Both CNN and Fox News say they’ll air President Trump’s prime-time address to the country Tuesday evening, in which Trump says he’ll talk about “the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border.”
MSNBC is still thinking about what to do. And the broadcast networks—including ABC, CBS, and CNN—are currently “deliberating.”
With good reason.
Presidents don’t automatically get the massive audience that comes with pre-empting network prime-time shows.
Generally, there has to be a very newsworthy reason. As others have pointed out, both President Obama and President Clinton had big prime-time addresses ignored by the networks when they were deemed insufficiently newsworthy. In fact, the Obama address that ABC, NBC, and CBS declined to air in 2014 was about immigration.
That’s the same topic Trump says he plans to talk about Tuesday evening, and a subject on which he continues to lie repeatedly.
TV exec texts: “He calls us fake news all the time, but needs access to airwaves… If we give him the time, he’ll deliver a fact-free screed without rebuttal. And if we don’t give him the time, he’ll call every network partisan. So we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 7, 2019
Trump may intend to use the address to declare a “national emergency” over immigration, which he thinks would allow him to have the military build his wall. (A wall he’s forced a government shutdown over, a wall he’s repeatedly said Mexico will pay for…)
But by giving Trump free airtime to talk directly to the American people on an issue he continues to lie about, the networks would effectively be saying that Trump’s thousands of lies are not a national emergency.
UPDATE:
UPDATE: @cbs will air @realDonaldTrump first Oval Office address tomorrow at 9pm EST.
— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) January 7, 2019
Nope. And for those who don’t know, the State of the Union is not even required to be a speech given to congress (just a report) and should also not be televised. The tweeting toddler traitor deserves no attention from the media until he does his actual job (which he never will). Give him press coverage when he’s taken out of the WH in handcuffs.
I think that the news outlets are caving (as of 7 PM Monday 7 Jan.) (MSNBC is the last holdout) and this is a crying shame because Dear Leader is going to LIE LIE LIE about EVERYTHING. Do not watch! Let Seth Meyers mock it for you. Earnest news-gathering orgs owe NOTHING to DJT, who hates them and wants to destroy the free press. They owe US, the public, and they should serve up legitimate reporting — not lies from the lyin’ ass liar of all time.
It’s Tuesday AM and even MSNBC has caved, will televise. That Reichstag Fire moment we have been anticipating has arrived.