Donald Trump Is a Hopeless Cable News Addict: Here's Why That Matters @alternet:
"Conway’s public airing of what are usually private internal debates is almost certainly a preview of how policy is going to be formed within the Trump White House: via televised debate shows. For an insight into the veteran GOP pollster’s motivations, one need look only to an on-the-record statement she gave to New York magazine writer Gabriel Sherman just last month: The key to managing Trump, she told me, is to let him feel like he is in control — always. “It all has to be his decision in the end,” she said. . . . She tried to get him to improve his image with women by appealing to his business sense. “You have to find new customers,” she told him. Another strategy she employed with him stemmed from the fact that Trump is such an avid cable-news viewer: “A way you can communicate with him is you go on TV to communicate,” she said. That strategy makes sense once you realize just how much television news the president-elect watches. According to Trump biographer Marc Fisher, the political rookie watches “enormous amounts” of cable news programming. Last December long before he secured the GOP nomination, Trump told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that he watched political-debate programs for military advice. “Well, I watch the shows,” Trump said. “I mean, I really see a lot of great, you know, when you watch your show, and all of the other shows, and you have the generals, and you have certain people you like.” That remark could be construed as mere flattery, but later on in the same interview, the future president-elect said that he liked George W. Bush-era United Nations ambassador John Bolton, a Fox News staple who is now also in the running as a potential secretary of state. “I think he’s a tough cookie, knows what he’s talking about,” Trump said. The soon-to-be 45th president’s view of TV is a pretty dramatic contrast from that of his predecessors."
