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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