Bernstein's rule of thumb:
She should be covered because, as a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president, what she says is newsworthy. The same goes for the other leading candidates. They are newsworthy to the extent that they are leading candidates, and in my view editors and producers should try to assess as best they can who those leading candidates are (using polls, endorsements and comments by informed observers and participants and evidence of campaign activity).... It's hard, of course, for the press to cover a candidate who doesn't tell the truth without inadvertently just amplifying falsehoods or smear attacks, but it can't be correct to try to solve that by just ignoring her.
So cover her aggressively. Push back on the lies. Get to the bottom of her deeply shady stories. She is the next GOP nominee.
(Photo: Jewel Samad/Getty.)