The media "needs to take a breath" and "have proportionality in terms of its coverage," according to NBC "Today Show" host Savannah Guthrie.
Guthrie's comments came during a panel discussion Thursday afternoon on MSNBC. Host Nicolle Wallace brought up the ongoing controversy between President Donald Trump and CNN over a GIF that the president posted to his Twitter on Sunday.
Guthrie intimated that the media simply needs to be smarter about preserving its own reputation.
"I do think that we need to play the long game. We don't need to play small ball," Guthrie said. "I've seen a lot of reporters who have snarky Twitter feeds. I don't think that helps. I don't think when we're trying to say we are fair, we are neutral arbiters, we do care about the truth, we do care about the facts, I don't want to give people who disagree with that any ammunition whatsoever."
"Every molehill is not a mountain," she added. "I saw reporters breathlessly talking about the disorganization of the White House Easter Egg Roll. That's not the same thing as giving away intelligence secrets to the Russians in the Oval Office. And I think the media needs to take a breath, and know the difference, and have proportionality in terms of its coverage."
New York Times writer Frank Bruni agreed.
Media criticism of Trump, "becomes white noise," he said. "When it comes to Trump criticism, everything he does, we jump on."