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Donald Trump: The Uber of TV candidates

Is Donald Trump, as CNN's Dana Bash and others have declared, a "master of the media"? I'd say the Republican nominee is more like the Uber or Airbnb of presidential candidates, someone who, win or lose, has permanently disrupted the way national campaigns are conducted - and covered.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.Read moreAP Photo/ Evan Vucci

Is Donald Trump, as CNN's Dana Bash and others have declared, a "master of the media"?

I'd say the Republican nominee is more like the Uber or Airbnb of presidential candidates, someone who, win or lose, has permanently disrupted the way national campaigns are conducted - and covered.

It's hard to call someone a master communicator who has been so free with his thoughts on hot mics and whose stream-of-consciousness style, more frenetic than folksy, doesn't begin to approach the skilled, on-message delivery of a Ronald Reagan.

And yet on the nights when cable news anchors are telling us, sometimes for hours, that Trump is expected to speak, or release a video, or otherwise demonstrate proof of life, "any moment now," it sure looks as though he's made his mark.

For 24-hour news outlets and those who watch them, Trump has been like a months-long Category 5 hurricane that's always only hours away from landfall. You don't have to be rooting for the storm to be transfixed.

The former star of The Apprentice is scheduled to face Democrat Hillary Clinton on Wednesday in the final installment of what was already the most bizarre series of presidential debates in television history.

Assuming he shows up. Anything's possible.

The incident that led Bash, CNN's chief political correspondent, to comment on Trump's media savvy was his predebate appearance with women who had accused Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, of sexual misconduct.

"This was a political stunt . . . vintage Donald Trump," said Bash.

It wasn't the first, and with a few weeks to go before the Nov. 8 election, it almost certainly won't be the last.

The outrage cycle has nearly broken down under Trump's ability to supply it with fresh material as he fights fire with more fire, sometimes adding a splash of gasoline.

Controversies that once would have had pundits shaking their heads for days or weeks expire after mere hours, replaced by the back-and-forth between Clinton and Trump campaign surrogates over the candidate's latest tweet or remark at a rally.

Polls suggest this approach, effective in the primaries, is not increasing Trump's odds of becoming president. But a more disciplined, less divisive future candidate could capitalize on his strategy - if it is a strategy - by keeping the conversation moving and never letting any single issue gain traction.

Carefully crafted stump speeches can't compete for coverage with the off-the-cuff remarks of an opponent far less worried about offending than being ignored.

Following the TV money

Free airtime has been - to use one of Trump's favorite words - huge in his drive for the presidency.

It wasn't until August that his general-election campaign even began spending money on TV advertising, by which point Clinton already had spent $52 million, according to NBC News, which cited the firm Advertising Analytics.

Outside groups backing Trump had spent only $8 million at that point, compared to $37 million by pro-Clinton forces.

Philadelphia-area viewers and stations, inundated with ads for the expensive Senate race between Republican incumbent Pat Toomey and Democrat Katie McGinty, might not notice a difference, but in other markets, local stations, which count on election-year advertising, have reportedly taken a hit.

Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, meanwhile, are riding high in the ratings that drive ad revenue.

Which doesn't mean TV hasn't been hurt.

Riding the Trump tiger

NBC's entertainment division, which first made Trump a TV star, then cut business ties with him over his comments about immigrants, seemed happy enough to weather criticism of its subsequent decision to have the candidate host Saturday Night Live last fall.

But then came the seamy controversy involving Trump and former Access Hollywood talking head Billy Bush, who joined the Today show in August, only to become a central figure in one of several October surprises so far.

It also didn't look good for NBC News that the Washington Post scooped it on what should have been its story.

Trump, along with the departure of Roger Ailes amid a sexual-harassment scandal, has exposed divisions within Fox News that Megyn Kelly tweeting a picture - "#friends" - with talk-show host and ardent Trump supporter Sean Hannity can't paper over.

The network, whose Chris Wallace will moderate Wednesday's debate, may have had greater access to Trump than other outlets, but it, too, has had to deal with the candidate's unpredictability, along with his contemptible treatment of Kelly, one of its brightest stars.

Trump TV?

Fox News thrives on opposition and so would benefit from a Clinton win. But it might not have that field to itself should Trump find himself at loose ends after Nov. 8.

Anchor Shepard Smith's biting analysis of the Republican's performance in the second debate faulted him for playing only to his base and for threatening to prosecute and jail his opponent. Smith also seemed concerned about the candidate's plans for his loyal supporters.

"What does he do with them? Does he give them a media network?" he asked.

"He might want to do something with that base when this election is over. And there's been all kind of talk about him developing some kind of media network that would play to that base. . . . It's all set up not as a guy who's trying to win what's left to get, but a guy who has another agenda."

A Trump News Network?

I've heard crazier things.

graye@phillynews.com

215-854-5950@elgray

ph.ly/EllenGray