Are we going to repeat history?

In 2016 every few days a camera would be trained on an empty stage waiting for Trump to come out and does his carnival barking routine in a new city.
4 years later, same thing. Trump says the press conference is at 4:00pm. At 4:00, CNN starts their live feed and coverage with a camera on the empty podium. At 5:30 Trump finally comes out and starts carnival barking and playing WWE with the press corps.

The media isn't really "falling for his tricks" though. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. Trump isn't lying when he talks about the ratings he's getting. A grip of folks tune in either to be cheer on the president or to be outraged. Either way, all eyes are on him. He found a way to do his rallies in the middle of a pandemic. And the ad dollars increase for the media companies.

Because of this symbiotic relationship, I don't think it's ever going to change. I noticed CNN is starting to cut away from his speech segment. But without fail, the cut back whenever the entertaining Q&A session starts. Because that's what the people enjoy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/opinion/trump-coronavirus-briefings.html

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