Media Struggle With How to Cover Trump

Funny or Die released a parody of Trump's autobiography, The Art of the Deal, with Trump played by Johnny Depp.

Policy and politics website Vox featured an Ezra Klein piece that called Trump's rise a "terrifying moment." A Huffington Post headline called Trump a "racist, sexist demagogue."

Media outlets cannot decide whether Donald Trump is a joke, a demagogue, or the next Republican nominee for U.S. President. Less established media, especially, have wavered in their decisions over whether Trump should be considered an entertainer or a politician, causing a crisis of conscience in some outlets.

"The Huffington Post may be the best example because they've gone back and forth on these pronouncements about how they're going to handle Trump," said Jeff Bercovici, a writer for Inc. Magazine who has covered Trump and the media for Forbes.

The online news site said it would only cover Trump in the entertainment section, but now the Republican is often on its main news page.

The media also may be hamstrung by trying to be even handed with all the political candidates.

"So if one candidate plays by a radically different set of rules than the other candidates, the media's biases can prevent it from being able to react...in a rational way," said Bercovici.

Now that Trump is undoubtedly the Republican front-runner, more scrutiny from the media should follow, said Alan Marcus, political strategist with The Marcus Group.

"They're [the media] are not covering him, they're pandering to him and they're enabling him," Marcus said.

However, it can be difficult to cover a candidate whose platform lacks meaningful details.

"When he talks about foreign policy, he sounds to me like he’s running for the office of pirate king," said Jedediah Purdy, Robinson O. Everett Professor of Law at Duke University. He refers to Trump as a post-political candidate.

"He doesn’t have any coherent or consistent account of policy, he’s not interested in political principles or in talking about the long history of American progress or constitutionalism,"  Purdy said.