NBC's former chief marketer: "I helped create a monster" by promoting Trump
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... Why it matters: The NBC reality competition show hosted by Trump depicted him as a tough, business-savvy boss and made him a household name long before his political ambitions led him to Washington.

- - - "I want to apologize to America. I helped create a monster," John Miller wrote in the piece published by U.S. News & World Report.

What he's saying: Miller, who retired in 2022 following a 40-plus year tenure with NBC, said the image the network promoted of the then-businessman Trump was "highly exaggerated."

- - - Miller noted Trump's several bankruptcies, saying the signature boardroom where he fired contestants was a set "because his real boardroom was too old and shabby for TV."

- - - He also noted the now-former president's tendency to hyperbolize, saying he often called the show "America's No. 1 TV show" despite ratings showing otherwise.

- - - "Exaggerating ratings is one thing, but spreading falsehoods about relief work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, about immigrants eating cats and dogs, about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, about him winning the 2020 election or countless other lies is far more dangerous," Miller wrote.

- - - He criticized what he called Trump's "questionable judgment," highlighting his pitch to have Black competitors compete against white ones on the show. ...