Donald Trump with his version of the White House
The Huffington Post published a notice last Friday stating that, from now on, it will cover Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign under its Entertainment section rather than under Politics or News. According to the notice from Huffington Post Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim and its Editorial Director Danny Shea:
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.
Not surprisingly, Trump’s campaign fired back at the Huffington Post, saying:
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.
In fact, the Huffington Post’s decision to dump Trump from its political coverage is completely arbitrary, and is a huge mistake.
First of all, whether or not the Huffington Post likes Donald Trump’s style or his statements, Trump is running at the top of the Republican presidential polls. Thus, whatever the Huffington Post may think about the wisdom of GOP primary voters, Trump is entitled to the political coverage due his top position.
Second, there is no “sideshow” test for Republican presidential candidates. If there was such a test, many Republican candidates would fail. Donald Trump is hardly the only Republican candidate who, to one degree or another, seems to use running for president as a business plan or a cry for attention rather than as a serious electoral effort. For example, few news media outlets took Michele Bachmann‘s 2012 presidential campaign seriously, yet Bachmann was afforded due political coverage, and she even led the GOP primary pack for a time. Likewise, 2008 GOP presidential candidate Rudolf Giuliani was merely, in the words of Joe Biden, “a noun and a verb and ‘9/11,'” and Giuliani used his presidential campaign to puff up his security consulting business. Again, however, the Huffington Post didn’t relegate coverage of Giuliani to “sideshow” status. Moreover, the Huffington Post had no problem covering Sarah Palin in its Politics section, even well after Palin lost the 2008 election with running mate John McCain, and went on to become America’s biggest media whore along with Kim Kardashian (who, ironically, the Huffington Post mentions in its notice about Donald Trump). Or how about Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz, who seems to be avoiding even the pretense of a real presidential campaign by co-mingling a book tour with his campaign tour?
[UPDATE July 21, 2015 4 p.m.: As if to prove our point, Rand Paul‘s campaign came out with this ad today, featuring chain saws, fire, Jimi Hendrix and a garbage truck. Let’s hear the Huffington Post explain why Donald Trump’s campaign is a “sideshow” and Rand Paul’s is not.]
It’s also arbitrary that the Huffington Post, which mixes celebrity “sideboob” photos and other entertainment fare on the same front page as its news and political coverage, would suddenly take a journalistic stand against Donald Trump’s presidential run. This is still the same Huffington Post that publishes blog posts from celebrities like Kirk Douglas in its Politics section. Moreover, the Huffington Post is by no means the only media offender that has obliterated the line between news and entertainment. That train left the station long ago. Now we are at the point where CNN‘s Gloria Borger even jokes on air about “how watching [Chris] Christie take on Trump would be Pay-Per-View T.V., right?”
So please, Huffington Post, spare us your false sanctimony and your double standard in singling out Donald Trump for different treatment. Move your coverage of Trump’s presidential campaign back to your News and Politics sections. Because that toothpaste can’t be put back in the tube.
Image by KAZ Vorpal, used under Creative Commons license. http://bit.ly/1LoxNfH
