Donald Trump Steering Clear of CBS News Interviews?

April 20th, 2011 3:54 PM

Potential presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose controversial stance on President Obama's birth certificate has made waves in the mainstream media during the past weeks, for one reason or another, has avoided interviews on CBS's morning and evening news programs so far in 2011. In fact, Trump hasn't done an interview on either The Early Show or CBS Evening News in over two years.

Donald Trump; & Ashleigh Banfield, ABC News Correspondent | NewsBusters.orgThe billionaire has made two appearances on ABC's Good Morning America in recent days. Correspondent Ashleigh Banfield interviewed Trump on the March 17 edition of the morning program, while anchor George Stephanopoulos grilled him just over a month later on April 19.

On NBC, Today show host Meredith Vieira put on the star of her network's Apprentice franchise on April 7.  Less than two weeks later, correspondent Michael Isikoff pressed Trump on his business practices during the April 19 edition of NBC Nightly News.

However, in the case of CBS News, the last time one of their personalities interviewed the billionaire was on the March 6, 2009 edition of The Early Show, when former host Harry Smith had him on the program.

Trump hasn't entirely avoided CBS since that interview, as he appeared on Late Night with David Letterman on September 1, 2010 and on March 2, 2011. But it is certainly noteworthy that he has avoided appearing on The Early Show or CBS Evening News.

— Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.