Derek Thompson

In the latest episode of the podcast Crazy/Genius, we ask why the dream of the digital revolution has proven so disappointing for some of its early advocates. One of those dreamers was Meredith Broussard, a computer scientist and a data journalist, who entered Harvard University in 1991, just months after Tim Berners-Lee launched the first website. “The early Internet was deeply groovy,” Broussard said, a place where idealistic young men and women thought they could redesign the rules of society.

[Commentary] Donald Trump is not just a President who is unusually obsessed with media. He is an aspiring media mogul who happens to be president. When Steve Bannon told The New York Times that the media should “keep its mouth shut,” he was being disingenuous. President Trump doesn’t want the media to keep its mouth shut. He wants to silence his critics, co-opt their distribution, and broadcast the story of his stardom. After winning with the instincts of a media impresario, he will lead using the strategy of a media empire. President Trump is poised to enact his agenda through extraordinary means — by broadcasting an alternative reality in which he seeks a monopoly on his own narrative and facts. It is 20th-century strongman meets 21st Century Fox.

In conversations with dozens of entertainment and media executives and academics from hit-making industries over the past few years, I have learned that there are three overarching rules of popular entertainment. Each applies to President Trump.
First, every successful franchise is fundamentally a hero myth.
Second, as critical as it is to write stories that move people, distribution is more important than content.
Third, the dark history of 20th-century entertainment is that media blockbusters seek to become monopolies. The White House wants to establish a political media monopoly, which seeks dominion over its own set of facts, by demonizing critical news sources (even those within the government) and promoting sycophantic alternatives.