An MSNBC panel sharply criticized the Huffington Post Wednesday for its continued refusal to cover Donald Trump as a serious presidential candidate.
“The Huffington Post is doubling down on its decision to label its coverage of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign as entertainment, despite the fact that Donald Trump is within six points of Hillary Clinton and dominating Jeb Bush, dominating the Republican field,” morning host Joe Scarborough said.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski noted that Trump currently leads all other GOP 2016 candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas.
Huffington Post Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim and editorial director Danny Shea announced in July that they would no longer cover Trump’s campaign as legitimate political news.
“After watching and listening to Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for president, we have decided we won’t report on Trump’s campaign as part of The Huffington Post’s political coverage,” they said.
“Instead, we will cover his campaign as part of our Entertainment section. Our reason is simple: Trump’s campaign is a sideshow. We won’t take the bait. If you are interested in what The Donald has to say, you’ll find it next to our stories on the Kardashians and ‘The Bachelorette,'” they added.
Brzezinski said Wednesday she has a “problem” with this decision.
“This reminds me of the Fox debate, like a news organization trying to like control something and move it along in the direction that they believe is righteous,” she added.
“Sam, go home and tell them to change it,” she told Huffington Post editor and MSNBC contributor Sam Stein.
National Journal’s Ron Fournier joined in, saying, “if Huffington Post is going to treat Donald Trump like entertainment, maybe they should treat Hillary Clinton like fiction.”
After the panel had taken turns dinging the website for its decision to relegate Trump to the entertainment section, Stein responded.
“Let’s look at this as a meta-commentary,” he said. “We’re living in a world that is vastly different than it was a while ago, where party bosses don’t pick a presidential candidate, but we have a merger of politics and entertainment. It’s just a fact.”
“We have a merger of politics and entertainment, and Donald Trump is better at it than anyone we’ve ever had before,” he added.
The Huffington Post has been criticized by more than just MSNBC for its Trump decision. The Washington Post and Politico have also joined the fray.
Nevertheless, Grim has doubled-down on the decision to black out Trump, saying in a statement in August, “We’re more committed to the decision than ever. Over the last month, we’ve seen our central argument proven right: that Trump is nothing more than a sideshow and not a legitimate presidential contender with serious policy ideas for moving the country forward.”
“The GOP debate was fantastic reality TV, but it came across more like a twisted political version of ‘American Idol’ than a presidential debate. And subsequent coverage reveals a collective media frenzy that’s embarrassing to credible media outlets — witness this weekend’s pandemonium around Trump’s helicopter at the Iowa State Fair. Otherwise serious journalists are being seduced by Trump because of his willingness to say and do outrageous things for headlines and ratings. We’re still not taking the bait,” he added.
Trump’s team has also criticized the Huffington Post for blackballing his campaign.
“If you read previously written tweets, Mr. Trump has never been a fan of Arianna Huffington or the money-losing Huffington Post,” a campaign spokesperson told the Washington Examiner’s media desk.
“The only clown show in this scenario is the Huffington Post pretending to be a legitimate news source. Mr. Trump is not focused on being covered by a glorified blog. He is focused on making America great again,” the spokesperson added.
It’s worth noting, as the Daily Caller’s Betsy Rothstein pointed out Wednesday, that Huffington Post founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington may have a very good reason for relegating Trump to the silly section:
