Political Advertising and Deception

In today’s world, political campaigns, especially those of national stature (like that of a Presidential campaign) seem to require more than just political advertising, slogans, hand shaking, appearances and political rallies. It seems as if every candidate has to write a book to create exposure and build their credibility. More importantly, in a society enamored with reality television and hard-core news morphing quickly into the realm of entertainment, the notion that traditional political advertising can maintain the impact that it has had in past elections is up for debate. This is especially true of the 2016 election where now President Trump utilized his fame as a television reality show favorite to his advantage in his run for the Presidency. To this effect, I recall Anderson Cooper saying early on in the campaign that Trump has incredulously achieved significant exposure despite not spending a lot on advertising. He didn’t have to! If Mr. Cooper just stood back and thought about Mr. Trump’s rise in the polls, he would have realized that his channel (CNN) and those at Fox and MSNBC were responsible for giving Mr. Trump hours and hours of air time early on in the campaign that other candidates were not privileged to simply because of the entertainment value of Mr. Trump and the money linked to increasing audience size. The “news” stations created the situation, and for CNN and MSNBC, complaining about the result (as they seemingly do every day now) is a bit too late.