Trump Eyes Digital Media Empire To Take on Fox News (axios.com) 230
Mike Allen, reporting for Axios: President Trump has told friends he wants to start a digital media company to clobber Fox News and undermine the conservative-friendly network, sources tell Axios. The state of play: Some Trump advisers think Fox News made a mistake with an early call (seconded by AP) of President-elect Biden's win in Arizona. [...] Here's Trump's plan, according to the source: There's been lots of speculation about Trump starting a cable channel. But getting carried on cable systems would be expensive and time-consuming. Instead, Trump is considering a digital media channel that would stream online, which would be cheaper and quicker to start. Trump's digital offering would likely charge a monthly fee to MAGA fans. Many are Fox News viewers, and he'd aim to replace the network -- and the $5.99-a-month Fox Nation streaming service, which has an 85% conversion rate from free trials to paid subscribers -- as their top destination. Trump's database of email and cellphone contacts would be a huge head start. Trump's lists are among the most valuable in politics -- especially his extensive database of cellphone numbers for text messages.
heh (Score:5, Interesting)
Rooting for injuries on this. On the one hand, Fox has gotten their viewers so deranged that they can't get high enough off the same source, and might sign up for Trump's thing. On the other, Trump is legendarily bad at these kinds of ventures. So who knows what will happen.
Re:heh (Score:5, Interesting)
I suspect Trumps gravely underestimating how much commercial TV stations cost to run. Even a larger newspaper can run up costs in the billions. TV a magnitude more so.
Which is fine for someone like Murdoch whos a billionare in the 20b+ range (officially around 17b, but his willingness to fund so many unprofitable far right newspapers tells me hes got more available cash than he lets on [no doubt for tax avoidance]).
TOn the other hand, Trump , by some accounts, may well be on the road to bankerupcy
Re:heh (Score:5, Interesting)
He wouldn't be spending his own money. His system mostly involves getting other people to put money into his schemes. It... seems to work far better than it should for someone with his track record.
Re:heh (Score:5, Insightful)
That's how investment in new ventures work. Most fail, everyone knows that, and the CEO being competent is only a small part of it. But occasionally one becomes the next Google or Apple and people who got in early get very rich.
Investors will throw money at Trump, there is clearly a market for his brand.
Re:heh (Score:5, Insightful)
That's how investment in new ventures work. Most fail, everyone knows that, and the CEO being competent is only a small part of it. But occasionally one becomes the next Google or Apple and people who got in early get very rich.
Investors will throw money at Trump, there is clearly a market for his brand.
I for one, have every confidence in Trump's ability completely f**k this venture up like he did Trump Airlines, Trump beverages, Trump: The Game, Trump casinos (all six of them), Trump magazine, Trump Mortgage, Trump Steaks, GoTrump.com, Trumpnet, Trump Tower Tampa, Trump University, Trump Vodka, ... on the bright side, he can recycle the 'Trumpnet' brand for this upcoming business failure.
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Investors will throw money at Trump, there is clearly a market for his brand.
Especially as he has been sharpening his profile as a hate-monger and inciter of violence lately. This makes for profitable product. Whether he will be able to really keep this up when his immunity is gone is a different question. I hope he will be stupid enough to try.
Re:heh (Score:5, Funny)
That's how investment in new ventures work
There's a fat orange line between "investment" and "con"
Re:heh (Score:4, Insightful)
This is only one scam of the alleged president. The fine print on the solicitations for his Don Quixote tilts at the election windmills reveals that 60 % goes to an alleged president PAC just set up which means it isn't necessarily going to fund the Quixote scheme and he gets to spend anyway he likes. 40% goes to the RNC, thereby cementing the cement shoes they've provided by him that they have gleefully donned.
Whenever the alleged president is involved, follow the money. It inevitably finds its way into his pocket. And if he's already planning this further gambit, he clearly isn't taking the Protect the Vote scam seriously.
He'll push standard right wing talking points (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:heh (Score:5, Insightful)
He wouldn't be spending his own money. His system mostly involves getting other people to put money into his schemes.
Maybe Trump will divert the money his supporters are donating to the election defense fund to his media company fund via his PAC
Donations under $8K to Trump ‘election defense’ instead go to president, RNC [reuters.com]
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He wouldn't be spending his own money. His system mostly involves getting other people to put money into his schemes.
Maybe Trump will divert the money his supporters are donating to the election defense fund to his media company fund via his PAC
Donations under $8K to Trump ‘election defense’ instead go to president, RNC [reuters.com]
I wonder how much a political ad on TrumpTV will cost...
Re:Faux = Controlled Opposition. (Score:5, Insightful)
How quickly the right turns on it's own. Trump wouldn't exist without Fox.
They're actually really slow to turn on their own (Score:5, Insightful)
As for the naysayers who say Trump isn't doing a coup, look I've said it before but if you come at me with a vegetable peeler instead of a butchers knife you're an idiot and I'm thankful but I'm still going to charge you with assault. Just because Trump's people are bad at it doesn't mean we shouldn't take what he's doing seriously.
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Re:They're actually really slow to turn on their o (Score:4, Interesting)
If the Georgia Senate election had been resolved they'd have turned on him already. For a few days it looked like the GOP would turn on him but then they realized they desperately need him for 5 more weeks. If they shit on him now they stand a very good chance of losing both Georgia seats due to severe voter enthusiasm assymetry which puts the senate at 50/50 with Harris being the tie break.
It took McConnel about a day longer than I would have guessed to do that math and come down on the side of 'well there could be fraud'.
Once that's in the bag they will aggressively pretend he doesn't exist and they didn't hear the question.
Re:Faux = Controlled Opposition. (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair this isn't a problem with the right, it's a problem with extremism. Extremists are absolutists, there's no compromise, there's no grey areas, when enough of them achieve sufficient critical mass as to make a noise as Trump did becoming president then things go fine... until one has an absolutist idea at odds with the other's absolutist ideas. At that point there's no compromise and it turns into a fight.
The same happens in the far left as well as the far right, it happens with terrorist groups breaking away from each other and it happens amongst certain groups of SJWs - you only have to look at hardline lesbian groups that have spent decades fighting for equality based on sexuality who then lose their shit at trans groups fighting for the exact same thing. The same is true with hardline feminist, most women support feminism, equality for women, but there's a certain grouping, your Anita Sarkesians of the world who aren't feminists, they're female supremacists; they don't want equality for women, they want supremacy, and they're forever falling out with other feminists for not being absolutist enough.
I'm a liberal and these groups have been the bane of my existence for a long time, because I want the kind of centrist liberalism that made the West great for the last 75 years. That's been in retreat for the last 10 years or so because the far right have been effective at lumping far left extremists in with mainstream "liberals". Absolutists, idealists, extremists, are the enemy of progress whether they're on the far left or far right, progress needs compromise, it needs people to work together and liberalism needs to be reclaimed by the centre rather than continue to be stolen by the extremes. One of America's most prominent icons is the Statue of Liberty precisely because liberalism, the political pursuit of liberty, is in America's very essence, and America and the world need to take that back and leave the extremes to squabble amongst themselves again whilst the rest of us ignore them, rather than get lumped alongside them by the extremists on either side just because we're not on one extreme or the other.
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"The same happens in the far left as well as the far right, it happens with terrorist groups breaking away from each other and it happens amongst certain groups of SJWs - you only have to look at hardline lesbian groups that have spent decades fighting for equality based on sexuality who then lose their shit at trans groups fighting for the exact same thing. The same is true with hardline feminist, most women support feminism, equality for women, but there's a certain grouping, your Anita Sarkesians of the
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None of them are in the White House, or in leadership positions in the House, or in the Senate.
And they don't represent the fringe left; that's the idiots that were in CHAZ, or black bloc nutjobs, or Stalinist podcast tankies. The right is sending QAnon believers to Congress. That's insane.
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Not sure why, since that has been what has propelled them to be #1 in so many spots, but it seems to be the way.
They do still have a fair number of conservative opinion folks, but the rest of the company has been leaning away from conservative viewpoints a little more each year.
It would be nice to have another network to help balance out the conservative end of things...with a true conservative network, then Fox w
Re:Faux = Controlled Opposition. (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, to be honest...Fox has been leaning less and less conservative over the past 8+ years.
Not sure why, since that has been what has propelled them to be #1 in so many spots, but it seems to be the way.
I disagree. Fox is as conservative as ever, but the republicans have been moving rightward while Fox hasn't, which is why networks like OAN are becoming popular.
Honestly, I expect Trump's network to have problems as soon as he begins competing with OAN, Breitbart, etc, plus the large number of small even-more-rightward media providers. There is a (IMO) very unhealthy relationship between conservatives and their media; they each feed off of and direct each other deeply, in ways that seem far more pronounced than on the liberal side of things. As soon as the other networks see Trump as a competitor rather than as a click-source, they'll change their narratives about him which will quickly push many people away from him. He *might* be popular/charismatic enough to overcome that (like he was in 2015 when his popularity made all of those outlets switch from anti-Trump to pro-Trump over just a few months), but I'm not convinced that will work when he's fighting for the same pool of money as they are.
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By the same token, AOC wouldn't exist without MSNBC/CNN.
I don't really understand why Trump would want to hamstring a "friendly" network to his party, but politics does make for strange bedfellows....
Best,
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He doesn't give a crap about anyone but himself. Fox isn't fawning over HIM, therefore they must be brought down. There isn't "his party", it's either you will do the things for Trump, or you will be cast aside.
Classic malignant narcissism.
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Country music fans will be really confused [wikipedia.org].
Re:heh (Score:5, Funny)
They call it "music", so I'd say they're already quite confused.
Re:heh (Score:4, Informative)
I suspect Trumps gravely underestimating how much commercial TV stations cost to run. Even a larger newspaper can run up costs in the billions. TV a magnitude more so.
On the other hand, look at how cheap a youtube channel is. Content is cheap to produce. Espescially if you already have a team of loyal yes-sayers who know how to have the masses follow you. 24/7-call in show with loyal hosts, a few panels and speeches from the Big Don himself, could fill a station rather cheap.
For the technical side.... Video streaming/Hosting is commercially available with the CDN of your choice. Build a website/subscriber management around that and you're done. Would be enough to pull in lots of your fans and as lots of room to build from there.
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But then look at how unprofitable a YouTube channel is. Top-level Youtube superstars pull in a few million a year, and the number of top-level celebrities you can afford to pay to work 4 hours a day in this crazy clown economy with that money is somewhere between 0 and 1. If Trump is going to do this, he needs to run his own platform, maybe even on his own hardware to turn a decent profit instead of just sending even more money to Google...who would probably ban him for posting misinformation/hate speech wi
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Youtube alone might not be profitable. But it can give you a lot of exposure. Being known and visible on the internet, and of course popular, brings other perks where you can get money from other people through donations or selling the stuff you advertise on it.
Think of Infowars or similar business ventures. Being on youtube gave it a lot of visibility. Then youtube banned them, which impacted the number of visits on their site negatively. But in th
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I wasn't suggesting to actually host it on youtube, but was referring to the cost of producing content for youtube or twitch or other streaming services.
Content for actual TV stations is more expensive because you don't get away with a bunch of people talking about their favorite passtime. Instead you want movies, series, gameshows, news.... its the variety that lets costs explode.
A Trump-Channel could get away with mostly talk-radio style shows and news and commentators.
Re:heh (Score:5, Funny)
Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from youtube is made. MAGA-the T-shirt, MAGA-the Coloring Book, MAGA-the Lunch box, MAGA-the Breakfast Cereal, MAGA-the Flame Thrower.
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I was referring to content production and using youtube as an example for productions that achieve TV quality productions with a studio equipment a dedicated hobbyist could afford. (starting in the middle 4-figure range but without crossing into 5-figures)
I have no idea what distribution costs would be, but isn't that a standard feature of Akamai or AWS? Maybe someone could get a rough quote for that. It it would be below 100.000 for 100.000 viewers for a 24/7 stream, that would be peanuts for a Trump-heade
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I was referring to content production and using youtube as an example for productions that achieve TV quality productions with a studio equipment a dedicated hobbyist could afford. (starting in the middle 4-figure range but without crossing into 5-figures)
YouTube does not provide anyone with production equipment. That is something every YouTuber has to do themselves including video, sound, and PCs to edit and encode video to YouTube's preferred formats for upload. The cost of this hardware is going down and YouTubers no longer need specialized hardware and can use desktop PCs to do this. However many of them prefer to use ThreadRipper based machines as they provide the most power for the price.
I have no idea what distribution costs would be, but isn't that a standard feature of Akamai or AWS?
First of all why would you think Akamai and AWS would include un
Re: (Score:2)
Of course. And of course it's not free.
But is any of this out of the price range if Trump decided to start his own TV station?
Traditional Cable or Network probably would, but a digital streaming service?
Required Bandwidth scales with the number of users. But so does your revenue if they have to subscribe.
Re:heh (Score:4, Informative)
Trump is notorious for being cheap and not paying people. Even his own lawyers had to sue him to get paid. Whether he can afford to pay is a separate question besides whether he will pay. I can see him saying he will fund the cost then back out when the bill comes.
Again required bandwidth does not scale for free. You seem to miss this point. The more bandwidth you use with Akamai, the more it will cost. Yes they can handle the additional traffic; that was never the question.
Re:heh (Score:5, Interesting)
I suspect Trumps gravely underestimating how much commercial TV stations cost to run. Even a larger newspaper can run up costs in the billions. TV a magnitude more so.
On the other hand, look at how cheap a youtube channel is. Content is cheap to produce. Espescially if you already have a team of loyal yes-sayers who know how to have the masses follow you. 24/7-call in show with loyal hosts, a few panels and speeches from the Big Don himself, could fill a station rather cheap.
For the technical side.... Video streaming/Hosting is commercially available with the CDN of your choice. Build a website/subscriber management around that and you're done. Would be enough to pull in lots of your fans and as lots of room to build from there.
Few problems with that:
#1 YouTube channels aren't profitable enough for what Trump wants. You can make a pretty nice living as a YouTube celebrity but no one is making full television shows for YouTube
#2 Trump sucks as speeches, he's largely just an insult comic. He's good at working a live crowd but he just kinda rambles when left to his own devices. For a TV show he basically needs The Apprentice, a highly produced and edited show where he doesn't have to say much.
#3 A substantial portion of his base, and an even bigger portion of the GOP, isn't tech-savvy. They don't really know how to do a digital subscription thing.
#4 If you haven't noticed over the last 4 years, Trump really sucks when it comes to leading and running things, especially when there's larger strategic decisions to be made. It may be funny to watch the chaos, but that chaos will burn through money fast.
I think Trump's best and most likely bet is more of the same. Keep up the rallies to cement his hold on the GOP, if he captures the GOP [cnn.com] then GOP aligned groups need to keep supporting his businesses to stay in favour, and fundraisers needs to keep running money through his businesses.
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I suspect Trumps gravely underestimating how much commercial TV stations cost to run. Even a larger newspaper can run up costs in the billions. TV a magnitude more so.
Which is fine for someone like Murdoch whos a billionare in the 20b+ range (officially around 17b, but his willingness to fund so many unprofitable far right newspapers tells me hes got more available cash than he lets on [no doubt for tax avoidance]).
TOn the other hand, Trump , by some accounts, may well be on the road to bankerupcy
He's not going to start a channel from scratch, though. He is going to hook up with something that's already out there like OANN or Newsmax. These will give him the control he needs since they pretty much don't hold to any pretense of actual journalism, while at Fox News most still try to be somewhat objective (except of course for their prime time opinion people like Hannity, etc).
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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I don't exprdt Tucker Carlson to be rhetorically fellating Trump much longer if Trump is setting himself as a competitor to Murdoch
Re:heh (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. Conservative leaders will try to replicate the Trump movement since they want that pool of fanatically (but short-term) loyal voters/consumers, but they really don't want someone as unpredictable (and incompetent) as Trump is. Trumpism with a smart figurehead would be truly terrifying, powerful, and damaging.
Re: heh (Score:2)
He is looking for Ad revenue. I wouldnt be surprised if he tries to give Alex Jones a timeslot.
Re:heh (Score:5, Insightful)
He is already deeply indebted to Russia, but I'm sure they would be more than willing to help bankroll him in an effort to further divide the country. For Putin, *that* is a good investment. With a willing patsy.
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I suspect Trumps gravely underestimating how much commercial TV stations cost to run
You did not read the summary:
Trump is explicitly not considering starting a cable channel at this time.
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which would be cheaper and quicker to start.
Once you're already streaming, then you can work on licensing yourself to cable companies without depending on them for your existence.
Real economics of journalism? (Score:3)
Mostly replying here to encourage you to use a spelling checker. But you are also trying to direct the discussion in an important and productive direction. Looking at the next few replies suggests you didn't succeed, but I'll throw my 2 cents in that direction.
The financial models of journalism are badly broken. On that basis, we can't even be sure that "He whose name need not be mentioned" anymore could be relied upon to bollix things up (again). Some of his puppeteers have extremely deep pockets. Here's w
Fox is already repositioning itself as moderate (Score:3)
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OANN tried to fill the niche for younger viewers, but they are online and want an interactive place to plan hits, which is not served by the traditional media in any form.
Trump has to generate revenue. He wants $500 million
The fleecing will continiue (Score:2)
I suspect that a great deal of money will be invested in this, that it will mostly or all go directly to Trump and/or his family/friends/debtors/other associated grifters, and the network will soon file for bankruptcy. Somehow Trump's supporters, even those who lost $$$ in an obvious swindle, will line up to bend over for his next scam after this. Isn't this how his casinos were operated?
Trump, Trump, Trump . . . (Score:2)
Man: Well, what've you got?
Waitress: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and Trump; egg bacon and Trump; egg bacon sausage and Trump; Trump bacon sausage and Trump; Trump egg Trump Trump bacon and Trump; Trump sausage Trump Trump bacon Trump tomato and Trump;
Vikings (starting to chant): Trump Trump Trump Trump...
Waitress: ...Trump Trump Trump egg and Trump; Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump baked beans Trump Trump Trump...
Vikings (singing): Trump! Lovely Trump! Lovely Trump!
Re:heh (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other, Trump is legendarily bad at these kinds of ventures.
Trump has a diabolical knack for attracting eyeballs. Even people who don't like him are compelled to watch, like he was a dumpster fire.
The one Trump activity that has been an unqualified financial success is *The Apprentice*, because it didn't require any kind of complicated and costly product or service delivery. You just take bog standard reality show contest and film footage of Trump doing what comes naturally to him: being an assh*le to the contestants. It's the same formula for success Doritos uses. Doritos are just flavorless wedges of dried tortilla that have sprinkled with MSG and dehydrated cheese powder. If you did that to those starch packing peanuts people would eat them.
So I think a digital media venture *could* be a success for Trump, depending on what your definition of success is. It's probably too late to reinvent himself to achieve the kind of mainstream success he had with *The Apprentice*. His natural target audience is his base, which is a subset of the people who voted for him. Staying connected with them may be his benchmark for success. If so, then he'll in effect become just another Internet influencer; you don't need much revenue to support that career.
Re:heh (Score:4, Insightful)
Three things he's never succeeded at in any organization he's been in charge of, including President.
Every time he's filed for chapter 11, one of the conditions is that he stop trying to run the company.
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Every time he's filed for chapter 11, one of the conditions is that he stop trying to run the company.
Which is fine for his purpose, i.e. showing a massive loss in order to avoid taxes. He doesn't want to run it any more once he's driven it into bankruptcy, he wants to divest ASAP so that he can move on to the next grift.
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"stays focused"
Hahahahahahaha
Oh you were serious?
Based on his previous business track record... (Score:4, Insightful)
...it'll go dark within six months.
It would make an interesting question for the Vegas oddsmakers, anyway.
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The other ventures failed because they were bullshit. This is a venture that succeeds because it spews maximum bullshit. He may have found his calling. It'll turn out like the surprise win in 2016, when he's-not-a-politician was shown to actually out-politician the politicians.
Basically, find a niche where people ignore and even encourage incompetence, and watch them shower you with "success".
Grifter (Score:5, Interesting)
Trumps ultimate gig has always been as a grifter rather than a politician. He should be much better at this than running the free world.
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End game since the beginning? (Score:2)
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Maybe this has always been his intention, if one agrees he has the ability to plan.
One might, but this one does not.
Trump doesn't have plans beyond "don't pay contractors" and "create losses with other people's money to avoid paying taxes". And you can be sure that he was painstakingly taught those lessons by his father, he didn't reinvent those tactics independently.
This particular idea has the smell of Steve Bannon on it.
Lol flamebait. Triggered, snowflakes? (Score:2)
A red snowflake means someone is bleeding... Possibly red ink.
Re:End game since the beginning? (Score:5, Funny)
Step 1: Desire deranged right-wing christo-fascist neo-confederate hyper-capitalistic death-cult news network ...
Step 22: Presidency
Step 23: Deranged right-wing christo-fascist neo-confederate hyper-capitalistic death-cult news networ
It'll be hard to match Fox's dominance (Score:2, Informative)
.... from a federal prison.
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More likely a state penitentiary. Pence can't pardon him for crimes against state laws.
DNN... (Score:2, Funny)
Good. Keep fracturing the right wing media-sphere (Score:5, Insightful)
We're already seeing outlets get more and more batshit crazy trying to appeal to increasingly batshit crazy conservative viewers. Fox News was openly right as it was, but then that wasn't "conservative" enough so along came OANN and Newsmax TV with some *real* pants-on-head-retarded content.
Soon enough the one term president that never met a lie he didn't like will start a media channel with the same credo. It will be wall to wall hard right knuckle dragger horseshit.
And it will make it easier than ever for normal sane people to discern those who have a mental illness and are better off being avoided. "Hi, I watch Trump TV" will act as a huge virtual duncecap telling everyone within earshot that you care not for "facts" or "reality" but rather seek out propaganda for purposes of mental masturbation.
As Al Qaeda discovered, today you're the extremist. Tomorrow the landscape shifts and you're a moderate.
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I'm hoping it stays in "rant" territory but I'm not so sure. If it does in fact get off the ground, it will be because Trump found a sufficient source of other people's money with which to fund it. He in turn would get paid to lend his name and do occasional on-air rants. Basically the same scam as the Trump Taj Mahal.
The logo should be a dartboard... (Score:4, Funny)
...because such an on-line presence will become the de facto target for pretty much every hacker, cracker, phisher and DDOSer on the planet.
I suspect their uptime will be measured in seconds.
*** grabs popcorn ***
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He'll become a millionaire after this (Score:2)
Of course he'll start out as a billionaire....
Trump seems to have written the book on how to alienate friends and supporters whether it be people, institutions or in this case a news agency. The mans behaviour is just .... bizarre.
Re:He'll become a millionaire after this (Score:4, Insightful)
The thing is, the world is broken and bizarre enough that he was successful so far. Sure, without that large inheritance at the start and the education forced upon him, he would probably just be a used-car salesman and probably also be in jail, but as it is, he has been getting away with it for a really long time.
"Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom of Reach" (Score:2)
Also, the quote from the subject is not mine and, from what I can tell, a lot of people have said it so I can't attribute it to a single person.
Calling the election (Score:2)
I was somewhat surprised seeing Fox calling things so early, when they were making calls not favoring Trump. Far-left news organizations were much more conservative than Fox in calling states for Biden that were close.
Re:Calling the election (Score:4, Insightful)
Fox viewers probably don't even realize that Fox News has actual anchors that provide relatively factual news. While the prime time personalities are relatively unhinged, you don't get much more reasonable than Chris Wallace for example.
The AP is about as neutral as you can get and they all called the states around the time Fox did. Facebook was certainly conservative in choosing a source for election results to avoid controversy. But I think the media companies being so conservative on calling states was really just to build dramatic tension and keep the eyeballs focused in. When Fox and the AP called the results, it was nearly mathematically unfeasible for them to come out another way.
Trump can only destroy (Score:2)
He made that amply clear. This is just more of the same. A society can only tolerate so many destructive people in positions of power before it crumbles.
On the other hand, maybe he needs this urgently to make money. The "great businessman" is anything but, after all.
His fans will not be smart enough to see how they get used in any case.
If he is serious about 24 (Score:2)
Trump has indicated if he can't overturn the apparent result of this election he is considering a '24 run. The trouble is due to his health he will likely have to do it without Rush Limbaugh at that point. Who lets be honest is probably the most effective communicator in terms of evangelizing Trump-ism and making it appealing to people.
I write this a big Rush fan and Trump supporter, if he wants to have any chance at success in '24 he absolutely has to find replacement with the kind of reach of mass appeal
Won't be that difficult (Score:2)
Fox News has been a shell of its former self from before 2016. They screwed the pooch calling the Arizona election so early this year that their audience no longer trusts them.
Trump's Digital Media Empire (Score:5, Funny)
I hear Quibi is for sale
Probably bankrupt in 6 months (Score:2)
I'm sure it will be a huge success ... (Score:3)
Not sure (Score:3)
" President Trump has told friends he wants to start a digital media company to clobber Fox News and undermine the conservative-friendly network,"
Can he do that from prison?
Good. Fox sucks anymore. (Score:2)
Conservatives, in droves, are moving over to other companies like Newsmax and OANN.
Most of the other main news companies are far too left.
He's too old. (Score:3, Interesting)
More likely than not his health is going to start failing in the next couple of years. Just as this effort is getting off the ground he's going to be too feeble and weak to pull off the strong-man shtick. Already there are warning signs and he's not doing anything to take care of himself. The only option is for one of his children to take over and lead the charge, but that depends on him actually arming them to take over and I'm not sure he's capable of it. Don Jr. and Ivanka are the likely candidates, but I suspect that once Trump starts to fail there will be blood in the water. It's not clear who will become the standard bearer for the republicans imho.
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More likely than not his health is going to start failing in the next couple of years. Just as this effort is getting off the ground he's going to be too feeble and weak to pull off the strong-man shtick. Already there are warning signs and he's not doing anything to take care of himself. The only option is for one of his children to take over and lead the charge, but that depends on him actually arming them to take over and I'm not sure he's capable of it. Don Jr. and Ivanka are the likely candidates, but I suspect that once Trump starts to fail there will be blood in the water. It's not clear who will become the standard bearer for the republicans imho.
Not to mention a possible stroke [cnn.com].
I don't think Ivanka has a political future, she was only notable because people thought she might be a progressive voice in her father's administration.
Don Jr. is certainly planning on a political future, he's working the strongman thing but he doesn't have his father's showmanship so I don't know if he can get the same following.
Plus, he'd only be interested in a big important position like President, Governor, or Senator. He could run for President anywhere but if he want
Of course it's valuable (Score:3)
Robbin' the Hood (Score:2)
Steal from the poor to give to the rich. He might as well just become a televangelist.
Revenge? (Score:2)
I'm rooting for Drumpf (Score:2)
I hope this venture is more successful than Trump's other business ventures, which are largely failures. What a fitting reward to Fox News for becoming Trumpian shills.
To 'undermine' Fox News (Score:2)
Trump wants a "digital media company to clobber Fox News and undermine the conservative-friendly network".
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As a left-leaning Democrat, all I would say is: "yeah, sure, why not, sounds good to me".
Good luck (Score:3, Interesting)
I wish him luck. The Trump fans are delusional, but I think once he is out of office his power will drop off.
But I certainly wish him luck. In fact I hope it does really well, and he forms a MAGA political party for 2024.
That would be a good way to split the vote and let the dems take everything.
well cant be banned then atleast (Score:2)
Fox has some standards (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, I started looking at Fox in addition to other networks. Yes, they are heavily biased, and yes their opinion sections should be avoided (or can be watched for fun).
However their news had standards. They cut off the president when he had unsubstantiated claims on elections. They would fact check guests, and they employ experienced journalists like Chris Wallace.
That is why Trump currently does not like them.
Even a biased news station with standards seems to be unacceptable.
This is actually bad for his supporters.
New York will have the final say (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
He doesn't have a billion dollars of his own money. And it's going to be hard for him to raise the outside capital from federal prison.
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"...wipe out as many nests of voting corruption as possible..."
Ironic considering his previous "path forward" was creating as many of those as possible. Not clear what the justification for this is considering he continues to try to corrupt the process to this day.
Of course, consider the source. ;)
"Whatever made you think Trump would ever go away quietly in any regard?"
Who ever thought this? It's as likely as SuperKendall stopping posting the most tribalist comments possible.
It is well known that Trump's
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It seems quite unlikely, though, that he will even be alive to pursue the 2024 election considering his health and slovenly behavior, or be capable on his own of operating a successful business of any kind. The presumption here is that Trump is the king-maker but the fact is that Fox played an enormous role and the cheerleading of some future Trump-one over the existing Fox one is disgusting as the best thing for the country is for both to be extinguished.
Yeah, I seriously doubt Trump will be in a condition to be president in 4 years (personally, I don't think he was in 2016, but that's beside the point). As you say, he is going to be playing King maker, probably trying to push one of his kids. But remember, members of his administration has presidential aspirations of their own, notably Pence and Pompeo. Pompeo's Madison Dinners have been pretty transparently about building a potential support base for high rolling donors and industry types. It also exp
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Fox went hard against Trump the last month or two, and as a result has been bleeding viewers.
I do wonder what was behind that. Has Fox found that they have some minimal standards regarding truth, decency and honor after all? Or is this some power-play by somebody? As the first option seems to be somewhat absurd, it looks like the second one. But who and with what agenda?
Re: (Score:2)
Fox has gradually been getting a little less bad as Rupert Murdoch's kids get more control.
But I think most of it is they knew Trump was losing and figured it was in their best interest to tone things down a bit.
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Disney didn't buy Fox News.
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Disney does not own Fox News. Fox News is owned by Fox Corporation (FKA 21st Century Fox). 21st Century Fox came into existence in 2012 when News Corporation split in two - creating News Corp for the print media and 21st Century Fox for everything else.
Then 21st Century Fox sold almost all of its holdings to Disney, but kept Fox News. They also still own Fox Television, Fox Sports, and Tubi.
It's enough to make you dizzy without going further into it. But a huge number of assets between all of the compan