Huffington Post has good reason to cover Donald Trump under the label of entertainment news; Trump is a self-professed entertainer. He touts television ratings show that he is successful. MSNBC and its anchors just can’t seem to get their head around Trump rightly being considered entertainment news and leave it up to Huffington Post political editor and White House correspondent Sam Stein to explain.
“Let’s look at this as a meta-commentary. 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 a fact,” said Stein. “We have a merger of politics and entertainment, and Donald Trump is better at it than anyone we’ve ever had before.”
In a statement to TVNewser, Huffington Post editorial director Danny Shea and Washington D.C. bureau chief Ryan Grim said:
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 rating. We’re still not taking the bait.
Watch MSNBC’s anchors struggle to wrap their heads around this idea in the segment below.
