The Rally No One Saw

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COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA - OCTOBER 09: U.S. President Donald Trump gestures to supporters as he finishes a campaign rally at the Mid-America Center on October 9, 2018 in Council Bluffs. Iowa The rally is one of several Trump has scheduled recently in support of Republican candidates running in the upcoming midterm election. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Last night may have been a first.  It’s certainly a trend.  None of the cable channels, not even Fox News, broadcast live Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Council Bluffs Iowa.  Even C-Span passed.  If you live outside Iowa, the only place to watch Trump was on YouTube.

Trump, whose unscripted, long a prime time staple on Fox have suddenly become old news.  Same old rants, same old lies.  From Newsweek:

“They can’t get enough,” Trump often says, before suggesting that if he were to lose his bid for re-election in 2020 many of the top media outlets would go out of business. Trump also frequently tells the lie that the major networks, including CNN, only cut away from his speeches when he starts blasting them as “fake news.”

“In reality, many of the major networks, including CNN and MSNBC, have long since stopped covering Trump rallies live as a matter of course. And this week, even the network that has continued to devote its programming to the president decided to follow suit.

“On two occasions this week, Fox News opted to just show parts of Trump’s rallies, instead having producers monitor the action in order to show key excerpts rather than devoting a key chunk of the network’s primetime schedule.”

And last night, Fox passed altogether.  Now Trump is promoting Fox personalities during his rallies.  Don’t think for a second that despite calling it “fake news,”  Trump needs the oxygen.

From Media Matters:

“Recently, as Trump’s rally schedule has ramped up, Fox News’ coverage has become less consistent. The network went from airing all of Trump’s rallies in their entirety to showing about 65 percent of the total time of the rallies in September, and the network has aired only 32 percent of the rally time so far in October. Since Media Matters started tracking Trump’s rallies on April 28, Fox has given the events over 18 hours of airtime, which is equivalent to over $30 million in free advertising. On the other hand, in the same time period, CNN and MSNBC have aired less than 30 minutes of the rallies combined.”