New York Times Media Critic: The Rise Of Donald Trump Had Nothing To Do With Right-Wing Politics
Here's Jim Rutenberg, the man picked to replace David Carr as media critic of The New York Times, with the laziest take imaginable on the subject of Donald Trump:
Above all else, the success of Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign was made possible by the media environment in which it was spawned, and his canny ability to exploit it....
A forceful personality with an unparalleled reality-television pedigree, Mr. Trump was perfectly primed to take advantage of the increasingly happy marriage between the news and entertainment sides of the media business -- becoming a textbook candidate for the modern infotainment era of which he was already a product....
Mr. Trump came at [the campaign] with a new philosophy: Give them a big, messy show with a regular stream of action, and they will come with their cameras and won’t turn them off....
He reached the highest level of electoral politics not through legislative or executive accomplishment but through a series of video moments that showcased a can’t-look-away personality as much as anything he achieved in business.