I'm not at an extreme, but I do think that Donald Trump is a self-created creature. But the media has feasted on his spectacle and he wouldn't live without the attention. He's repaid the favor by attacking the press, but that's generated more reactive coverage.

The press is supposed to equip people to act as citizens and not just consumers of programming that happens to be news.

You know, trust in the press, polls show - from Pew and other places - have gone down significantly over the years. Maybe the press doesn't have that much ability to frame people's decisions.

Trump's - has great negatives, enormous negatives, a lot of people say they simply won't vote for him. So if he's gotten media, maybe it hasn't done him so much good.

I'm not at an extreme, but I do think that Donald Trump is a self-created creature. But the media has feasted on his spectacle and he wouldn't live without the attention. He's repaid the favor by attacking the press, but that's generated more reactive coverage.

The paid Trump surrogates help CNN keep his supporters engaged with their shows, but it also sends their own reporters busy chasing after many of their false claims. That's not a virtuous news cycle. It's an insidious one.

After all, the reporters are the ones who get to ask the questions.