What did Donald Trump do today?
He said he should have a legal right to flattery from late-night comedians.
Trump began his usual morning airing of grievances with this tweet at 8:00 A.M.
Late Night host are dealing with the Democrats for their very "unfunny" & repetitive material, always anti-Trump! Should we get Equal Time?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017
Four minutes later, in a classic Trumpian tell, "more and more people" were calling for the same thing.
More and more people are suggesting that Republicans (and me) should be given Equal Time on T.V. when you look at the one-sided coverage?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017
Trump didn't say whether he thought, for example, Jimmy Kimmel should have been required to do monologues in favor of Trumpcare to balance out the ones where he spoke out against it.
Federal law does require that broadcast TV networks give equal opportunity for appearances for all qualifying candidates for a given federal office. For example, when then-candidate Trump appeared on Saturday Night Live (a show he claims to hate), NBC was obliged to offer other Republican challengers the option to appear on the network. But there is no rule requiring networks to say nice things about sitting presidents.
So what?
- A president who can't handle criticism can't do the job of being president.
- A president who can't handle criticism from people on TV could always just watch less TV.
- If not approving of how Trump is doing his job makes you part of a conspiracy, then about 68% of the country is in on it.
- Making media coverage flattering to the ruling regime is what authoritarians do.