Yesterday I wrote that Ben Bagdikian was correct when he argued that putting media organizations into the hands of the wrong types of corporate owners was dangerous. I suggested this was one explanation for the rise of Donald Trump. The media has abandoned any pretense of being a neutral arbiter of right and wrong. It is playing to opposite ends of the political spectrum and is presenting Trump as if he were a credible leader–because Trump sells. It’s all about making money.
I never thought any media CEO would admit that. But in Gordon Crovitz’s column in today’s Wall Street Journal, the head of CBS, Les Moonves, is quoted as telling a recent investor conference that the Trump-dominated campaign “may not be good for America, but it is damn good for CBS…The money’s rolling in and this is fun….Bring it on, Donald, Keep going.”
That may be the most cynical, and damaging, comment ever made by a media executive.
