Media Should Pay Me For My Time: Donald Trump

Donald Trump, still gobbling up most of the TV campaign coverage day by day, has come up with a unique way to monetize his run for president. "So if I go to CNN and I say, Look, you’re going to have a massive audience, and if I say to them, I want $10 million for charity, nothing for myself, what happens?" he asked in a cover story interview with Time magazine this month. "I’m not showing up, right?”

“I’m not showing up unless you give $10 million to cancer, to this, to that," he added. "You pick 10 great charities, $1 million per.”

If Trump wanted to charge media companies for his time, charity money or not, he could rake in a fair amount. International Business Times has reported that last month, evening broadcast coverage of Trump had climbed to more than 50 percent of all election coverage, while Fox News gave the candidate nearly 5 hours of airtime and 31 appearances from May to July.

Trump seemed aware of how much airtime he'd wrestled from the other candidates, according to his Time interview.

“If I’m in it, they’ll get this crazy audience, and they’re going to make a fortune since they’re selling commercials every time we take a break," he said. "Would you ever say to them, would you ever say, I want $10 million for AIDS research, for cancer, for this type or not, or is it too cute?”