If Fox News regular Donald Trump has been gunning for the title of “stupidest stunt ever,” he may be happy to know that he has now won it, at least in our book. As some of you may know, the Trump-owned Miss Universe Pageant has been in hot water over the way it handled the discovery that contestant Jenna Talackova is transgender. When the pageant reversed the decision, Trump went on the image-rehab trail - by attacking Talackova and insulting her lawyer, Gloria Allred. But he took it way too far when he called the TV tabloid TMZ Live on April 3, 2012 and said that to prove he was born a man, he would show America his penis - but only if Allred paid him his asking price for doing so. Perhaps he thought it would be an inducement when he announced that Allred would be “very, very, very impressed” with him.
So where’s Fox News with the story? There has been some discussion about it. But it has not received the kind of attention we’d expect from a “fair and balanced” network. As Politico reported last month (H/T Think Progress), Trump is “gaining juice and respectability in national politics as a top Mitt Romney surrogate.” Plus, he’s a regular guest on Fox News. In fact, one day after Trump made his “offer” to Allred, he spent more than eight minutes on On The Record. Yet host Greta Van Susteren, who makes a point of standing up for (conservative) women, didn’t ask a single question about it. Instead, she let Trump lecture President Obama about respect for the Supreme Court.
Although we don’t know how much airtime this story got in order to make – uh, an impression – on Fox producers and viewers, one thing is certain: If a major Obama surrogate put forth such a vulgarity, it would be plastered all over the network and virtually impossible to avoid.
Note: This post originally described Trump as a Fox "contributor" instead of "regular." We regret the error.
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Speaking of people who need a life, our old ‘friends’ at Janie Penny are up in arms about why we didn’t bring up the other places where he’s a regular guest- ABC, CBS, CNN…
That might be due to that, even if we weren’t a watchdog site that does FNC exclusively, shows he’s appeared on from those outlets after this were capable of calling him out on his behavior. Even hosts who flat admitted to being on his side setting up the interview told him he was out of line with his attacks on Talackova and his offer to Allred.
Compare that to Fox News downplaying/ignoring his behaviour, and acting like he’s a class act for “allowing” the decision to be reversed. Despite things like, you know… telling everyone who would listen that he would have stood his ground just to piss Allred off if he knew she had gotten involved.
Have a nice day, guys.
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That offer wuz Very Presidential Sir …
Now what deal would you offer Putin if he wanted to look at your back-door assets?
“With all due respect to Mr. Trump, he really needs to stop being focused on genitals, his or anyone else’s. This world does not revolve around his penis or anyone else’s genitalia.”
Just adding that in.
Granted, one presumes this would be a consensual transaction in private but that’s never stopped the police from arresting men and women during prostitution stings. (I think there’s footage of that Colorado former sheriff who was trading drugs for sex—ostensibly being done “in private.”)
A: They like to be on a first name basis with the one making most of their decisions.
To Gloria Allred, if he does remember these two words: Lorena Bobbitt.