Trump adds reality TV spin to media battles

A televised presidential address (8 p.m., CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, PBS, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, Bloomberg) to a joint session of Congress is as good a time as any to explore the unique relationship between television and the current chief executive.

Simply put, we’ve never had a president who was a reality television star and producer before. Ronald Reagan had been a movie star and a television host and was a natural on camera. But the current president’s relationship with the media and his ability and desire to shape it is something else entirely.

Not only did the president co-produce “The Apprentice” along with Mark Burnett, he has included movie producers in his inner circle. Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s choice for secretary of the Treasury has produced more than 30 movies, including “The Lego Movie” and “Suicide Squad.”

The president’s senior adviser, Stephen Bannon, has produced 18 films, most of them politically charged documentaries, including “Undefeated,” a profile of Sarah Palin, and the 2016 documentary “Torchbearer,” directed and co-written by Bannon. That film features “Duck Dynasty” personality and “Commander” Phil Robertson traveling the globe, delivering stern warnings about the decline of a godless West and the rise of radical Islam.

Our current president is not the first to associate with image makers and producers. Eisenhower briefly experimented with televised Cabinet meetings, and Bill Clinton turned to “Designing Women” producer Linda Bloodworth Thomason when he wanted to introduce himself to voters in 1992. Image molding has long been part of the job.

The 45th president is not only a veteran of television production, he also appears to watch television, cable news in particular, and react to it quite frequently. For all of the importance placed on the president’s Twitter habit, he is often tweeting about something he just saw on television, most often Fox News and “Fox and Friends.”

While presidents often like to convey the attitude that they are simply too busy to watch TV, they have long been keenly aware of its power. Way back in the 1960s, President Johnson would watch three televisions at a time in order to monitor the coverage of his administration. Elvis Presley was so impressed that he had three console sets installed in his basement. You can still see them when you tour Graceland!

The current president’s adversarial relationship with the media echoes that of Richard Nixon, who used his vice president, Spiro Agnew, to lambaste journalists as “nattering nabobs of negativism.” Nixon also urged the development of a new conservative television network, something that would come to fruition when Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, a former Nixon media adviser, launched Fox News in the 1990s.

Whether the current president shapes media or is defined by it remains to be seen. But he appears to be putting a reality television spin on battles that have been waged before.

TV-themed DVDs available today include season four of the Australian soap opera, “A Place to Call Home,” an addictive blend of “Dynasty” and “Downton Abbey” with a dash of “Mad Men.”

Other highlights

» Blind auditions on “The Voice” (7 p.m., WMC-TV Channel 5).

» Time for a sacrifice on “Outsiders” (8 p.m., WGN).

» The prince regent unleashes his wrath on the season finale of the strange, intriguing and visually dazzling mystery “Taboo” (9 p.m., FX).

Kevin McDonough can be reached at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.