NBC nabbed what it claims was an exclusive interview with Donald Trump on Sunday (in reality, ABC also aired footage from a Martha Raddatz interview with the businessman). Since then, sister network MSNBC has played the exchange with Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” so many times it makes you wonder whether the producers have lost their minds.

Since Sunday, when the network promoted the interview on three of its morning shows, it has run the same clip of Donald Trump and Chuck Todd in the reality TV star’s private plane a whopping 51 times. In total, MSNBC has featured parts of the clip 79 times up until “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” Tuesday evening.

The media continue to air silly segments asking why Donald Trump is leading in the polls, but the answer is simple: As political scientist John Sides has shown, the reality TV star’s standing in the polls is commensurate to the amount of media coverage he gets.

So when MSNBC inevitably impanels a group of talking heads to talk about why Trump’s numbers keep ticking up, the network might want to consider the effect its own Trump-mania might have on the campaign.

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