On July 17, 2015, two senior political reporters at Huffington Post announced that all future coverage of Donald Trump’s campaign would take place in the Entertainment section of HuffPo, not the Politics section.HuffPo played it up on its Homepage, with a graphic meant to get attention:
Ryan Grim (Washington bureau chief for The Huffington Post) and Danny Shea (Editorial Director, The Huffington Post), have announced that because Donald Trump in their eyes is a sideshow, any news about Trump will be banished from the “Politics” section of HuffPo News to the Entertainment section, A Note About Our Coverage Of Donald Trump’s ‘Campaign’:
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.
….Sam Stein, Political Editor and White House Correspondent for HuffPo, defends the decision, asserting it’s only a matter of which “vertical” Trump-related news appears under….
That defense, of course, is complete and utter BS. It is a political decision by HuffPo to impose on readers its view of Trump in the most pernicious way — not as part of an explicit and open editorial process but by corrupting HuffPo’s own news process.
In what universe, other than the liberal media bias, is a candidate currently leading national polls and all but guaranteed to be included in the first debate not a political issue?
You can hate Trump’s campaign, but it’s still politics.
Many (but not all) media types criticized HuffPo’s decision
Trump now is bigger political news than ever. In fact, he’s dominating almost every news cycle and, at least for now, is the center of the domestic campaign news universe.
Yet HuffPo is still standing by its position, with its Editorial Director Danny Shea being mocked last week on Morning Joe for the decision. Shea defended HuffPo’s decision by declaring it the media’s role to decide how to cover a candidate:
Fast forward to yesterday, August 26. Stein and Grim just broke a story which, if true, would be a major political event in the Republican primary — Trump supposedly telling Republican leaders that he will not run third party:
Businessman Donald Trump has told several top Republicans that he will swear off the possibility of an independent bid and commit to running his presidential campaign under the party’s banner, according to several sources.Such a move could endear Trump further to Republican voters who have remained skeptical about his allegiance to a political party he joined relatively recently. Trump had drawn sharp criticism from GOP leaders concerned that a third party bid would effectively guarantee a Democratic win in the general election.
Clearly, it’s a political story. But having been boxed in by their own snarky decision to relegate all Trump news to the Entertainment section, the story ran under the Entertainment banner:
HuffPo’s news operation is the one looking like the clown now. For how long will it continue to treat the biggest political news of the season as not political news just because it doesn’t like the guy generating the news?
Just admit you made a mistake and that you ended up trapping yourself, not The Donald. Put the coverage where it belongs, in the Politics section.
In trying to beclown The Donald, you’re beclowning yourselves.
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