The Controversy Around Billy Bush: Media Coverage

Billy Bush is the other man featured in the controversial, leaked 2005 video of Donald Trump making lewd comments about women. Billy is well known for his new job on the NBCs today show or his previous work at Access Hollywood. Billy is also former U.S President George H. W. Bush nephew, first cousins with former U.S President George. W. Bush as well as Jeb Bush, former Florida Governor (Siegel, 2016). Billy worked for Access Hollywood; another NBC syndicated news magazine, and he was provided with the task of interviewing Donald Trump on his cameo appearance on the soap opera Days of Our Lives co-starring the actress Arianne Zucker, where Trump will then promote his reality show, The Apprentice.

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In the leaked video, Bush chats with Trump seemingly unbothered by the billionaires misogyny. Although Bush does not personally comment on his ability to assault women sexually and get away with it, he laughed and egged on Trump during the entire bus ride. The fact that he let Trump demean his then co-anchor and other women is what has created all the controversy around him and threatened his career for the past few days. On the leaked tape, Trump, who was newly married to Melania Trump at the time could be heard boasting about how he is attracted to beautiful women and trying to sleep with a married woman. Trump went further into bragging how he could group women and kiss them without their consent because of his celebrity status (Nededog, 2016). All through the conversation, Bush was right there doing nothing but affirming Trumps statements.

After the tape had been leaked, Bush in a statement released by NBC Universal said: Obviously, I am embarrassed and ashamed. It is no excuse, but this happened eleven years ago, I was younger, less mature and acted foolishly in playing along. I am very sorry. Before NBC released the statement, so many angry viewers went on Bushs Facebook page and commented on how disgusted they were about the contents of the tape. The critical comments were calling for NBC to fire or suspend Billy Bush. Two days after the video was leaked, NBC suspended Bush and on Monday the 17th, Billy was fired from NBC. Billy had been criticized for being Trumps enabler during the conversation, and it was evident that it could hurt the Todays show ratings if Bush continued being part of the team.

Bush has had his share of challenges ever since joining the Today show. When NBC was covering the Olympic Games in Rio, Bush had the first interview with Ryan Lochte after the gold medal-winning swimmer and three of his teams falsely claimed they were robbed at gunpoint. During the interview with Bush, Lochte perpetuated his story. Later on, it was determined that Lochte was lying after the interview with NBCs Matt Lauer yet Bush tried to excuse his action which prompted Rocker to chastise him on the air in a now viral exchange.

Media Coverage

Before the tape was leaked

August 2016

The New York Post reported that while in Rio covering the Olympics, Billy Bush bragged about being in possession of a tape of Trump being a real dog. The Staff at NBC overheard, and it is reported that is how the search for the tape began (Nededog, 2016).

Monday, 3rd October 2016

NBC News says that it is the day it first heard of the tape and together with Access Hollywood started working on separate stories about the recording (Nededog, 2016).

Tuesday, 4th October 2016

Business Insider reports that NBC News allegedly forwarded the video to its legal department review, where it remained for two to three days.

Friday, 7th October 2016

Business Insider reports that NBC news was still waiting for responses to requests for comments on the video and some internal sign-offs, including from Trumps Camp. Business Insider reported that Hurricane Matthew was the big news of the day, so Access Hollywood producers apparently made the decision to push their story on the tape to Monday, just after the second presidential debate (Nededog, 2016). NBC News agreed to let Access Hollywood go out with the tape first since it came from the show.

Friday, 7th October 2016, 11 a.m. ET

According to business Insider, a source widely thought to be within NBC and probably annoyed at how they were dragging the release of the video then pointed the tape to David Fahrenthold, a reporter for The Washington Post. Fahrenthold had been covering Trumps Foundation and Trumps charitable donations for Months (Nededog, 2016).

Friday, 7th October 2016, noon ET

According to Business Insider, Farenthold asked NBC for comment about the tape. Producers from both Access Hollywood and NBC News were blindsided by the call and had believed that the tape was safe (Nededog, 2016).

Friday, 7th October 2016, 1.pm. ET

The Washington Post published the video with the title, Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005 (Fahrenthold, 2016). About 10minutes later MSNBC went out with NBCs story and later that evening Access Hollywood came out with its story.

The Aftermath

Friday, 7th October 2016

NBC News released the statement of Billy Bush making an apology for his despicable behavior of playing along to Trumps misogynistic comments.

Friday, 7th October 2016

Daily Mail wrote about thousands on social media calling for Billy Bush to be fired from NBC after he was in the controversial 2005 video with Donald Trump.

Friday 7th to Saturday 8th October 2016

Several media outlets speculated on the possibility that NBC will suspend or fire Billy Bush following the now infamous tape. Hollywood Take writes on Will Billy Bush lose his job? Extremely Offensive Video is not the first time the Today show anchor got himself into trouble.Most of the internet sources write stories on Billy Bush including US Weekly, TMZ, Hollywood life mostly providing a background of the entire story and the controversy around Bush.

Sunday 9th October 2016:

A report from New York Times on Billy Bush, who had received so much criticism over his role in the infamous tape and his suspension by NBC. The NBC executive in charge of the todays show Noah Oppenheim had written a memo to his staff members on Sunday stating, We have all been deeply troubled by the revelations of the past 48 hours. Let me be clear, there is simply no excuse for Billys language and behavior on that tape. He added, NBC has decided to suspend Billy, pending further review of this matter.

Monday, 10th October 2016

Tamron Hall and Al Roker addressed Billy Bush suspension on the Today show. According to Los Angeles Times, Roker had been scheduled to be off for a week but was called in to fill for Bush (Brown, 2016). Vanity Fair also reported that a source told the People that it seems tensions are understandably high on the Today set with alleged gossip conversations flying about Billy Bush situation. Vanity Fair also reported that the consensus, especially among women, is for Billys break to be a permanent one. It was further reported that ever since Bushs bungled interview with Ryan Lochte, a lot of people felt that he was a liability (Bradley 2016).

Tuesday, 11th October 2016

ESPNs wanted to discuss the Billy Bush and the leaked tape but was told not to by the management. ESPN as a mainstream media distances itself from controversial topics but during The Dan Le Batard Show, Le Batard was frustrated because the rules prevented him from commenting on the matter although during the first hour of his show he discussed the topic but was only aired in Miami (Gaines, 2016).

Monday, 17th October 2016, 8.32 pm ET

CNN reports that Billy Bush officially leaves NBC in the wake of Access Hollywood tape. It was reported that after several days of tough negotiations, Billy Bush was leaving NBC. During Bushs exit announcements, he made his first comments in over a week according to CNN. He said, I am deeply grateful for the conversations I have had with my daughters, and for all the support from family, friends and colleagues, I look forward to what lies ahead (Stelter, 2016). ABC News also reported that NBC had fired Bush following his lewd comments.

Critiquing the Media Coverage on the Topic

The controversy surrounding Billy Bush has been covered in the media from October 7th after the Washington Post first leaked the infamous video. So many views have played out in the press regarding Bushs involvement in the tape. Mainstream broadcast media reported on the topic objectively without necessarily victimizing those involved. For instance, ABC News announced that Billy Bush was fired from NBC without coming out as opinionated or necessarily taking sides. ESPN avoided the topic because the rules of the media outlet are to stay away from controversial topics. CNN was also direct when covering the topic by giving out the facts on the controversy around Billy Bush. As the employer of Billy Bush, NBC was expected to offer sound information on the development of Billy Bushs case and aptly let the world know about the decisions made. Being a mainstream media, it was fast in damage control and ensuring that they let the world know through their channels.

Magazines, the internet, and social media sites have less stringent rules, and they opined on the topic, provided some background information on Billy Bush and even went as far as bringing to light some of the issues that happened behind the scenes. For instance, PageSix reported that Billy Bush was heard claiming that he had some incriminating information about Trump while he was covering the Rio Olympics. It was reported that this is what necessitated the search for the tape (Smith, Greer, Coleman & Mohr, 2016). People also reported about tension developing behind the scenes of the Todays show and how Billy Bush had not developed a good working relationship with his team members. Vanity Fair opined on the possibility that Billy Bush was to blame for the leakage of the tape and how most of his colleagues felt he was a liability. HollywoodTake had a feature on how Billy Bush was already a polarizing figure at NBC way before the leaked tape. They reported on how many individuals wondered if his rapid career advancement was because he came from the Bush family or it was on merit. It was also reported that there were rumors making rounds on how Bush was not getting along with his co-anchors. The Ryan Lochte controversy was also brought forth since Bush has scored the first interview with Lochte yet he did not question him more. Later on, Matt Lauer got a primetime exclusive interview with Lochte about his Rio scandal, and most people felt that it was a snub towards Bush (Siegel, 2016). The internet sites mostly covered the facts provided by the mainstream media but still incorporated opinions from the social media users and how they felt about the topic. They based they coverage on facts, opinions, rumors, expert advice and included all the information out there about Billy Bush whether personal or professional.

As a media consumer, it is paramount you take some of the information you watch or read with a pinch of salt. Clearly, not all information is passed through the right editorial process to ensure that the public consumes quality. While mainstream media especially broadcast media would try to provide the viewers with reliable, accurate information, it is bound to make mistakes at one point or another. For instance, CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter reported that Bush was still scheduled to appear on the Today show on Monday 10th (Siegel, 2016). Bush never showed up since he was suspended and later on fired. If one completely depends on a certain media outlet for information, and you get incorrect information, it would mean that you can no longer easily trust that media outlet. New York Post also reported that Billy Bush j...