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US Presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday started a new Facebook live programme, ‘Trump Tower Live’, which would air daily from the war room of the Trump Campaign in Trump Tower, until the last day of the presidential elections. This is supposed to be a counter to the media, which Trump believes is dominated by the left.
“Welcome to Trump Tower live,” said Trump senior advisor Cliff Sims, who was co-hosting the programme with Boris Epshteyn. Epshteyn said, “We are excited to be bypassing the left-wing media.” It also featured conservative commentator Tomi Lahren and Republican National Committee communications director Sean Spicer.
They added that the show intended to communicate Trump’s message directly to voters, without any kind of spin-off from media.
During the break of the long show, Trump's best moments during the three Presidential debates were aired.
Quoting a report by The Financial Times, Bloomberg said there was a speculation that Trump was considering opening a news channel if he were to lose the elections, presumably called ‘Trump TV’. It added that some saw ‘Trump Tower Live’ as a precursor to the channel.
CNN.com informed the stream averaged 40,000 to 60,000 viewers on Facebook in the first half an hour — that is high by Facebook Live standards, but very low by television ratings standards.
The Guardian termed it “live from New York, it’s the far right”.
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According to CNN, Tuesday’s stream was an extension of what the campaign did last week, showing a pre-game and post-game debate show on Trump’s Facebook page, adding, the Trump campaign’s use of news terminology — “nightly campaign coverage”, his Facebook page said on Monday — may made some journalists uncomfortable.
By contrast, however, Fox News labelled other news reports as unnecessary targeting of the show and an overreaction towards it.