The Washington Post published an exclusive story on May 9 about a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month in which presumptive Republican 2024 nominee Donald Trump reportedly promised to reverse President Joe Biden's actions on climate change as he asked oil executives to raise $1 billion for his presidential campaign, assuring them that they'd be getting a “deal” due to the “taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him.” The revelation of Trump’s “undeniably scandalous” proposition to Big Oil was subsequently covered by Reuters, The New York Times, Politico, and The Atlantic, among other digital news sites, while national broadcast and cable news, with the exception of MSNBC, had failed to cover the story as of May 12. An analysis by Media Matters further found that from May 9 through May 16 top local newspapers and TV outlets in the largest media markets to reach the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin did not bring this story to local audiences — with one exception. One North Carolina newspaper, the Greensboro News and Record republished a May 10 Bloomberg column six days later that discussed Trump’s $1 billion proposition to oil executives at Mar-a-Lago. Bloomberg opinion editor Mark Gongloff noted that the fossil fuel industry has already given $6.4 million to Trump’s fundraising committee and “the sector is gearing up to give a lot more, the Washington Post reports, especially after Trump has promised to cater to its every desire in a second term.” This republished opinion column was the only reference we found to Trump’s Big Oil scandal in top local newspapers and TV outlets in the largest media markets to reach the seven battleground states during the studied timeframe.
Joshua Holland
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