As CNN's Brian Stelter reported this Sunday, it's been two months since Donald Trump gave a press conference. So when is the media going to start one of those "countdown clocks" for him?
September 18, 2016

As CNN's Brian Stelter reported this Sunday, it's been two months since Donald Trump gave a press conference. So when is the media going to start one of those "countdown clocks" for Trump the way they did when they were badgering Clinton not long ago and reading talking points that came straight from the RNC?

Here's Stelter ripping the Trump campaign and Fox for pretending he's been more accessible to the press than the Clinton campaign, and Trump for continually running to the loving arms of Hannity and his cohorts to give interviews.

STELTER: And one more note about the campaigns and their willingness or unwillingness to answer questions, it is the first rule of campaign coverage, that journalists should always want more access and politicians almost always want to give less.

But Trump really revised that rule, giving hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of interviews in the 15 months since he's been a presidential candidate.

But I think it's high time to distinguish between the present and the past.

Listen to these disingenuous comments from "FOX & Friends" earlier this month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FOX & FRIENDS")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump has talked to the press over and over and over.

But if you look at the press conference, the number of minutes they have spent with the press, like actually standing there and taking questions, he spent four hours and 38 minutes this year talking to the press answering questions because he wants to be transparent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.

And he -- and the Trump number does not include hours that he's appeared on network television answering questions as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: Now, it is true that Trump used to give interviews constantly. And much of his campaign was premised on constant media exposure.

But I said was, because it's no longer the case. Trump supporters are still arguing that he's more accessible than Hillary Clinton. And he is still giving interviews to friendly outlets like "FOX & Friends" there or "Hannity."

In fact, he has another "Hannity" town hall coming up this week. But Trump is ducking most interview requests from serious reporters. He's been turning down Sunday shows like "Meet the Press." He's not been subjected to many real interviews since the middle of the summer.

So, when you notice he's on FOX, when you notice he's appearing on FOX all the time, rallying up his base, you should also notice what he's not doing and how he's not as accessible as his surrogates say he is.

Now, we could say the same about Hillary Clinton. It's important for her to continue to grant interviews as well. Now, she didn't have press conferences for the better part of a year, and lately she has been taking more questions from reporters. Hopefully, that will continue.

But as we mentioned earlier in the show here, it's been almost two months since Donald Trump held a press conference. Both these candidates still deserve to answer and should be answering more questions from reporters.

NPR's Steve Inskeep had some similar criticism for Trump, blasting him on Twitter for failing to give an interview on foreign policy he agreed to over 248 days ago.

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