Source: Bigstock

The media’s movers and shakers have known and understood this all along. CBS chairman Les Moonves gave up the charade during the campaign. In February 2016, when Trump’s chances for the White House were still exceedingly slim, Moonves told an audience at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that the real estate developer’s iconoclastic campaign “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”

CNN president Jeff Zucker shrewdly exploited Trump’s rollicking campaign for ratings, and continues to do so. Hence a buxom adult-film star is the network’s No. 1 attraction. To lose Trump would be to lose the last remaining lifeline the network has.

Journalism was lying lifeless in a grave before Trump famously descended on that escalator to announce his campaign, with the twin forces of technology and reader apathy pouring dirt on it. Trump’s eclectic crusade for the presidency brought life back to a moribund system.

The real journalistic reckoning will not come when Trump eventually leaves office, but when he ceases to feed off the media spotlight.

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