In part the food fights have served Trump well. The guys I like, the media ignore or shut out. I can remember in past debates the serious conservative would stand there all night and field maybe one question. A serious guy like Cruz they can ignore. Trump they can’t ignore, they can’t help themselves. Its a bit like Palin, they hate her, so they would spend enormous amounts of energy pounding away at her and telling us she was irrelevant... every other article had her name in the headline as an attention grabber just to tell us she was irrelevant.
And people really don’t like the press, don’t like McCain, don’t like mealy-mouthed politicians, and so Trump’s numbers keep going up.
They do not want to ignore Trump. Trump gets the coverage because he is not seen as a serious candidate. A serious guy like Cruz they can ignore... no they work hard to ignore him because he is serious.