Hello and welcome to five things. I'm Luciana Lopez, deputy managing editor for politics

at USA Today. It's Sunday, May 14, 2023. In the run up to the 2016 election, the media

breathlessly followed Trump's every move. Everything Trump was always on. It's estimated that

the candidate or summer north of two billion dollars in free media coverage during that time.

For the networks, former president Trump was the minus touch, netting them much needed advertising

dollars. But some have argued that in obsessively covering Trump, the networks did a disservice to

democracy. Last week CNN hosted a town hall with Trump in New Hampshire. That brings the question

top of mind once again. That network has subsequently come under heavy criticism for hosting someone

who's well known to spread lies and disinformation that it would be impossible to fact check live.

Yet as the GOP frontrunner with a staunch base of support,

Canada Trump absolutely needs to be covered. The question is, can the mainstream media cover him

responsibly? Later in this episode, we'll speak with conservative columnist, Ingrid Schachs.

But first, I'm joined by Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University who also

writes and edits the blog Press Think. Thank you for joining me today.

It's my pleasure. Thanks for inviting me. Last week CNN hosted a town hall with Donald Trump

and Caitlin Collins. What happened? CNN programmed an event that I don't think they thought

through very well. The premise of it was that Donald Trump leading candidate for Republican

nomination in 2024 would face tough questions from Caitlin Collins up and coming.

CNN anchor and CNN would be in the position of hearing from the Republican Party, as it were,

while also trying to ground the event in known facts because that's what journalism is and

that's what CNN says it does. And the reason I say that it wasn't very well thought through

is that Donald Trump not only doesn't care about factuality, but he rolls right over it,

...