Paul Manafort was in the pay of pro-Putin forces? Worth some minor mentions. Trump in debt to foreign entities to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars? Meh.

Donors who contributed to worthy causes that the Clinton Foundation addresses sometimes get meetings with the Secretary of State (and probably would have anyway)? Stop the fucking presses! Corruption!!! Fucking hypocrites.

Viewers tune out of a game once it becomes a blowout (how many folks stuck around to see the Patriots score in the fourth to make it a 40+ to 10 instead of 40+ to 3 loss).

If we go into mid/late september with a 10-12 point spread, ratings are probably going to suffer. It we get to mid october with a 10-12 spread, ratings are definitely going to suffer. And if we get to early november with that spread...ratings on 11/8 will suck like a Dyson vacuum on steroids. Media (definitely radio and probably TV) depend on a the presidential election year to create a revenue pad in advertising that will carry them to the next presidential year. Some of that comes from ad supply/demand as political ads increase but a measurable portion comes from higher listeners/viewers increasing the reach during the election period. That higher reach is then used during the next year to set ad rates for all advertisers.

So somebody's got to drum up some offense (vs. offensiveness) for the Trump campaign to close that spread and if it can't be the candidate then by golly it's got to be the networks cuz without a horserace - it's going to be and ugly ugly year for the media conglomerates. Andrea, Chuck and the gang as MSNBC have a job to do and they're throwing whatever chit at the wall they can to narrow the horserace for their benefit.