Fox's Wallace: Media “Put [Trump] On Too Much” Because “It Spiked The Ratings”

Chris Wallace: The “Impulse” To “Get Ratings” Did “Crowd Out” The Other Candidates 

From the May 4 edition of Fox News' The Five

Video file

GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST):  A broader question about the campaign itself. A chicken or the egg question. Did the Trump support drive the media, or did the media drive the Trump support by diminishing real estate for other candidates? 

CHRIS WALLACE: I get asked this question a lot. I have to say -- I think to a certain degree, if it becomes a vicious or virtuous cycle, depending on how you view the Trump campaign, but I think we were followers, leaders in this. In other words I think that the reason we put him on so much -- and I think we did, all of us, whether it was cable, whether it was broadcast, all of us put him on too much. I think to a large degree, it was because every time we did, it spiked the ratings. We were in a sense following what the ratings were, which was the response to the public. Having said that the fact that we put him on so much, it did crowd out, take a lot of the oxygen away from the other candidates. But I think at least the initial impulse was if you put him on, you get ratings and we're in the news business. 

Previously

The Fox Primary For March: Trump Widens His Airtime Lead

The 2015 Fox Primary: It's Trump, And Then Everyone Else

CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves Reveals Why Media Won't Stop Giving Wall-To-Wall Coverage To Donald Trump