New York (CNN Business) President Trump's coronavirus task force briefings — or rallies— are an extension of his Fox News presidency. He is making big announcements that garner big banner headlines on TV. He is trying to sound like he's in charge while shifting decisions, and blame, to the states. And he is banking on a lack of fact-checking.

For weeks now, I've been noticing that the Trump White House is holding briefings at a time of day that all but rules out live broadcast network coverage from coast to coast. The result: lower overall ratings.

But Trump has always been a cable guy at heart. He cares most about Fox News and CNN. Which may explain why White House officials react angrily when CNN cuts away from the more overtly political portions of the briefings.

Consider Thursday: The president didn't start speaking until shortly after 6 p.m. ET. East of the Mississippi, most broadcasters were running local news at the time. Of the stations that went live to the White House, most returned to regular programming by 6:30, when nightly newscasts began on ABC, NBC and CBS. In my spot-check, big markets like New York and Chicago and New Orleans and Dallas all ran the nightly news at 6:30 ET/5:30 CT, not Trump's presser.

There are definitely some exceptions to this rule. Fox-affiliated stations, which don't have network newscasts, generally air the briefings for longer periods of time. And there have been some reports of Sinclair-owned stations prioritizing the briefings over regular shows. But by and large, big broadcasters are cutting away. And there's no easy way to account for local viewers in the ratings reports that Trump has touted. That brings me to the next point...

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