NewsNation put together a tremendous Town Hall event on Wednesday night to highlight President Trump’s First 100 Days in office. The event featured President Trump on a 30+ minute phone interview with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with a lively panel and viewer interaction.
The event was co-moderated by Chris Cuomo, Bill O’Reilly, Stephen A. Smith, and panelists like Steve Bannon and James Carville. There was a vast array of ideological diversity on the panel, which is the only kind of diversity that should matter in America.
While we like to think Americans are divided into two camps: Republican/Democrat or Conservative/Liberal, there are and have always been several subcategories under those broad umbrellas, and NewsNation did an excellent job representing several viewpoints.
While we haven’t seen any ratings for the Town Hall as of this column, the event was trending on social media on Wednesday night. Several clips from the event went viral on social media and were shared by President Trump’s team as well.
While we’ve spent the last several years drifting away from those of different political viewpoints actually conversing with each other, is the pendulum possibly swinging back?
The NewsNation Town Hall was the latest example, but there is other evidence to suggest that robust conversation between people of different viewpoints may be what people are seeking.
CNN NewsNight, hosted by Abby Phillip, was CNN’s top-rated program for a third straight month in the coveted 25-54 demographic, growing by 31%. The show is defined by its sparring between conservative panelists Scott Jennings and Shermichael Singleton and the rest of the liberal panel. The clips often go viral, but they’re clearly also leading to a ratings boost.
On Fox News, the most-watched show with overall audience and within the 25-54 demographic is The Five. It’s also a panelist-style show with differing viewpoints, typically one of the five panelists being a liberal Democrat.
Elsewhere, shows like Bill Maher and Joe Rogan aren’t defined by being echo chambers, and even Gavin Newsom’s new podcast gets the most attention when it has guests who disagree with him on the political news of the day.
The Trump era in 2015-16 kicked off the movement for more mainstream media outlets to become hyper-partisan. Networks saw a changing media landscape where the audience had more options than ever before and feared losing audience to platforms and/or shows where they could have any of their beliefs confirmed and only consume news and opinions they agreed with.
Ironically, Trump himself has never been one to avoid differing opinions, given the access he has provided to media outlets that are not considered “friendly” media. In the last week alone, he’s provided exclusive access and interviews to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, along with an ABC News sit-down interview, along with the aforementioned NewsNation Town Hall.
This all despite the Media Research Center finding that 92% of media coverage on President Trump has been negative during his first 100 days.
So it sure would be poetic justice for Donald Trump to be the bookend of this era as Americans go back to seeking robust, energetic, opinionated, but largely respectful, debate and conversation that was a mainstay in the American political discourse for decades.
I won’t predict that this happens overnight, but it’s a trend in our media ecosystem worth watching in the short and long term.
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Pete Mundo is a weekly columnist for Barrett Media, and the Vice President of News/Talk for Cumulus Media, while also hosting “Mundo in the Morning” and programming KCMO Talk Radio in Kansas City. Previously, he was a fill-in host nationally on FOX News Radio and CBS Sports Radio, while anchoring for WFAN, WCBS News Radio 880, and Bloomberg Radio. He’s also the owner of the Big 12-focused digital media outlet Heartland College Sports. To interact, find him on X @PeteMundo.
People like cockfighting too…doesn’t mean that it should be broadcast.