As Americans are dying by the thousands, Donald Trump lied and bragged about the television ratings that his coronavirus briefings are drawing.
Trump tweeted:
Because the “Ratings” of my News Conferences etc. are so high, “Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers” according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. “Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him.” said one lunatic. See you at 5:00 P.M.!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020
The ratings reveal that Trump is lying. Monday Night Football averaged over 12.5 million viewers last season on ESPN. Friday’s coronavirus briefing which ran uninterrupted in the 6 PM hour on all three cable news networks drew a combined 7 million + viewers, with a slight majority of those viewers coming from CNN and MSNBC. The Bachelor finale also drew a million more viewers than Trump on ABC.
People are dying, and instead of using his Twitter platform to educate the public on safety during the epidemic, Trump is bragging and falsely inflating his TV ratings.
A look at the ratings shows why the cable news networks will not stop televising his coronavirus briefings live. As long as people keep watching, the networks will ignore all criticism of their decision and continue to give Trump an unfiltered platform to use to lie to the country.
When people stop watching the cable news networks will stop airing the briefings live, and not fact-checked.
Trump doesn’t care about the medical crisis or the economic collapse. All that matters to him is that he is getting live airtime, and the attention of the cable news networks.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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