It's genuinely cute that media who gave trump 3 billion dollars of free air time during primaries is now lamenting free air time for Trump.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) September 16, 2016
This morning, the press was informed that Donald Trump would address the “birther” issue, so the media showed up in droves to cover his speech. However, Trump had a few other things to get out of the way first:
Trump: I’m gonna discuss the Birther thing.
(media sets up cameras)
Trump: Nah, just kidding, here’s 8 straight hours of folks praising me.— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) September 16, 2016
Trump opening the mic to war heroes to talk about a real & serious issue: national security. Media got punked by pushing silly birther issue
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) September 16, 2016
Trump starts off with a riff on how great Trump hotel in DC is. The complete fusion of his business and his campaign.
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) September 16, 2016
Eventually, Trump got to what he gathered the press for:
BREAKING: Donald Trump reverses himself and acknowledges fact that President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 16, 2016
Trump: "president Barack Obama was born in the united states, period"
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 16, 2016
Politico’s Glenn Thrush blasted Trump and the media:
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Cable networks now carrying ad for Trump's hotel —
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 16, 2016
Now Trump getting free airtime for vets ad — amazing how he games the cable and network people — by saying he's making 'big announcement'
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 16, 2016
Real free airtime being given to Trump so he can address a fake issue he created to get free publicity —
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 16, 2016
18 months into this cable networks are still letting Trump hijack them for free airtime — ad time — by promising a "major announcement'
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 16, 2016
Also pre-game chatter on cable was about Trump's "strategy"– not the fact that he's lied repeatedly on the birther issue. Breathtaking.
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 16, 2016
Trump in a nutshell: Forced to tell the truth after pushing lies for years to steal airtime, blames someone else, steals more airtime.
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 16, 2016
Hey @cnn hey @msnbc (forget about @FoxNews)-how about not covering his events live any more? Take the edited tape, so you don't get played?!
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 16, 2016
“Stealing” air time?
he didn't 'steal' airtime. It was eagerly given to him.
— Gary Stewart (@blucaller) September 16, 2016
Vox’s Matt Yglesias was also critical:
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/776803027051216904
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/776803224946966532
(Psst, in many cases, the media ARE the “surrogates praising her”)
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/776805513354940416
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/776806900256112640
The list of complaints goes on and on:
So Trump just manipulated cable TV to give him free air time, then lied about origins of his birther libel against Obama.
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) September 16, 2016
Make no mistake: trump hid from questions with veterans as human shield
— Sam Stein (@samstein) September 16, 2016
ok maybe we just got rick-rolled into a Trump Hotel commercial.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 16, 2016
Every cable network should have broken away from this farce of a news conference long ago. Media got pimped and played AGAIN
— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) September 16, 2016
Once again, the American news media gets totally played by Trump. Wall-to-wall coverage. We’re all guilty.
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) September 16, 2016
Why is this rambling Trump event being cover in total? This is what ppl are talking abt. This is not "earned" media bc it's not newsworthy…
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) September 16, 2016
CNN finally pulls back from live infomercial of Trump hotel/rally, conceding they were misled. @jaketapper calls it a "RickRoll."
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) September 16, 2016
Was that the last straw for the media?
I actually think this might have been the final straw for many in the media – they're tired of being played for fools by Trump.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 16, 2016
We’ll believe it when we see it!
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