AROUND THE BLOCK
News with a Twist
Trump Getting $ Millions in Free Airtime
Competition Incredulous!
Just about 10 days ago I posted a comment on my Facebook page
and in Around The Block regarding the coverage CNN was giving
Donald Trump and his campaign. Here's what I said:
CNN just aired 26
uninterrupted minutes of a Trump campaign rally in AZ. (11:40 am - 12:06 pm
PST). Journalism at it's best! They should change their name to CT(rump)N since
all they seem to care about is ratings and the Donald obviously brings those.
Sad that the one time go-to source for news has degenerated into this!
At the time of that post, while I speculated on how much that airtime might have been worth to Trump in commercial terms (i.e., what would it cost Trump to buy 26 minutes of commercial time on CNN), and how Trump’s free airtime compares to the amount of money his opponents are spending on commercials, I never got around to doing the math.
Now I have.
The AP is now reporting, "As other
candidates and their affiliated super PACs have spent millions of dollars on
expensive television ads, Trump's campaign has reported spending just $300,00
on a sprinkling of radio ads". Instead of spending money on TV ads,
reports the AP, Trump has received 22 hours and 46 minutes of free airtime on
Fox News alone from May to December 2015, more than twice as much as any other
candidate and "more than Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio
combined."
Now for the math.
Television time is typically sold in :30
units. 22 hours and 46 minutes equates to 1,366 minutes or 2,732 “:30s”. Now, I’ve been out of the media business for a while but I’m going to take a rough
guess that the average cost of a :30 spot on Fox News runs about $5,000. That
means that the “value” of all this free coverage is worth about $13.6 million
to Trump. And that’s on Fox alone. Let’s speculate a second. If CNN gave Trump
½ the coverage Fox did (bet it was more that ½), and charged the same cost/:30
spot, the value of CNN coverage would be about $6.8 million. And let’s say if MSNBC gave the same coverage as CNN, but could only charge ½ the price per :30
because of their smaller audience, that would be an additional $3.8 million.
So, it very well may be that Trump, who has reportedly spent only $300,000 in
ads on radio, is benefiting from almost $24 million in non-paid airtime.
To put this into perspective, let’s look at
what Trump’s opponents are actually SPENDING to purchase TV time. According to
NBC News, and including candidate and Super Pac spending combined (which is why
it is categorized as “Team XYZ”), here’s what it looks like:
·
Team Jeb Bush: $32.5 million
·
Team Marco Rubio: $13.1 million
·
Team John Kasich: $8.4 million
·
Team Chris Christie: $7.0 million
·
Team Lindsey Graham: $2.7 million
·
Team Ben Carson: $2.4 million
·
Team Carly Fiorina: $1 million
·
Team Rand Paul: $900,000
·
Team Ted Cruz: $850,000
·
Team Donald Trump: $216,000
With the free airtime the cable news networks
are giving Trump, his airtime exposure is #2, behind Bush. And he’s getting it
without spending a dime! (Well $200,000-$300,000, but who’s counting).
Curious as to how the other candidates are
reacting to this un-level playing field, Around
The Block contacted several of them
· Jeb Bush: Jeb’s
immediate response was, “Golly, I didn’t know that was happening. I bet my
backers on Team Jeb Bush are really annoyed. And, frankly, I would be too,
because I always told them I was the smart Bush. I’ve got to rush back to
Florida to ask them for more money to fix this”.
· Marco Rubio: “¡Dios
Mio! I’m just the son of poor Cuban immigrants who came to America in 1956 to
escape Castro.” (editor’s note: Castro
came to power in Cuba on January 1, 1959) “Little did I know that in
America, this great land of opportunity, there are so many things that are
free. I guess that’s why you Yanquis call it the ‘home of the brave and the
land of the free’. While I will ask my staff to look into this free airtime
thing, and hope to take advantage of it, I will not change my position on the expansion of Medicaid or the reduction of Social Security and Food Stamp
benefits or any other free things given to the infirmed, elderly or poor
out there. There's no free lunch in America. These people have to earn it just like my poor Cuban immigrant parents did”.
· Ben Carson: “It is my
opinion that when you get things for free, you get what you pay for. In other
words, things that are free are not necessarily the same as things that cost
money. And, as I’ve said on many of occasions, when you spend money you end
up with less. Having said that, I think Terry Giles, my longtime friend and aide, whispered something to me about this. But as you know, Terry had my bad ear so I didn’t
hear it. Because if I heard it, I would have acted on it. After all, this isn’t
brain surgery.”
· Chris Christie: “As a
former federal prosecutor, I am appalled at this situation and will use all the
powers at my disposal as a former federal prosecutor to bring the perpetrators
of this heinous crime, one of the most horrific in the annals of American
criminal history, to justice.” When asked if he felt he was grandstanding on
this issue, Christie told the questioner to “shut up”, going on to say, “When
you’re a former federal prosecutor you need to bring the full powers of your
office to every investigation. This case is no exception”. (Editor’s note: Christie ended his tenure as federal prosecutor in
2004. Also, it should be pointed out that in this statement he tied his
previous record for the use of the term “former federal prosecutor” in one statement)
· Ted Cruz: Cruz made
his statement at a Butter Carving Contest in Iowa in which all the candidates
appeared on stage together. He began his remarks by saying, “I am chagrined and
angry at what I’m seeing here. While I won’t blame Donald for what he’s done (Editor’s Note: Cruz never criticizes Trump
for anything), I simply won’t stand for this complete disregard of our
sacred, Supreme Court blessed, campaign finance laws.” As he then began reading from one of his
favorite books, How Obamacare Stole
Christmas, the other candidates on
the stage together shouted, “Shut the f**k up!
· Carly Fiorina: Fiorina
pointed out that the $1 million NBC News characterized as TV ad spending, was a
“lie, perpetrated by the Main Stream Media". In her vigorous denial she said,
“Let me be absolutely clear here, my campaign did not spend $1 million on TV
ads. That money was spent on creating blatantly false, deceptively edited hate
videos against organizations I disagree with.”
· Donald Trump: “This
issue is gornisht". On a side note, Trump also announced that he is aware that
he has become addicted to Yiddish and, over the holiday break in campaigning,
will check into a Yiddish-addiction rehab facility to see if he can break the
habit.
· The Rest of the Field:
“Shut the f**k up!”
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