August 17, 2016

"That Trump knows he's gonna lose. All Trump is doing is setting up a future media empire to take on Fox News and CNN."

"This is the CNN theory. That when Trump loses the election, he's gonna have Steve Bannon and Ailes and they're gonna set up this brand-new news network to take everybody else out. They're gonna swamp Fox News. They're gonna swamp CNN. That's the CNN theory. I know some of the players here. I've not heard a word of that. I can't do thumbs up or thumbs down on it. I have no idea whether any of that has any truth to it, if there's any validity. I do know that CNN's off the rails on this. They're acting paranoid and they've got their conspiratorial hats on and they're dreaming and imagines things."

Said Rush Limbaugh on his show today. I'm trying to think about what's so paranoid about that theory. It makes a hell of a lot of sense to me.

Here's an article in RedState, "Looking Ahead: Trump, Ailes, Bannon And Hannity – News Network On The Horizon?":
With Trump bringing aboard Roger Ailes and Steve Bannon to the campaign, it is not out of the realm of possibility that long term plans include a cable news station....

Trump has been floating this for some time. He believes he's providing ratings for other outlets and not being able to collect on any of it. That would all change if he slapped his name on a news network. The best part for Trump is he wouldn't have to do any of the heavy lifting. Roger Ailes dismissal from Fox News gives Trump access to the man who created the most successful cable news station on the air....

There’s a reason Breitbart News went from hard-charging news outlet to drooling Trump mouthpiece. Bannon emerges from all of this unscathed. ... If Trump wins, he’s in a position of high power; if Trump loses, Bannon could head up a new media empire with Trump’s support and the involvement of new Trump supporter and ousted former Fox News head Roger Ailes.

73 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

In the meantime - thanks for handing us the Clinton Crime Family and her tax-rape.

richardsson said...

Sounds like they're in the bargaining stage of Kubler-Ross's stages of grief.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Trump News. Say what you want, it would be entertaining.

Chuck said...

Fox News without Sean Hannity...

We call that addition by subtraction. They can take Greta, Shep and BillO too.

bagoh20 said...

It does not prove he expects to lose, just that he's hedging that option if he does, which would be just fine with me, since I assume it would be Hillary hate 24/7. We will have a media full of biased networks from both sides, maybe even three sides since there would be Rightwing, Leftwing and Trumpwing. No unbiased media to be seen, but you can get all sides and figure it out in-house.

Chuck said...

Four years, for Rush to rail against another Clinton Administration, and whine about how the GOP establishment let Trump down is pretty much the ideal scenario for the EIB network.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Whatever. It's really not worth considering. If Trump were ever considered to have betrayed the country in this fashion I feel certain that he would be assassinated. Furthermore, he knows this. If Trump loses, and how much more so if he intended to lose, watch him disappear one way or the other.

I just don't know what you people are thinking. Or smoking. To find this sensible only impugns your judgment.

Paul said...

Why wouldn't Trump just WIN and then with Steve Bannon and Allies set up this brand-new news network to take everybody else out.

Simple, no?

JackWayne said...

The post where Althouse jumps the Trumpnado.

Bill Peschel said...

Jesus, they really are working hard not to talk about Hillary and her crimes.

This sounds like complete and utter shite. Who would staff this "network"? What would they do? Another round of ill-informed talking heads shouting over each other?

Maybe if they were committed to hard news and willing to take a hit in audience numbers. But then no liberal would dare to appear because their arguments would (mostly) be torn to shreds. That's one reason why the level of discourse is so low on television. You need players to play and no player can stand the strain of an honest conversation.

So you're left with a variation on the CNN / MSNBC / Fox crapfests, and how profitable is that going to be?

Sebastian said...

"Why wouldn't Trump just WIN and then with Steve Bannon and Allies set up this brand-new news network to take everybody else out." You mean, like the Dems did with all the MSM?

It will be a close call: does President Trump want to make real money through the Melania "foundation" or try his luck with a mere cable network?

eric said...

The answer to speech you don't like is more speech.

The people breathlessly spreading this rumor with fear in their eyes make me want to puke. What's wrong with more speech?

I'll tell you what wrong. CNN doesn't want to lose money or influence. Another network means loss of money and influence.

boycat said...

Trump's greatest attribute continues to be the way he makes precisely the right heads explode on both the left and the right.

eric said...

Maybe Breitbart and Trump read Instapundit? He has been telling Republicans to buy more media for years.

Anonymous said...

And then there's this from the other fat guy.

Michael Moore: Trump Is Self-Sabotaging His Campaign Because He Never Really Wanted the Job in the First Place

He's running for president to get a better deal for "The Apprentice."
By Michael Moore / AlterNet August 16, 2016

Donald Trump never actually wanted to be president of the United States. I know this for a fact. I’m not going to say how I know it. I’m not saying that Trump and I shared the same agent or lawyer or stylist, or if we did, that would have anything to do with anything. And I’m certainly not saying I ever overheard anything at those agencies or in the hallways of NBC or anywhere else. But there are certain people reading this right now, they know who they are, and they know that every word in the following paragraphs actually happened.

Trump was unhappy with his deal as host and star of his hit NBC show, “The Apprentice” (and “The Celebrity Apprentice”). Simply put, he wanted more money. He had floated the idea before of possibly running for president in the hopes that the attention from that would make his negotiating position stronger. But he knew, as the self-proclaimed king of the dealmakers, that saying you’re going to do something is bupkis—DOING it is what makes the bastards sit up and pay attention.

Trump had begun talking to other networks about moving his show. This was another way to get leverage—the fear of losing him to someone else—and when he “quietly” met with the head of one of those networks, and word got around, his hand was strengthened. He knew then that it was time to play his Big Card.


http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-self-sabotage-campaign

YoungHegelian said...

http://www.alternet.org

'Cause, God knows, there's no other source I'd trust more than alternet on Donald Trump.

Just like I'd trust World News Daily on Barack Obama.

Hagar said...

Roger Ailes is 76 years old. Trump is 70.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Blogger Hagar said...
Roger Ailes is 76 years old. Trump is 70.


So a bit younger than the target demographic?

Unknown said...

There is no reason to think trump will lose. Obama is not running...Hillary is. The turnout for this election will be closer to 2004 than 2008 or 2012.

Look at polls for 2004. Kerry up by 5 points in August and bush by 8 in October. Bush won by 2%.
Kerry made comeback even partly after swiftboating. Media is in tank for Hillary but 2 months too early. No candidate can hold consistent lead for 3 months--especially Hillary. Heck not even Obama did it against 2 worst candidates by rino GOP.
Trump in striking distance in real battleground states. If demographic turnout is like 2004, trump wins. Polls overweighing minorities because polls got it so wrong in 2012.

Anonymous said...

God knows Rush Limbaugh is a trustworthy source.

n.n said...

The Fourth Estate of the apocalypse.

Anonymous said...

While a Trump network makes sense, it doesn't make sense that he knows he's going to lose and all these moves are calibrated toward his post-loss future. Trump's candidacy is heavily media based. Why wouldn't he want to hire on Ailes and Bannon?

My thought is that Trump's appeal is relatively limited if he loses in November. The main point of a Trump network would actually be if he wins - then Ailes and Bannon could form the Make America Great Again Network, and Trump could use it as his main outlet for interviews, pressers, and dissemination of his administration's message. We already know Trump doesn't think much of the media, I could certainly see him wanting to cut them off as completely as possible and go with his own operation should he win. CNN et al may squeal, but endlessly favoring one side eventually has its consequences.

David Begley said...

Fox just paid Ailes millions. He has an air-tight covenant not to compete against Fox News in any broadcast medium. Count on it.

mockturtle said...

An idiotic theory.

Zach said...

A plan that would make much more sense if they skipped the "Losing to Hillary by historic margins" step they seem so intent on.

narciso said...

very silly, red state is funded by paul singer and dwire, two magnates with a very negative view of a nationalist trade and defense policy, cnn is being beaten in the crazy, by the three scoops of msnbc,

Matt said...

This sort of makes sense. Especially for Breitbart, which prides itself on being the antidote to the 'establishment conservative' network FOX. Someone up top noted that Trump is 70 but that is certainly not stopping him from running for president, which has far more stress than running a Trump News Network. And even though Ailes is 76 he would simply be a consultant with experience. This doesn't sound like a conspiracy so much as a plan in the works. Trump has had plenty of other failed attempts at businesses. No reason to stop now.

Drago said...

"Lifelong Republican" Chuck: "Four years, for Rush to rail against another Clinton Administration, and whine about how the GOP establishment let Trump down is pretty much the ideal scenario for the EIB network."

Another instance where "lifelong republican" Chuck adopts fully a typical leftist position.

Unexpectedly.

Drago said...

Unknown: "God knows Rush Limbaugh is a trustworthy source"

God knows the critics of Rush Limbaugh's trustworthiness are certainly trustworthy sources.

jg said...

I wouldn't say it's paranoid. I'd say it's in bad faith to manufacture a narrative where Trump is really just the clown wait he's not a clown he's h.l. mencken and you're all rubes wait he's hitler wait he's calling for violence wait he deserves the violence against his rallies ... these absolute *idiots* (who have been blindsided and look fools now) always said he was. classic conspiracy-theory / confirmation-bias thinking to claim excess certainty.

the proper amount of certainty should be: that could make sense, win or lose - trump and the revolution against traditional GOPe interests/coalitions he represents might profitably create more credible professional media rather than this amateurish breitbart / socmedia grassroots.

win or lose.

traditionalguy said...

Trump's new Campaign operatives have incited a Red Alert among the CNN/WaPo/NYT types.

All of their Trump Quits pretend narratives are out flanked and under rolling fire. This is their last shot at Trump.

Panic is a useless emotion, except when you can induce panic in your opponents.

Bob Boyd said...

Let's take this conspiracy theory one step further.
What if the whole thing is much bigger? Suppose it's a much more ambitious plan by progressive globalists to A) keep the Presidency B) hopelessly divide/neuter the Republican party long term and C) take out Fox News and supplant it with a new network that the endlessly troublesome conservative rubes will flock to as anti-establishment, but which will actually, gradually start feeding them the party line, gas-lighting them and further sub-dividing them.

tim maguire said...

It may work out that way in the end, but if CNN is peddling this as part of some plan, then they're the new 912 Truthers, the moon landing flat earthers. Lunatic conspiracy theory. But then, given their collapse as a news organization, it's not surprising they've gotten a little demented.

Drago said...

Bob Boyd: "Let's take this conspiracy theory one step further"

Precisely.

If you're going big, then go BIG.

sojerofgod said...

Yougottabekiddingme.

Its AUGUST!
FREAKING AUGUST!!!
The professional mouthpieces blathering on about how Trump has already lost...
Game Over Man!
Game Over!

Anyone who says that the race is over is either a liar, and idiot or a troll.

Honestly.

I thought the media being in the tank for Obama was bad but this has really taken the cake. In a just world the IRS would be enforcing a levy on the accounts of the alphabet networks for illegal in-kind contributions to the Democrat party.

readering said...

Meanwhile, amusing piece on Althouse's favorite political yoda:

http://jonathanlast.com/scott-adams-says-a-lot-of-things/

Anonymous said...

The polls are still being manipulated to suppress votes. All the pollsters know it.

If that is not enough to make you want to vote Trump, then you might be a lost cause. Well useful in Russia.

narciso said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Consistent with the WWE tone of his whole run.

BN said...

Ha! And here i thought you was just slackin' off today!

It's this kind of story that reinforces my faith in our comin' downfall. Seriously, can you imagine swift or heinlein or, hell, scott fuckin' adams making this shit up? Ha ha!

And best of all, if it aint the everlovin' New York Motherfuckin' Times, it's Rush Maharishi Limbo!

Ha ha ha! I love this apocalypse!

narciso said...

the example of a campaign that really takes a dive, was maverick's it unclear when he and schmidt and wallace chose to give it up, the jones memo suggests sometime after lehman collapsed, and they blamed the huntress for not giving up the ghost,

Bob Boyd said...

What will Trump call his new network?
TNN is already taken

khesanh0802 said...

Trump says his ad campaigns start this week. I can't wait. Some of It will not be pretty. I hope that he rips Hill and Bill a new one.

Trump is in this to win. He may at times do a half-ass job of messaging and a first class job of putting his foot in it, but he is not a quitter. He started this and he will finish it. Any other pov deserves Ann's BS tag.

I think that it's high time the "unknowns" gathered their courage and gave themselves unique names. I don't care whether they agree with me or not. I just find it very disjointing to not know who is speaking.

Incidentally, Michael K, I miss your comments. Hope you are well.

bigkat said...

wow! Don't Bogart that joint Prof. Not as young as the glory days.

narciso said...

Jonathan who thinks the Empire were the good guys, he's entertaining although lately been on #willing for hillary jag.

John henry said...

Speaking of paranoid, the founder of CNN et al, Ted Turner had some sort of serious mental illness. Schizophrenia, maybe? He took some fairly potent drug to keep it under control, I think lithium.

In one interview he talked about this but said that when he has a tough negotiation coming up, he stopped taking his meds because he wanted to be a little crazy to gain a negotiating advantage

Perhaps this craziness runs in the CNN family so to speak? Perhaps they have gone off their meds?

John Henry

traditionalguy said...

I hear Manifort has gotten Vladimir's permission to name Trump News , "Pravda."

narciso said...

and he was a spoiled rich kid with a strong anti American streak, the national broadcasts were somewhat professional, but CNN International was Pravda Al Jazeera and Granma, all in one,

John henry said...

Sounds like someone is hedging his bets:


Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Tuesday he was willing to meet with Donald Trump, months after comparing the Republican presidential candidate to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

"Yes, I would meet with him," Pena Nieto said, referring to Trump in a pre-taped television interview broadcast on Tuesday night.

"I have never met him. I can't agree with some of the things he has said, but I will be absolutely respectful and will seek to work with whomever becomes the next president of the United States."

Trump has sparked outrage in Mexico with his campaign vow to build a wall along the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, and to make Mexico pay for it.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-election-trump-mexico-idUKKCN10S0FL



John Henry

narciso said...

I remember Don Winslow, the chronicler of the drug war, compared him to rick perry, because he had some memory slipup during the presidential debates,

Titus said...

I just did an incoming Harvard freshmen an I feel a little weird. But he was from Nyc which makes me less weird. The bitch is like 40 in gay years because she was born and raised in New York

Will Cate said...

There's already a couple of second-tier cable news networks out there -- OAN and NewsMax. I don't see how the marketplace could support another one.

gadfly said...

So, according to The Daily Beast, the white supremacist "Alt-Right" has taken over Breitbart and now the Trump campaign and the "bridge to nowhere" comes with the persona of none other than Sarah Palin's movie maker, Steve Bannon. Can you say "C-O-N-S-P-I-R-A-C-Y?"

narciso said...

actually OAN has promise, one gets more than the standard dollup of real news, newsmax strives too much to be like fox,

ah the basilisk who they bought for a dollar, and still paid too much, which hires nazguls like max blumenthal, who may actually have green blood, he is certainly reptilians,

mockturtle said...

How is Joe the Plumber voting this year?

Chuck said...

Drago said...
"Lifelong Republican" Chuck: "Four years, for Rush to rail against another Clinton Administration, and whine about how the GOP establishment let Trump down is pretty much the ideal scenario for the EIB network."

Another instance where "lifelong republican" Chuck adopts fully a typical leftist position.

Unexpectedly.


Oh fuck off Drago. If we privately asked Paul Ryan whether he regarded Rush as somewhat adversarial, I expect that he'd answer, "Yeah, somewhat adversarial is about right, and it is unfortunate..." If we asked Mitch McConnell the same question, I expect that McConnell would laugh and say, "I might agree if you'd agree to drop the 'somewhat' part..."

They actually did ask former RNC Chairman and former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour about this, and Barbour didn't pull any punches:

One thing that has changed tremendously, when I became chairman 20 years ago, it was the rise of conservative news media -- Fox News, Rush Limbaugh -- and they were very, very supportive of Republicans and conservatives. But in the last three years the biggest critics for Republicans have been the conservative news media. May I add because, you know, they say the Republicans aren't pure enough, Republicans don't fight hard enough, Republicans cave in. And I really think that has had more effect on the standing of the party.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/06/15/haley_barbour_and_mitch_mcconnell_blame_your_host_for_the_gop_s_failures

You're welcome, Drago, to say that you prefer Trump, to Republicans. You are free to say that you don't like Republicans at all. What you cannot say is that the Republican Speaker of the House, the Republican Majority Leader of the Senate and the former RNC chairman are not real Republicans.


Drago said...

Chuck: "blah blah blah red herring blah blah blah straw man blah blah blah move goal posts blah blah blah change the subject blah blah blah fail to provide evidence for assertion blah blah blah..."

Just another day on Teh Interwebs for "lifelong republican" Chuck.

traditionalguy said...

There are no politics like rigged politics like no politics I know.

And there are no Olympics Sports like rigged Olympics Sports like no rigged Olympics I know.

The eminent Portugese Suger Cane Slavery Colony that nows calls itself Brazil as if it is civilized, blew its cover and is capturing Olympic swimmers as their slave property instead of capturing Africans to be worked to death.

Remind me to never go to Rio.



Drago said...

Just for the record, Rush took a big gamble going national and growing to over 650 radio stations all before Bill Clinton was elected.

That, along with the continuing market strength of his show during the GW administration, demonstrates quite clearly that Rush does not require another Clinton admin to attain even greater marketable heights, whether or not I listen to him a great deal (I do not) or whether or not I was a Trump supporter (I was not).

I realize this fact based response strikes you as strange and foreign which one would not necessarily expect of a "lifelong republican".

Gee, it's almost as if you are not really a "lifelong republican" or something.

Unknown said...

I would be down with a Trump network win or lose. Young people don't watch news, they watch youtube and podcasts. Think about a network that dispenses #frogtwitter memes and has Allum Bokhari discussing mombot and maybe pulls in a Mark Krikorian or Sharyl Attkisson once in a while. Media is changing for sure and someone will make a lot of money integrating the new media.

Chuck said...

We'll get back in touch with each other in November, Drago.

Unknown said...

"I just did an incoming Harvard freshmen an I feel a little weird."

That feeling is known as shame.

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" Chuck: "We'll get back in touch with each other in November, Drago"

LOL

What does that even mean?

Jon Ericson said...

'ol (unknown)55' is back!
She brings the sexy. yi yi yi yi yi!

Anonymous said...

I think Trump would find being President a helluva lot more interesting than some other blend of CEO mogul or whatever... therefore... "thinks he going to lose"? Dumb. The ratio of fanciful Trump garbage to Clinton leaks/hacks/stumbles/health bumbles seems to be running 1.5:1.0. Noise-O-Rama.

walter said...

Titus,
Are you sure you're not a 'Spatula creation?

Unknown said...

Trump gave up his lucrative NBC "The Apprentice" gig. NBC don't want him back.

Trump has made billions of dollars in advertising for media during the campaign.

Trump has 15m rabid followers.

Trump will lose in November.

Trump needs to make money.

Trump will start a cable news network to collect on the advertising revenue.

Trump, Ailes and Bannon will destroy the GOP.

Brando said...

So Rush thinks because he hasn't heard a word of this from Trump's advisers and confidants, this must be a paranoid fantasy? Because I'm sure Trump's people would tell the people he's conning about the con. Thanks Rush, for that brilliant bit of logic. If you're even trying to protect your fans from being conned, you failed.

One thing about the "media empire" theory--it doesn't require that Trump "try" to lose. I don't think trying to win or lose is part of it at all. He's trying to build the brand, gain big media numbers (notice how he talks incessantly about his ratings and the money he's making for the media) and come what may he will launch this. If it means doing things that shit-can his prospects of winning this fall, so be it. Winning would only make things more complicated, because it'd make the media empire harder to profit from while in office.

Relying on anything other than Trump's assurances (about how much he's "sacrificing" to run for office, etc.), can anyone point to any fact about how Trump is running that goes against the media empire theory? Is there anything he's done that would make it harder for him to make that empire happen?

Brando said...

"Just another day on Teh Interwebs for "lifelong republican" Chuck."

Can a fan of "Republican since last week Trump" really mock anyone else for not being a real Republican? Are we really that far into the looking glass?

lonetown said...

Feel the power of AND, as in,

Trump will win AND start a media empire.

Humperdink said...

ObliviousUnknown said "Trump, Ailes and Bannon will destroy the GOP."

Psst, you can't kill something that's already dead. (See: McConnell and Boehner's track record)

MadisonMan said...

Titus,
Are you sure you're not a 'Spatula creation?

Titus long predates Laslo.

Darrell said...

Gee whiz. Conservatives don't support open border, globalist, pro-amnesty Republicans. Who would have guessed?