NBC's Pollster: MSNBC's Morning Joe “Created” Trump

Peter Hart: Morning Joe “Created [Trump], And Then Essentially, He Turned On Them”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Peter Hart, chairman of one of the research firms that provides polls for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, used MSNBC's Morning Joe as an example of how the media have bolstered, and to an extent, even “created” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as a viable general election candidate. Hart noted that the morning show “created” Trump “and then essentially, he turned on them."Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have drawn criticism for their fawning coverage of Trump throughout the election cycle. Just the other day, the show devolved into a screaming match after Bill Kristol called out the hosts, accusing them of “rewriting history” in regards to the show’s Trump coverage. From the October 19 discussion at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy:

NICCO MELE (HOST): How you do understand the role of the media in this election cycle?

[...]

PETER HART: I think the one thing we can all agree on is, ratings have driven this. I mean, Donald Trump has been a magnet, I mean, in that you can put him on anytime, anywhere and bingo. I love sort of the Morning Joe element. You know, they created him, and then essentially, he turned on them, and they turned on him, and you know, you have all of this. But I guarantee you that the number of hours that DonaldTrump has gotten -- I mean, if today Donald Trump got a true influenza and could not appear, and he said, “Mike Pence will appear in my place,” the audience would drop by three quarters.