On November 3rd, The TV Networks Will Destroy America

At 10:13 PM, on the evening of November 3rd, Fox News declared Donald Trump the winner in the 2020 Presidential elections.

This was based on their projections, predicting that Trump would win 408 electoral votes compared to Biden’s 130.

Over at CBS, the pressure was on not to be left behind when it came to ‘Breaking News’. Four minutes after the Fox News announcement, CBS News’ President Susan Zinsky’s phone rang. It was Shari Redstone, the new Chairman of CBSViacom since the recent death of her father, and anxious to prove her chops.

“Call it now!” screamed Redstone.

Zirinsky had two choices, either do as her boss instructed or pull a Fred Friendly and quit on the spot. She chose the latter.

As soon as CBS went, so followed NBC and ABC, some eight minutes later.

In the White House, Trump immediately tweeted out his victory and wondered why ‘Slow Joe’ had yet to concede.

The problem was that on the evening of November 3rd, only 15% of mail in ballots had been counted. Some four days later, when the rest of the mail in ballots were counted, Biden had won the election, carrying carrying 334 electoral votes to Trump’s 204.*

But it was too late.

TV News and the power of that medium had already convinced a good chunk of the country that what Trump and Barr had always been warning had come to pass. The mail in ballots were an after the fact hoax by the Democrats to rig the election. This would not stand.

The Biden people said that they had in fact won and refused to concede. In fact, he called on Trump to concede.

Trump, an avid TV watcher if ever there was one, using the Emergency Broadcast Powers went on TV and declared that as the TV networks, starting with Fox News had declared himself the winner, he was.

Millions took the the streets.

Trump, as he had promised as early as September 11th, then went on national TV, declared a ‘National Emergency’ and said that he would use force to put down this INSURRECTION. And he did. He called out The National Guard, who were immediately joined by armed militias across the country.

In America, the election is not officially over until the states certify their results and declare their electors. The Electoral College then meets on December 12, when the President is actually elected. The reason for this long time lag between election day and the Electoral College meeting and voting is because when the Constitution was written, there was no TV News to declare the winner.

It took time to gather and tally the votes across the then geographically disparate thirteen states.

The election of the US President was not designed to be a Made For TV Reality Show, like America’s Got Talent or The X-Factor. But that is what it has become. It has been headed in that direction since the 1960’s, when television became the dominant medium for news (and everything else) in American households.

The average American, according to Nielsen, who should know, the average American family now watches an astonishing 8 hours of TV a day. TV has become our ‘reality’. Our life as it is lived is more Reality TV show than reality itself.

And the TV networks, fighting for every ratings point, cannot afford not to serve our endless demand for never-ending entertainment on the screen. They cannot afford to be seen as being ‘left behind’ or ‘missing a big Breaking News Story.” And what is more entertaining than the Grand Finale for Season One of the The Donald Trump Show — the biggest and most successful ratings machine the TV Biz has ever known.

We can be pretty sure that on TV Election Night, Trump will be ahead. In one study, fully 87 percent of Trump voters said they preferred to vote in person, compared with 47 percent of Biden voters. In another, by the Democratic data firm Hawkfish, 69 percent of Biden voters said they planned to vote by mail, while only 19 percent of Trump voters said the same.*

So this is not some idle, what if, worst case scenario. This is what is going to happen. It is going to happen because the TV networks will not be able to control themselves. It is going to happen because we live in a country that can no longer differentiate between reality and what they see on TV. And it is going to happen because we have a President who also watches about 8 hours of TV a day, and for the past four years has run the nation like his own TV Reality Show — which apparently, it is.

*This and other data from an article by Fareed Zakaria in The Washington Post.

If you found this interesting, be sure to get a copy of my new book, Don’t Watch This! — Release date October 6. -Skyhorse Publishing