Presidential candidate Donald Trump might be leading the early GOP polls, but The Huffington Post has decided that Trump’s campaign won’t be covered as part of its political coverage. Trump will instead be treated as an entertainment personality. If a TV news network made the same decision, the backlash would be enormous. Or as Trump would say: Huge (with a silent ‘H,’ of course). The Huff Post issued the following statement:
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. 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.
Poynter’s James Warren disagrees with the decision, saying it’s wrong and “especially dubious in an era where the nexus of entertainment and politics is often quite obvious and growing.”
You might think Trump is a buffoon. But he may have, for the moment at least, touched some nerve of dissatisfaction, perhaps partial explanation of his decent showing in some early Republican polls. Something of the sort happened long ago with some guys who were actually professional actors and were similarly disparaged. They, too, could have been journalistically segregated long ago as not meeting some arbitrary test of seriousness and legitimacy.
You do remember Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, don’t you?
We’re eagerly awaiting Trump’s inevitable Twitter response and will update you when it happens. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Meanwhile, Trump is on the cover of next week’s New Yorker. “Belly Flop,’ by Barry Blitt, shows Trump entering the GOP race “with all the grace of a bully doing cannonballs and belly flops at the local swimming pool,” said Blitt.
UPDATE: Trump has responded via Facebook:
Donald J. Trump Response to Huffington Post
Mr. Trump is number one in the unimportant Huffington Post poll, along with all other recently released polls including Reuters, FOX, USA Today/Suffolk University and The Economist.
Mr. Trump is in first place in Nevada, where he is also number one, by a wide margin, with Hispanics. He is number one in North Carolina and expects to win Iowa and New Hampshire.
Mr. Trump singlehandedly raised the issue of illegal immigration and started a national conversation about what has turned out to be one of the most important topics of this election cycle.
Likewise, Mr. Trump is the leader on issues such as the terrible United States trade deals, strengthening our military, taking care of our great Vets and the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.
If you read previously written Tweets, Mr. Trump has never been a fan of Arianna Huffington or the money-losing Huffington Post.
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.