A controversial tweet from a fan of top contender for Republican Party presidential nomination Donald Trump depicting Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly in a meme and calling her a “bimbo” has gone viral. The meme features photos of Kelly posing provocatively in a small black dress and high heels. The meme included the captions “Criticizes Trump for objectifying women” and, below the photos, “Poses like this in GQ magazine.”
The meme spread soon after it was retweeted by Donald Trump himself and has since been retweeted and ‘hearted’ thousands of times.
Kelly had previously attracted the ire of Trump during the first GOP debate after she asked him pointed questions about his track record of making derogative remarks about women, their appearance, and their behaviour. Trump has recently refused to participate in the next Republican debate organised by Fox unless the network removes Kelly from the event…
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Instead of attending the debate, “We’ll have an event here in Iowa, with potentially another network, to raise money for wounded warriors,” campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said. “And Fox will go from probably having 24 million viewers to about 2 million.”
Many observers are of the view that this threat may actually hold water considering the bonanza viewership Trump’s appearances have consistently delivered to the media in recent months.
The bigger discussion that seems to surround the fracas between Trump, the Fox network, and the bigger community of commentators who have become increasingly polarised by Trump’s unique and unprecedented manner with which he is bidding for the presidency of the mightiest nation on the planet is around the female “objectification” angle that has come centre stage as a result of this recent social media circus.
Did the Megyn Kelly meme provide the long-overdue real frame in this debate?
Specifically, the word hypocrisy seems to be the order of the day here. It is common knowledge that Fox News consistently hire babe-ish female reporters and television personalities who appear in Fox programmes caked in makeup and decked in attire not too different from Kelly’s GQ photoshoot wardrobe. Indeed, there is an underground cottage industry across social media exchanging images and screencaps of female Fox personalities doing what they do best.
Perhaps then this latest spectacle could be a seminal epiphany to the public on why Trump has become such a formidable figure in US politics. Trump’s increasing ability to thumb his nose at Big News Media and the “civil society” it (now even more-arguably) presumes to represent is, itself, an outcome of the industry’s own failure to live up to its own lofty journalistic ideals. Indeed, increasing competition — specifically now that the rise of the Net as a source of “news” is progressively crushing traditional media’s hundred-year-old business models — has forced traditional news outlets to rely more and more on lurid tabloid journalism to boost ratings.
An interesting space to watch, even, is how the venerable Huffington Post recently made an editorial decision to add a note to all Trump coverage calling him a ‘serial liar,’ ‘racist’…
“Note to our readers: Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, birther, and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.,” the note says. It first appeared Wednesday night on an article about Trump’s feud with Fox News, Politico reports.
A Huffington Post spokesperson told Politico that the note will be added to all coverage of Trump. “No other candidate has called for banning 1.6 billion people from the country! If any other candidate makes such a proposal, we’ll append a note under pieces about them,” the spokesperson explained.
But look past the pompous rhetoric of this text and it is easy to come out with a more jaded interpretation of this move on the part of the Huff’s editors. It really comes across as a measure of desperation — an online news outlet under pressure from shareholders to increase clicks that simply cannot not cover Trump but needing to resort to a denial caveat to justify its continued coverage of a subject its editors (so they say to their readership) find unsavory. That’s a fistful of words describing the Huff’s editors’ lame effort to tell us “We think Trump is a prick but we need him to keep our heads above water.”
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Question, why is Trump so popular. It is simple, it is fear. He is only saying what most Americans are thinking and speaking in private. You go to most American Facebook or private websites and look at what is being shared, you will read articles about getting rid of immigrants, Muslims, and a true dislike for anything or anyone not American. We no longer have the ability to protect the country from terrorist or protect the country from illegal immigrants taking jobs. Many American factories are no overseas. It is political incorrect to say this. The question is when can we stop being political correct and be truthful?
A lot of successful political movements and upheavals were launched on the back of fear — because fear is one of the most powerful motivating emotions.
The whole “Never Again” slogan being used against Bongbong Marcos, for example, is based on creating fear. Commies use fear of “US imperialism” to keep their anti-American rhetoric relevant today. Fear of a “Binay presidency” is pretty much the only pitch Mar Roxas’s fans are sending across. Fear of crime is what underlies Duterte’s bid. Fear of a presidency under Mar, Duterte, or Binay is what makes Grace Poe so popular.
Indeed, in the business world, successful advertising campaigns are based on fear. Fear of being left out and/or not belonging is what is behind the brand management strategy of most fashion labels. Fear of missing out is what drives people to maintain “bucket lists” of unnecessary things to spend money on. Fear of going to hell is what keeps people going to Church every Sunday and plunking a few pesos in the basket during the collection portion.
And that is where Trump’s talent and impeccable timing find themselves. Pretty clever. A perception of an uncertain future, a bogeyman, and a clever salesman. It’s the perfect political storm.
Manipulations, False hopes, everything revolves around human emotions. Throughout the years people got the hang of it. They became more in tune on how to manipulate things and other people as our technology progresses.
From our food to politics, everything is enhanced to get the favorable results. But here in our country politicians or businessmen don’t need to do such great length to persuade people to bend to their will. People here are so timid when it comes to change or progress.
Fox network, uses “model like” women in their network. It is like the “painted women” in the old wild wild west, teasing viewers. Not in the content of their programs; but their seductive appearances.
I believe that Trump is right, in keeping his self respect.
Huffington Post was wrong in saying that Trump will ban all Muslims from entering the U.S…. Trump said: ” Muslims must be Banned, until, we all know what is happening…” It is a temporary ban, for time to look what is happening, after the massacre committed by those husband and wife Islamic Radicals in San Bernardino, California , U.S.A. Fourteen people were murdered.
I am no apologist of Trump; however; we must not distort statements to prove your point.
Anyway, Megyn Kelly of the Kelly File Program at Fox Network; is over painted (full of make up). She is a lawyer, before becoming a journalist. She talks fast; and is also good in interviewing people. Only, she has a feud with Trump from the beginning. Maybe, they don’t like each other.
Where ignorance is bliss, awareness is joy, and self-awareness is orgasmic.