Today’s Resist Trump Every Day mission: Sign a petition demanding that NBC cut its business ties with Trump.
From the petition, which you can find here:
When “Celebrity Apprentice” returns to NBC in 2017, Donald Trump will still be executive producer of the show.
This is an unprecedented moment, where one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, Comcast/NBCUniversal, for all intents and purposes, will have a contractual arrangement with the president of the United States. It creates a clear conflict of interest that undermines the credibility of NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC and makes it impossible to trust that any reporting on Trump has not been impacted by this business entanglement.
NBC has a Trump problem that will only get worse once he is president. To maintain any credibility as a news organization, the network needs to cut its ties now.
I think that last bit overstates the issue. NBC’s news division, particularly MSNBC, has been quite critical of Trump; they’re probably tougher on Trump than any of the other American networks. I don’t think Trump’s role as executive producer of Celebrity Apprentice will instantly destroy the credibility of people like Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes or Joy Reid.
That said, this is a gigantic conflict of interest. Keeping Trump as producer would be a major ethical breach both for Trump and for NBC. Trump should have no business ties with any company involved in journalism in any way, and no such company should have ties with any politician, much less the dude who will be inhabiting the White House. Just as importantly, NBC should not be enabling Trump’s kleptocracy. The network should either boot him as executive producer or cancel the show outright if this isn’t possible.
I signed the petition, which is more than 90% of the way to its goal of 150,000 signatures. TV networks are acutely conscious of things that affect their PR, so this is one petition that could actually make a difference.
For more #ResistTrump Every Day posts, click here.
Done!
Thanks, David, for making it easy to resist Trump.
Trump’s unpopularity threatens to hobble his presidency
The president-elect’s underwater favorability numbers could rob Trump of precious political capital.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-favorability-232950
Katie, grant that this is true.
My take was that he undermined the credibility of the presidency by still being executive producer of a reality-TV show.
@Kat
If France and Hollande were any indication, them numbers’re only gonna get worse from now on. Our current score is 4%. Beat that, America.
My take on it is that he undermines the credibility of the presidency every time he opens his dang mouth!
Isn’t this a both/and blog?
Also, I agree with Scildfreja.
I wanted to add something in the lines of “and it’s not the worst of his offenses against the credibility of the presidency, and the word ‘credbility’ itself” but then I forgot. Oh well.
@Karalora
I uh don’t get what you mean. I mean, I literally can’t parse the sentence, because I suck at engrish.
I keep getting ads on this site for Franklin Graham asking me to sign a pledge for Jesus and America. The fuck?
@Sinkable John
I mean that around here, we don’t normally insist that only one of two separate but related issues or cause/effect phenomena can be true. The arrangement between Trump and NBC undermines the credibility of both the network and the presidency. Both/and.
Hadn’t heard about Franklin Graham in a long time, I thought he’d just gone and evaporated out of any semblance of relevance like the rest of… oh wait. They’re all returning now, right. I forget sometimes.
ETA : @Karalora
Ah, I get it now., thanks. Well, yeah. They’re definitely not mutually exclusive.
NBC has been a disgrace for a long time, in more ways than one.
I tried to sign it, but it wouldn’t accept my zip code. I’m an Australian – does it only accept American zip codes, or what?
Didn’t NBC already publically “Fire” him then privately take him back (albeit a while ago for one of his many other crimes)?
Have a bunch of wonderful holidays, my friends.
Heh, I guess I already think his credibility is so low (I’d say negative at this point) that I didn’t even think to mention this angle.
It looks like the google ads have more to do with browsing history than with what’s on the page, though much of the time it really only manages to slot things into really broad categories. Like, it sees “Jesus” and those ads pop up, even if you were just looking a page about the Jesus lizard.
@Abars01 That’s often how it works. I’m in Canada, so I use a zip code from Anchorage (as Alaska is the closest state to me).
@David
Weeell he does lie so much (and when he doesn’t he still gets it wrong by sheer ignorance) that whenever he says anything, it’s often safe to assume that the opposite is true. That oughta count as negative.
OT: don’t know what other current thread this should be posted in, but it sounds like the North Carolina GOP isn’t going to give up their power at all if they can help it:
http://prospect.org/article/will-gop-power-seizure-north-carolina-become-national-model
Fun fun. >:|
Another petition from Avaaz/another way to resist Donald Trump and help save the world — please sign!
This petition is being signed at the rate of about 1 person every 1 or 2 seconds, and the signers are from all around the world. There are so many signers that I saw a name that was very similar to my own (first and last names). Please be the latest person to sign.
@Kat, thanks for the petition pointer, it’s a good one – still ticking up the numbers nicely, I see!