MOLLY BALL: As Campbell Brown was saying in that column, the media is [Trump's] oxygen, right? He says outrageous things, and the media covers it. He needs us. He doesn't have to air TV ads because he's on TV all the time. At the same time, you know, he's obviously very critical of the press. It's easily one third of his hour long speech on the stump is bashing the press and often very, very, very crudely in my name.
HOWARD KURTZ (HOST): Right, but at the same time, how can we complain when the front-runner in the race is willing to subject himself day after day to journalistic questions. This is what I've always said that candidates should do.
MERCEDES SCHLAPP: Well I think the media is becoming Trump's super PAC to a certain extent, because he has, he really -- After the Las Vegas debate, for example, he was one of the few candidates who went back to the spin room and talked to every single reporter, including a local reporter from Las Vegas. There's not a bias in that sense. He's willing to go on MSNBC Hardball. Because why? His message is not necessarily going to change. And so I think that is one of the reasons why he's been so dominant in again being able to dictate what the news organizations are covering and also for him to be effective. And I think at the end, obviously, it's helped his poll numbers, as Donald Trump himself would say.
