Trump Campaign Denies "Register" Press Credentials
STELTER: Welcome back. Donald Trump is the news media's best friend and biggest critic. He soaks up attention on one hand and then scorns the outlets that he feels are insulting him. We're going to talk about his relationship with FOX News in a couple minutes. But, first, his latest battle this weekend was in Iowa. The Trump campaign denied press credentials to "The Des Moines Register". That's the state's biggest newspaper. Now, the campaign said the snub was in response to a registered editorial calling on him to quit the presidential race. Trump weighed in and we're going to play the sound from him in a moment. But, you know, this is a very interesting example of Trump retaliating against the press that he thinks is unfair to him. I want to hear from two people who know the state better than anybody. "The Register's" former -- David Yepsen, first, the former chief political columnist for "The Des Moines Register." And Craig Robinson, the editor of theiowarepublican.com. Appreciate you both being here.</s>DAVID YEPSEN, SIMON INSTITUTE, SIU: Good to be here.</s>CRAIG ROBINSON, EDITOR, THEIOWAREPUBLICAN.COM: Good to be here.</s>STELTER: David, first thing first. The editorial page of "The Register" is separate from the news page. Donald Trump either doesn't know that or doesn't care.</s>YEPSEN: Well, that's what makes his action in snubbing the paper, the reporters so strange because he took an editorial unfavorable to him suggesting he get out of the race and he elevated the discussion. The editorial writers all across the country tell people to quit or resign or whatever every day of the week. And what Mr. Trump did by this was elevate this and I don't think he wanted to do that, because there are, in fact, a lot of people who think his candidacy is counterproductive, is hurting the Republican Party and Republican chances against the Democrats. So, it made no sense. He has every right to say who he doesn't want to have, but it didn't make any political sense for him to elevate a negative editorial the way he did.</s>STELTER: Well, the flip side of this, Craig, is the conservative base, in some case openly resents the political press, believes the media has a very clear liberal bias. Do you think that's what Trump was aiming at, what he was getting at with this criticism?</s>ROBINSON: Well, I think Trump did want to elevate this issue. I think Trump elevates a lot of different issues that come his way. And I think we've seen the impact of that over the last six weeks that he's been a formal candidate. So, I think this is another thing that actually helps Donald Trump. And the other thing, I kind of disagree with David about, this isn't a columnist at "The Des Moines Register" that decided to write an article. It didn't just say he should drop out, it said he was unfitting, undeserving to be president of the United States. I mean, this is a pretty hard hitting editorial from the editorial board of the newspaper. And when it was reported, it was reported that "The Des Moines Register" says you should get out. And, look, I publish articles all the time, and I know when I hit the publish button, there's ramifications for everything that I write. I think it's kind of nonsense that "The Des Moines Register" doesn't think there's going to be some sort of blowback for basically telling a candidate they're not fitting to be -- they should do us a favor and drop out. That's not the rule of the newspaper. It's one thing if a columnist wanted to write that, but the editorial board wrote this. And I think the actions of the Trump campaign with them, not credentialing them, I think it's an appropriate response. And, by the way, there were reporters there from "The Register" that covered the event in Oskaloosa yesterday. And, you know, they weren't harassed by the Trump staff. It's kind of ironic that, you know, Carol Hunter and -- they're all calling the Trump campaign people in Iowa saying, look, we still want you to do the register soap box at the Iowa state fair, we still need you to have a good relationship with our reporters. The editorial board is completely different. If those reporters and an editor like Carol Hunter are upset, they should be upset with their own editorial board.</s>STELTER: Let's hear David's response.</s>YEPSEN: Well, I mean, editorials are opinions by definition. They opine about lots of things. I mean, it seems awfully tricky if you can't take heat from "The Des Moines Register." I mean, Republicans have been upset with "The Des Moines Register", which is a liberal newspaper, for a long time. And it's part of the texture of Iowa politics. So, if "The Des Moines register" tweaks a Republican which happens all the time, you don't see Republican candidates in the state reacting this way. He did elevate the discussion of -- that he should get out of the race and I don't think he needed to do that. Craig does make a good point, though, the register reporters were at the event yesterday.</s>STELTER: That's right.</s>YEPSEN: Mr. Trump knew they were there. It looks to me that the Trump campaign sort of backed off on this thing and they wouldn't have allowed registered interns to be in the event, "The Register" reporter to be in the overflow area. The register has a fine story this morning about it. This is an early flap in the campaign.</s>STELTER: One of many, I suspect. David, Craig, thank you both for being here.</s>YEPSEN: Thank you.</s>ROBINSON: Good to be here.</s>STELTER: Now, here is an interesting question, could Trump be causing a rift at the highest levels of the FOX News channel. Reports are he may have come between FOX News chairman Roger Ailes and the chief of the whole company, all of 21st Century Fox, Rupert Murdoch. Mark Joyella has written about this. He's actually written for Murdoch's "New York Post." And he's now a blogger at "TVNewser". Mark, thanks for being here.</s>MARK JOYELLA, CO-EDITOR, TVNEWSER: Thanks for having me.</s>STELTER: How much credence do you give to reports, in "New York Magazine" and elsewhere, that Murdoch-- we know Murdoch is uncomfortable with Trump, he's been tweeting his criticism of Trump but Roger Ailes is supportive of Trump and wants his campaign to keep going?</s>JOYELLA: There's two things. It's fascinating as people on the outside looking into this force of nature that is FOX News Channel to think, wow, there could be this fight.</s>STELTER: Right.</s>JOYELLA: But if you think about it from a step back, Murdoch, this incredibly powerful billionaire mogul, is forced to use Twitter because he has no power inside this fantastically powerful news channel, what the history tells us is that Roger Ailes, having built this monster of a news channel, is largely the reins to do whatever wants with it.</s>STELTER: Right. He's got a lot of autonomy. FOX has been throwing cold water on these stories.</s>JOYELLA: Yes.</s>STELTER: But it is intriguing, because FOX News and the megaphone it has, it can help or hurt Trump. It can help or hurt Trump a lot.</s>JOYELLA: Absolutely.</s>STELTER: What do you think down the road -- looking a few months down the road, if President Trump is not in the picture, is it possible, you think, a cable news job is in his future?</s>JOYELLA: Well, that's tempting. And I'm sure cable news executives would be thinking, how do we harness this phenomenon that Donald Trump has unleashed?</s>STELTER: Yes. My sense is, if you have him -- if you have an interview with him on CNN or FOX or MSNBC, your ratings are going to rise, at least for those few minutes he's on.</s>JOYELLA: Yes. The flip, though, if you think about it, of a cable news show hosted by Trump, that would put him in a different perspective. I don't see him as a guy who would like to have a guest on and ask questions of that guest. He prefers to be the subject. I don't see him...</s>STELTER: So, you're saying maybe he's not going to be in this chair.</s>JOYELLA: No.</s>STELTER: Maybe he's going to be in your chair. Maybe he would be the guest, a regular contributor on FOX or CNN or elsewhere.</s>JOYELLA: And then what would he do? Would he say, I can't call in to "Morning Joe" anymore now and I can't talk to these other outlets? I don't know. But what is huge enough, to use his words, for Donald Trump after this, when he is the front-runner? What is big enough?</s>STELTER: That's a good point. When it comes to FOX, Roger Ailes and Trump have a long relationship. They're friendly. On the other hand, I'm not sure Roger Ailes likes to have egomaniacal or big ego-type folks on his staff. That's hard thing to manage. Same thing maybe here at CNN. You could imagine Trump, either a show or a contributor. It would be really interesting to watch him. But will viewers see that as a turn-on or a turnoff? And then there's MSNBC. We're going to talk about MSNBC later in the hour. They're starved for ratings. Trump would certainly help</s>MSNBC. JOYELLA: I'm sure they'd love to have Trump the hour unplugged. But the problem is, if you think about it, he is so unplugged, he has no filter, that most people in television have sort of an innate filter that keeps you from saying the things that will get you fired.</s>STELTER: Right.</s>JOYELLA: He's already said things, talking about Mexican immigrants being rapists, talking about John McCain, that would certainly have gotten him suspended from an MSNBC hosting gig. And it would be very hard to imagine how do you keep going with this guy saying all this stuff, which is at its essence what makes people so fascinated by him? He will say anything.</s>STELTER: Right. Mark, thanks for being here. Good talking with you.</s>JOYELLA: Thanks for having me.</s>STELTER: Just raising the theory of Trump as cable news host. We will see what happens. When we come back here, Gawker Media, a meltdown there, the resignation of two top editors, caused a lot of attention this week. And, of course, there's a lawsuit from Hulk Hogan still pending. What is going to happen to Gawker? The founder, Nick Denton, joins me for an exclusive interview in a couple minutes.