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Graylight If CNN (and other news outlets) gave as much free coverage to Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and a few other GOP candidates as they did to Donald Trump during the run-up to the 2016 GOP primaries, Trump would have gone back to hosting "The Apprentice."
“I’ve spent zero on advertising because you and Fox and all of the others — I won’t mention names, but every other network, I mean they cover me a lot, to put it mildly,” Trump told Fox News host Neil Cavuto in October (2015).
Indeed, Trump has completely dominated media mentions since the summer, accounting for 41 percent of television news mentions of Republican candidates, according to the 2016 Campaign Television Tracker. Meanwhile, Jeb Bush, whose campaign and super PAC have spent a combined $49 million on advertisements across the country through Jan. 9, has accounted for just over 17 percent of television news mentions.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/donald-trump-free-tv-ad-217387
In March 2016, the
New York Times estimated that U.S. medua companies had given Trump $2 billion worth in free air time. And the primary season wasn't even half over yet by then.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html
