It’s a fundamental law of physics: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The same can rule applies in politics, apparently — in this case, the lunch meeting on Thursday between President Donald Trump — fresh from his campaign rally with Butler’s own Mike Kelly the night before in Erie — and rap artist Kanye West.

West’s long-running friendship with the president creates friction within the celebrity circles of West’s galaxy. Last month he appeared on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” television show wearing a Trump-trademarked red “Make America Great Again” ballcap and ranting about his affection for the president. Nobody was surprised by the boos he got after the cameras stopped.

But what was surprising was the vicious attack leveled at West by a CNN news panel on Tuesday, two days before his White House visit.

The panel of analysts, led by anchor Don Lemon, took turns excoriating West.

“He’s an attention whore, like the president,” said one of them, Tara Setmeyer. “He’s all of a sudden now the model spokesperson. He’s the token negro of the Trump administration.”

Another panelist, former Congressman Bakari Sellers, said, “Kanye West is what happens when negroes don’t read. ... and now Donald Trump is going to use it and pervert and he’s going to have someone who can stand with him and take pictures.”

Please note that the CNN panelists’ use of the term “negro” is intentional, and is intentionally demeaning.

Therein lies the explanation of the news panel’s assault on the rap artist. It’s an equal and opposite reaction to CNN’s perception of a big deal. And a big deal it is.

West is one of the most influential recording artists alive, with a concentration of young black adults among his tens of thousands of fans. They represent a substantial voting demographic within the Democratic Party. Democrats are panicked that if West declares himself a Republican, many fans will follow him.

West’s audience also represents a substantial and lucrative commercial demographic. Television networks crave and court these demographics. They constantly study the demographics’ spending and voting habits.

Trump was unabashed in labeling CNN, the New York Times and other mainstream media purveyors “false news” during his campaign stop in Erie. The claim is nothing new for Trump. And their labeling of West didn’t do much to refute Trump’s claim. But the dispute seems to go deeper.

While it’s true that an impartial news operation like CNN shouldn’t let political affiliation interfere with coverage, the network can’t deny that it pursues demographic numbers, too. Sudden, watershed changes in the demographics can threaten a network’s livelihood. This might account, at least in part, for the abandonment of standards for a single issue such as labeling Kanye West a “token negro” of the GOP president.

Maybe the bigger question isn’t what Trump gains from West’s declaration of alliance, but rather, what a mainstream news operation like CNN could lose.