Is Donald Trump finally losing his media mojo?

[Commentary] Something remarkable has been happening for the past six weeks: Donald Trump is no longer utterly dominating television coverage of the 2016 presidential race. Within a week of entering the race Trump utterly dominated television mentions of the candidates. However, starting Sept. 20, in the aftermath of the second Republican debate, Trump’s total daily mentions drop precipitously and have never recovered.

Converting from raw mentions to the percent of all mentions garnered by each candidate, since his entrance into the trace Trump accounted for 40-50 percent of all television mentions of candidates from either party. Since October he has accounted for just 20-30 percent of all mentions, with Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Dr Ben Carson, and Sen Rubio (R-FL) all enjoying greater coverage. Carly Fiorina’s bump in coverage after the second GOP debate has largely faded, while Dr Carson and Sen Rubio both seem to be on the upswing. With Trump continuing to fall in both overall mentions and debate excerpts, it leaves open the question of whether we are seeing the end of the Era of Trump or whether winning and losing on television no longer means winning or losing at the polls and we are instead seeing the end of the Era of Television in American politics.

[Kalev Leetaru is a senior fellow at the George Washington University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security]