Trump’s plan to corrupt the media is starting to work.
A key goal of Donald Trump’s second term has been to use government power to place important media properties in the hands of loyalists who will bend coverage to the president’s will. Yesterday, the Trump-approved management at CBS duly held back a 60 Minutes report about the administration’s treatment of migrant detainees deported to El Salvador.
Although many of Trump’s goals to reindustrialize the economy or prosecute his enemies have floundered, his plan to corrupt the media is starting to work.
During his first term, Trump’s efforts to get the media to do his bidding consisted mostly of endless whining, punctuated by regular threats of nuisance lawsuits and the occasional actual suit. In his second term, he has seized upon a more effective tool. Most large media properties have owners, and those owners have business that relies on the federal government. Trump has made clear that the price of cooperative regulatory policies from his government is giving him friendlier coverage.
