The last time we saw Les Moonves, an actual good reason to hate and distrust the media, he was declining to tip a valet because he only had hundreds. And it looks like he’s still a bastard, championing Donald Trump’s prez run because of all the ad dollars it’ll generate.

Oh boy, it’s true: every time Trump says something wrong or bad or dumb or bigoted, people click on Gawker. But the difference is that we recognize that this is blood money, whereas Moonves, The Intercept reports, is genuinely psyched:

Les Moonves, the chief executive of CBS Corporation, cheered on Donald Trump during an investor presentation Monday.

Speaking about the expected flood of campaign advertising dollars, which he described as “phenomenal,” Moonves said that he is glad to have so many Republicans competing for the nomination.

“The more they spend, the better it is for us and: Go Donald! Keep getting out there!” Moonves said. “And, you know, this is fun, watching this, let them spend money on us, and we love having them in there. We’re looking forward to a very exciting political year in ’16.”

This is not only shitty, but wrong: Trump barely spends anything on traditional campaign advertising (“less than 1 percent as much money as Jeb Bush on ads so far in the 2016 election,” per the Washington Post), because his entire presidential run is a viral marketing campaign. If his Social Engagement Metrics are low one week, he need only propose a ban on Islam or speculate that the Dow Jones could improve if we sent all Chinese-Americans to the Moon. Trump doesn’t need CBS

Contact the author at biddle@gawker.com.
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