Nexstar’s News Nation touted that they had landed an exclusive interview with President Trump.

News Nation landed the interview with Trump, due to the fact that Nexstar Executive Vice President Sean Compton is friends with the President.

Nexstar which bills the News Nation newscast as an unbiased look at the news did disclose the role that Compton played in getting the interview and you must wonder in Compton promised it would be a soft interview.

News Nation Anchor Joe Donlon treated Trump with kid gloves, lobbing him softball questions and letting his factually wrong answers go unchecked.

The Chicago Tribune writes, “Not only did Trump not make news during the segment, but it came off as a 15-minute primetime opportunity for the president to repeat campaign talking points without having to answer on matters of fact or logic.”

At one point Trump said in the interview that “the press is fake” and Donlon doesn’t push back on that? WTF?

A Nexstar News Director tells FTVLive that the company owned stations were “encouraged” to air portions of the interview in their newscasts. “This interview made no news and was a complete waste of time,” the ND said to FTVLive.

This was a chance to News Nation to make some waves and get some much-needed publicity and Donlon was so weak, almost no news outlets outside of Nexstar picked up the story.

As for the ratings of the News Nation/Trump Campaign ad?

The show pulled in just 66,000 total viewers and a tiny 14,000 in the demo according to Nielsen.

The old saying goes that you get only one chance to make a first impression and it seems as if News Nation blew that chance.

It also appeared as if News Nation was either in Trump’s corner or not willing to ask even close to a tough question.

As one TV news executive said to FTVLive, “ the Donlon/Trump interview proved that the 'balance, not bias' slogan is DOA.”