'Trump TV' is already here - a 24-hour news network with White House access
RSBN has become the go-to unofficial network for dedicated Trump fans
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Your support makes all the difference.The right-wing online media outlet that has been dubbed a de facto “Trump TV” has announced it will be rolling out 24-hour coverage and that it expects to receive White House credentials once Donald Trump is in power.
Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) has covered almost every single Trump appearance, interview or rally since it was first launched in July 2015, and has been endorsed by the President-elect himself.
While there was speculation that Mr Trump would launch an official Trump TV if he lost the election, the Washington Post said RSBN was operating as “the unofficial version of Trump TV” after the billionaire’s campaign teamed up with the network to stream its programmes on Mr Trump’s Facebook page.
In reality, RSBN is a tiny and often ragtag operation. It was founded by Trump superfan Joe Seales, who in September told Business Insider he had just 10 employees funded by public donations averaging about $25 a pop.
But with a YouTube channel of 246,000 subscribers - MSNBC only has 233,000 - RSBN became a credible resource for Trump supporters, journalists and reportedly even members of the Clinton campaign who wanted convenient access to Mr Trump’s rally speeches in full.
This week, RSBN frontman and former reporter Adam Taxin gave a “special announcement” in which he declared the network would be running a full 24-hour operation “before the end of 2016”.
He said he would be getting a four-night-a-week news programme, RSBN Tonight, alongside a suite of other planned programming.
And Mr Seales, speaking during the network’s live coverage of Mr Trump’s “Thank You” rally in North Carolina on Tuesday night, revealed that he expects the network to “be in the White House” and “be at the press briefings” from 20 January onwards.
“Anything that Trump does live we will be there,” Mr Seales said, according to a Salon report. “We will be there at the inauguration, we will be in the White House, we will be at the press briefings. I promise you that. You can count on Right Side Broadcasting.”
That’s a controversial claim, not least because official White House press accreditation requires the approval of the five-member Standing Committee of Correspondents.
But there is a precedent, set by the last Republican administration, for a president to grant access to briefings for non-credentialed outlets.
According to Media Matters, Jeff Gannon of the right-wing Talon News was “admitted on a day-to-day basis” to George W Bush’s briefings, thereby circumventing press corps rules. Once inside, he was “repeatedly allowed to ask — usually friendly” questions to the President.
Like Mr Trump himself, RSBN has a history of disparaging traditional media outlets as biased or dishonest. In his special announcement, Taxin said the channel was “not trying to be polished like some of your typical network news people are, where they are bringing you - let’s be honest - fake news but in a very polished sort of way”.
Mr Trump already has firm connections to the iconoclastic branch of the right and far-right media, having included as advisers the former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, former Breitbart News CEO Steve Bannon and the current New York Observer - now just The Observer - owner and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Yet if Mr Trump acts to sideline critical media and replace them with supportive outlets, as he has been urged to by Fox News’ Sean Hannity and others, RSBN would be a logical place to start.
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