Tag Archives: pretty

Donald Trump Has a Brilliant Media Strategy

by BrigetteAhMouy Posted on December 22, 2016

Mother Jones

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Like everyone, I’m often snarky about Donald Trump’s social media addiction, but I have to admit it works wonders. Today’s two tiny tidbits about Israel and our nuclear arsenal produced these top-of-the-site headlines from the New York Times (left) and the Washington Post (right):

Trump’s press strategy since the election has had two parts. Part one: refuse to talk to the press, so they’re starved for news. Part two: dribble out tiny, often ambiguous tweets once or twice a day on subjects of his choosing. This guarantees that he gets precisely the headlines he wants.

If he announced these things at a press conference, he’d have to take questions, and there’s no telling where that would lead. If he gave a speech, the press would highlight whichever parts it felt like. But by tweeting, he leaves reporters no choice. It’s the only presidential news they’ve got, and it’s on one specific subject, so that’s what they have to write about.

Pretty smart, isn’t it?

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Donald Trump Has a Brilliant Media Strategy

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We Really Should Not Be Encouraging a Twitter Presidency

by RickyJJBBldi Posted on November 16, 2016

Mother Jones

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I suppose this is about 157th on the list of things to worry about from a Trump presidency, but I still have to wonder: Are we going to continue giving Trump’s tweets the same banner treatment that we gave to the Hindenburg disaster? Shouldn’t the press have a little more self-respect than that? If the guy won’t talk to them, and instead relies on tweets that sound like they were written by a fourth grader (“The failing @nytimes story is so totally wrong on transition. It is going so smoothly. Also, I have spoken to many foreign leaders.”)—well, maybe they should be given no more than the attention they deserve. Which is to say, about the amount that the press gave to Barack Obama’s tweets. Which is to say, none.

UPDATE: Here’s an idea. Instead of going crazy over every Trump tweet, maybe the Washington Post should inaugurate a regular feature: Today’s Presidential Tweets. Every day, on page A14, they could have a box that reprints all of Trump’s tweets for the previous day, along with a fact check for each of them. Something like this:

Pretty good idea, huh?

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We Really Should Not Be Encouraging a Twitter Presidency

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Chart of the Day: When Southwest Comes Calling, On-Time Performance Goes South

by EstelaPalfreyma Posted on December 23, 2013

Mother Jones

Here’s an interesting, unintuitive tidbit about the airline market. When Southwest enters a market, it forces incumbent carriers to lower their fares. No surprise there. But according to a recent study, it does more than that. It also reduces everyone’s on-time performance:

All three conventional measures of arrival delay indicate that airlines begin responding to the threat of entry before Southwest even threatens the route; incumbents’ on-time performance begins to worsen before Southwest actually enters the second endpoint airport, and it continues to do so following Southwest threatening the route, and following entry, as well.

As the chart on the right shows, average travel time for flights starts to increase sharply about four quarters before Southwest begins service in a new market, eventually rising by two minutes three quarters after service begins. The number of flights more than 15 minutes late rises from 18 percent to about 21 percent. Why? The authors find the same effect when other airlines enter a new market, but only if the new competitor is a low-cost carrier. Their guess? Pretty much what you’d expect: “Incumbents worsen on-time performance in an effort to cut costs in order to compete against Southwest’s low costs.”

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Chart of the Day: When Southwest Comes Calling, On-Time Performance Goes South

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