'They are personally wounded and offended by this man': Jon Stewart explains how Trump 'baits' the media

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Jon Stewart said President Donald Trump has been successful in baiting the media by attacking it, contending this distracts from the impact of Trump's policies.

• Jon Stewart says President Donald Trump has been successful in baiting the press by appealing to journalists' narcissism. 
• Stewart told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that Trump has been able to steer "the conversation" away from whether his policies are "silly" to "the fight" he has with the media. 
• Stewart said the media should think more about how Trump's administration and its policies affect minorities and marginalized groups when they get outraged about his attacks on the press. 
• Trump often refers to major media outlets as "Fake News" or the "enemy of the American people."
• Many high-profile reporters have repeatedly challenged the Trump administration's criticism of the press.

In the seemingly never-ending battle between President Donald Trump and the media, comedian Jon Stewart says Trump has been successful in baiting the press by appealing to their narcissism. 

"I think journalists have taken it personally," Stewart said to CNN's Christiane Amanpour of Trump's habitual attacks on the media. "They're personally wounded and offended this man. He baits them, and they dive in."

"What [Trump has] done well ... is appeal to their own narcissism, to their own ego," the former host of "The Daily Show" added. 

When Trump attacks the press by calling it the "enemy of the people," for example, Stewart said the media responds by standing up and saying, "We are noble. We are honorable. How dare you, sir!"

Consequently, Stewart said, Trump has been able to steer "the conversation" away from whether his policies are "silly" or not working to "the fight" he has with the media. 

Stewart said the media should think more about how Trump's administration and its policies affect minorities and marginalized groups when they get outraged about his attacks on the press. 

Many high-profile reporters have repeatedly sparred with the White House over its anti-media rhetoric. 

On Monday, for example, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders got into a shouting match with a reporter who questioned whether Trump blamed the media for a recent series of violent events in the US. The briefing-room battle came after Trump made a number of statements that the media had a large role to play in reducing the "Anger and Outrage" in the country. 

Trump on Monday tweeted that "there is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news."

"The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!" he wrote.