A win-win reality show?

Donald Trump and the US media may still be at war after the president's first 100 days but both sides are also reaping benefits from the hostilities between the former reality TV star and what he calls the "fake news" industry.

Trump's decision to snub this weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner has underlined how little love is lost between the president and "the opposition" as his top advisor Steve Bannon has dubbed the media.

But analysts say that while Trump uses the press as a foil to deflect bad news, media outlets are getting a lift from consumers looking for credible information about his administration or simply tuning in for a dose of the daily Trump show.

"Trump has been gold for the mainstream media," says Tobe Berkovitz, a former political consultant who is now a communications professor at Boston University.

Berkovitz says Trump has "a handy devil he can blame for all his stumbles," and as a result, "both sides are pretty happy with each other."

Newspapers such as the New York Times have seen a significant bounce in circulation since Trump's victory last November and cable news networks have also enjoyed a ratings rise.

"You can attribute a lot of that to Donald Trump," said Dan Kennedy, a Northeastern University journalism professor, said there is more interest in news because it is a time of "great

anxiety."

Trump regularly refers to the New York Times as a "failing" newspaper and often has digs at traditional cable networks.

But he has nevertheless granted interviews to nearly all the mainstream media and some pundits say the seeming animosity is not all that it appears.

"It's more than a little bit of a show," says Kennedy. Trump, he said, "turns around and calls a lot of the reporters that he excoriates publicly."

Politico reporters Ben Schreckinger and Hadas Gold, who interviewed more than three dozen members of the White House press corps, wrote that Trump is engaged in a "fake war" on the press, that the president's staff works to maintain relationships with journalists.

Nevertheless, the short-term lift from Trump may be the harbinger of longer problems, says Jeff Jarvis, a City University of New York journalism professor.

"If it's bad for democracy, it's bad for the press," Jarvis said.

"He's attacking our credibility, attacking our trust."

Source: afp