Analysis: Trump wants NBC to thank him for ‘The Apprentice’ profits with better coverage about him

In the flurry of news on his tax returns, his troubled healthcare plan and his suspicion that his phones were bugged, it was easy to miss one of President Trump’s most startling comments Wednesday night on Fox News. I was very good to NBC, and they are despicable — they’re despicable in their coverage.” What do NBC’s profits on “The Apprentice” have to do with the way its journalists cover Trump? “But that notion that this is a commercial relationship between a president and a media organization that entitles him to favorable coverage — he’s so open about it.” An NBC spokesman declined to comment. “@FoxNews totally gets it!” Edward Wasserman, the dean of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, said the idea that NBC’s profits on “The Apprentice” should influence its coverage of Trump was ridiculous. To Nossel, the main thing missing from Trump’s perception of the press is any sense that it provides a public service in a democracy by presenting “facts and interpretation that help us understand what government is doing reach conscientious decisions as voters and citizens.” [email protected] Twitter: @finneganLAT ALSO: Analysis: Trump embraces the blame game, while brushing aside some inconvenient realities Why it matters that the secretary of State is traveling with one reporter from a conservative website Trump’s ‘hard power’ budget makes sweeping cuts to EPA and State Department, boosts defense spending