Kurtz: The Press As A Pinata

Marco Rubio rips the New York Times for reporting he’s not too popular in his parents’ homeland of Cuba.

Chris Christie hits the Times and MSNBC for hyping the Bridgegate scandal and says the “liberal media” owe him an apology.

Scott Walker, who gets into the race next week, accused reporters of asking “gotcha questions” and refused to answer some of them.

Ted Cruz told me that most journalists are hopelessly biased and portray Republicans as stupid, evil or in his case, crazy.

And Donald Trump told me in the interview that aired Sunday that “I believe in punching back” against the media, as he has by calling certain journalists losers, clowns and dumb as a rock.

The press has become quite the piñata in the 2016 campaign, a fat target for candidates eager to score points against our unpopular business—or just to vent their frustrations.

Does it work? It certainly doesn’t hurt in a Republican primary. But at some point candidates have to figure out how to use the press to sell their message, rather than just complaining.

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