Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Report: Trump Absent From Talk Radio

The Daily Beast graphic
President Trump has invited The New York Times into the Oval Office. He's granted behind-the-scenes White House access to Time magazine. And he's sat for interviews with the network news. But there's one medium the president has conspicuously ignored: conservative talk radio.

According to CNN, if there were ever a medium built for Trump -- besides Twitter -- talk radio would be it. But in his first eight months as president, Trump did not do a single interview on talk radio.

Most of talk radio's high-profile stars -- Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham -- are strongly supportive of the president's agenda and unlikely to be combative or hostile in an interview.

"Radio is the most efficient way to reach the base," Charlie Sykes, a former WTMJ Milwaukee talk radio host, told CNN. "He could sit down and in two hours do eight interviews in major conservative talk radio markets without having to leave his bedroom. It's so easy to do."

Yet, since being inaugurated as president, Trump has shied away from appearing on radio programs. After this week, he will have made two forays onto talk radio -- and both of them came almost immediately after CNN contacted the White House to ask why he hadn't been speaking on the platform.

Trump's first and only appearance on talk radio as president thus far came in late September -- days after CNN repeatedly asked the White House for comment on why the president was ignoring the medium -- when he called into the Alabama radio show "Rick & Bubba" to offer support for the candidate he had backed in the U.S. Senate race there.

Last week CNN asked the White House if the president planned on appearing on talk radio. On Monday, a White House official told CNN the president has carved time out of his schedule to participate in a talk radio event at the White House on Tuesday. Trump will participate in at least half-a-dozen interviews with regional and national hosts, the official said, though the person declined to say which hosts the President would be providing interviews to.

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