title:  Chuck Todd Bans Donald Trump From Phoning It In On Meet The Press
text: For too long, media networks have allowed Donald Trump to have unfettered access to their shows via phone, and now Trump is starting to lose that privilege.It all started on Fox & Friends long before Trump announced that he was running for president. The hosts of that show would constantly invite his disembodied voice to make an appearance in order to bash President Obama or throw out some other ridiculous opinion on the story or issue of the day.And that laziness ended up being adopted by most networks after Trump threw his hat in the presidential ring. Even the Sunday shows that traditionally require candidates to actually show up in person allowed Trump to phone it in for the sake of ratings. This gave Trump a major advantage in that he wouldn t have to fly into New York to make appearances and get media coverage. He could get media coverage all the time without interrupting his campaign schedule.Interestingly, only Fox News Sunday showed some integrity and refused to let Trump call into the show. Host Chris Wallace made that decision early on calling the rule  a line worth holding  even if the network took a hit in the ratings.And now Meet The Press host Chuck Todd is cutting Trump s phone line as well.According to the New York Times,On Friday, Chuck Todd, the moderator of  Meet the Press,  told me he had only grudgingly allowed Mr. Trump to call in to his show earlier in the campaign, determining that he would rather have Mr. Trump take questions via phone than not at all.Now, Mr. Todd said, he will no longer allow Mr. Trump to do prescheduled interviews by phone on the NBC program.In addition, CNN has told the Times that  it would think twice before giving full coverage to a Trump news conference that devolves into an infomercial. Is the media finally beginning to realize that they are partly responsible for the rise of Trump? Has the media finally decided that they need to be more serious about this election and stop giving Trump free advertising? Are they finally going to start holding Trump accountable for what he says and does instead of letting him get away with saying and doing whatever he wants?For now, it looks like the media is heading in that direction, but ABC s  This Week With George Stephanopoulos  continues to let Trump phone it in and every network still covers every little thing Trump says, writes, or does for the sake of ratings instead of performing the journalistic duties Americans need them to do. They especially need the crucial Sunday news programs to start doing their jobs and stop letting Trump have his way. He needs to be forced to look the American people and news anchors in the eye when he is talking, and that s why his should have his phone taken away like a petulant child who refuses to get off the phone even after the parents tell him to. After all, as the New York Times points out,  the programs were named  Face the Nation  and  Meet the Press    not  Call the Nation  or  Phone the Press.  So if Trump wants media coverage, he ll appear to show up in person. That should always be the way it works.Featured Image: YouTube