Go with what got you there.

Problem is that CNN is run and staffed by leftists, who are all willing to lose money to benefit their political agenda. "Get woke, go broke" is a saying because of how often they've proven they're willing to do it.

Even though it’s based on deceit and dishonesty it’s still a business with shareholders. Don’t think they want to go broke, especially now if CNN  realizes they’ve become exactly what they railed against, no different than hippie movement. The generations grow up, some faster than others. Unless they get back to what they do best they will be in for hard times. Irony is they needed Trump to be profitable. I’d love to see them do an about face as it could promote a shift to the right. They have power, not sure if they know how much.

How about a rival news agency springing up and doing the same to Joe?

Patience. Biden isn’t immune from publishing industry

https://lithub.com/get-ready-for-a-wave-...den-books/