©2017 jbjd
Thin-skinned Donald Trump’s latest foray into Twitterland evidences his personal race toward irrelevance, but the marketeer extraordinaire still manages to drag “The View” closer to fatal obsolescence.
The discussion on today’s show included the remarks from Meryl Streep at last night’s Golden Globes, during her acceptance speech as recipient of the Cecile B. deMille Award. Streep took full advantage of the accolade bestowed on her by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, to focus her remarks on the press. Her speech included references to the public ridicule displayed on November 25, 2015 by then R-Presidential-nominee-wannabe Trump against Serge Kovaleski, an investigative reporter at the NYT, and an admonition that the “famously well-heeled Hollywood foreign press” and everyone should “hold power to account.” She followed with an entreaty to support the Committee to Protect Journalists.
First, here is Streep’s speech, in its entirety.
Some panelists on “The View,” including Whoopi and Joy Behar, voiced agreement with Streep’s disdain for making fun of the handicapped. The discussion also included a spirited defense of Trump’s gyrations from Jedediah Bila, late of FOX News. She admits at first viewing, she also thought Trump was making fun of the reporter’s congenital affliction. However, “…then I watched a series of clips of Donald Trump using those exact hand gestures to mock other people… .”
Whoopi shows an excerpted video of Trump ridiculing Kovaleski. Jedediah cites to an excerpted video in which Trump ridicules Ted Cruz at a rally in February 2016, using gestures she now describes not as “exact” but only as “very similar.” (Here is a snippet of that segment, which include the excerpted images of both events.)
See that? Just seconds after Jedediah’s interpretation that these ‘visual aids’ indicated her initial interpretation was wrong, that is, Trump did not specifically target Kovaleski with physically animated gesticulations because of the man’s obvious physical handicap; even Whoopi and Joy Behar buy into Trump’s elixir. Now, the two women re-cast their objection to his conduct on these more generalized grounds: he should not make fun of someone just because that person disagrees with him.
Note to Trump apologists of whatever political ilk: when it comes to accurately interpreting his output, pay closer attention to distinctions of time and place. See, Trump’s initial mock(-up) targeting Kovaleski occurred at a political rally he held on November 24, 2015. A global outcry immediately followed. The reality-show-producer-cum-political-huckster, with his tiny fingers firmly pressed on the pulse of the public, grasped that, this time, he had gone too far. So, aiming to re-cast the deplorable image he had imprinted in people’s minds, he staged arguably similar antics directed at victims without obvious physical afflictions, after that.
(Keep in mind at all times, “The View” is not a news show. The video excerpt they ran of Trump’s attack on Kovaleski is clipped so as to omit these introductory words uttered as Trump launched into his offensive ‘song and dance,’ words which tend to reaffirm that Trump targeted the man because of his obvious physical disability: “…written by a nice reporter, the poor guy, you gotta see this guy…”
For a comprehensive report on Trump’s Kovaleski concoction, please, read Donald Trump’s revisionist history of mocking a disabled reporter, which appeared in the WaPo on August 2, 2016.)
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My mind is a terrible thing to waste.
jbjd 