The Huffington Post decision is misguided.

The publication claims that Donald Trump’s  presidential campaign “is a sideshow” and future coverage of The Donald will be relegated to the newspaper’s entertainment section.

In fact, the Huffington Post decision is a silly public relations stunt designed to persuade some readers that it is taking the high ground regarding Trump’s often outlandish statements.

The truth is Huffington is trying to divert attention from its real mistake—one shared by too many national media today.

Today’s news organizations persist in their disproportionate attention to what Trump says instead of doing the hard work of covering, analyzing and reporting what other presidential candidates say and do.

This is why everyday there is the journalistic de rigueur political poll—who’s atop the latest public opinion survey and who’s not.

It’s quick, it’s easy, but it’s not good journalism.  And  it is poor public service.

A better decision by the Huffington Post and other news organization would be to devote greater energy and scrutiny to evaluating all candidates’ records and proposals. Yes, this includes even the impolite and impolitic assertions of Trump.

Examples

–What exactly is Hillary Clinton’s record as the Senator from New York? What legislation did she propose?

–How many proposals passed and how many failed?

–What bills did she support written by other Senators?

–On which Senate committees did she serve? What issues before the committee did she support either by voice or vote? Which did she reject?

–What national policy issues did she support or criticize?

–Who financially supported her senatorial candidacy and time in office? Did her work in the Senate demonstrate loyalty to her donors? Did she support and press for measures that would benefit her donors and the lobbyists who had her ear?

We deserve better

These questions apply to the other 19 presidential hopefuls about their records as Senators, Representatives, Governors or private sector leaders.

But that would be too time consuming and too intellectually demanding. Instead, the Huffington Post and other media will continue their mindless Lemming-like rush to curate the latest poll findings.

Until the Huffington Post and other media demonstrate they are serious about providing thoughtful, well-researched and detailed coverage of all 20 major political hopefuls, their political reporting is as inexcusable as Donald Trump’s absurd statements.

Don’t dump the Trump. It’s a poor excuse for poor journalism.