Friday, September 11, 2015

Trump to CNN which is it profits or our veterans?

St. Petersburg, Fl.
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb, PhD
Coauthor of: So You Want to Blog

This one of those "have you stopped beating your wife" issues where there is really no good response for CNN.


Donald Trump, the current front-runner in the Republican dash for the White House, dropped the "T" bomb on CNN asking them to donate their profits from next Wednesday's debate to various veterans groups.

It was widely reported that CNN had raised the ad rate for the debate about $5000 to $200,000 for a 30-second commercial. The first debate pulled in about 24 million views making it by far the most watched presidential debate ever.

Trump said, “I believe that all profits from this broadcast should go various VETERANS groups, a list of which I will send to you in the near future,” the letter read. “The veterans of our country, our finest people, have been treated horribly by our government and its ‘all talk and no action’ politicians. In fact, some would say they are treated like third class citizens — even worse, in many cases, than illegal immigrants. It is about time that someone comes to their aid. Let’s start now!”

You can read the details of Trump's letter to CNN President Jeff Zucker in this NPR piece Trump To CNN: Donate All Debate Profits To Veterans.

Trump's ability to look at a situation and see an opportunity is uncanny. While on the surface, this may look like a simple political ploy, it is really near genius.

Trump has made CNN, which was merely the medium for the debate, into an issue surrounding the debate and put a spotlight on their exploitive approach to the political process.

Trump's request takes a major adversary puts them on the defensive, forces them to spend time and effort developing a response strategy and may just poke them where they are really the most sensitive, in the pocketbook.

There are a lot of legal questions, but Trump did not ask CNN to make the donations in his name. He just asked them to make the donations.

This one of those "have you stopped beating your wife" issues where there is really no good response for CNN.

If they donate they will essentially be admitting they were fleecing their advertisers, and if they don't they will be called out for not supporting veterans putting CNN in a box, something no other political candidate has even attempted.

Nice job Donald.

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