Trump, The View and Apologies

As I write this, two curiously intertwined stories are circulating around the news media, which suggests that perhaps the media are trying very hard not to have us see how bad the Iran nuclear deal is for Americans.  Anything else, apparently, no matter how trivial or silly, should get our attention instead.

And so, we are treated to the non-apology of Donald Trump (a familiar and oddly reasonable posture on The Donald's part) for an exchange with a Trump shirt-wearing questioner during a campaign event.  In the course of asking the actual question, which was what Trump was going to do about Muslim terrorist camps being built in the USA, the fellow started off with statements about Barack Obama being a Muslim himself, and not an American.

Trump, as you saw, started answering by saying jokingly that, sure, this was the question he "really needed to have to answer as the first one" -- even before the fellow finished the question.  Now, his answer was certainly more what we should care about -- a very typical Trump answer for this stage of the campaign, how "we'll take care of that", no specifics.

The "issue", such as it was, was that Trump should have taken the questioner to task for saying that Obama was a Muslim ("We know our current president is one ...") and not an American.  Even some other candidates were contending -- only for political reasons, but they were -- that he should have said something and should do so now.

At the same time, on the leftist, pathetic waste of American bandwidth called "The View", one of the hostesses, Michelle Collins, criticized one of the contestants in the just-concluded Miss America pageant.  Miss Colorado had used the talent competition part to show her comedic skills, in a nurse's uniform, and Miss Collins said she "basically read her emails out loud."  Another, Joy Behar, followed immediately, asking "why a nurse would have a doctor's stethoscope on".

We can be happy for Miss Behar that she apparently has been so healthy all her life as not to see a nurse on duty, since many walk their hospital duties with a stethoscope routinely, as if I have to point this out to you.

The reaction to the comments on The View was strong.  Nurses everywhere, and defenders of nurses everywhere, were aghast.  Several of the sponsors, including the health-product supply company Johnson and Johnson, felt they had to pull their advertising from the show, and others were moved to suspend their ads.

So where are we at this point?  Donald Trump is supposed to defend Barack Obama's religion, and hosts on The View are not supposed to make jokes about non-controversial topics like nurses?

I will admit that when I first heard of each case, I had a maybe 5% reaction (i.e., I really didn't care).  I thought the guy asking Trump the question was a bit over the top, and I thought the two hosts on The View had pretty much done what they always had done -- been not funny.  If Trump had responded to the questioner by saying that Obama was actually American and Christian, I wouldn't have been surprised, nor was I when he didn't defend the president -- it wasn't his job.  I saw the clip of The View and had no reaction at all; it was simply dull.

So I'll tell you what I think.  First, barely enough people even watch The View for anything said there to register on our national conscience.  My best girl, while taking care of her infirm mother, changes channels when The View comes on, to watch ... well almost anything else.  So I can't imagine that the ratings for The View are high enough for Johnson and Johnson to have had much skin in the game in the first place.

But Michelle Collins is supposed to be a comedienne.  She is on there to help the show's dismal ratings after cycling through so many hostesses.  She's supposed to make jokes and, since they talk about people on that show, the jokes are going to be at someone's expense.  Joy Behar is just ignorant, but she's been ignorant on that show for a long time and it hasn't offended Johnson and Johnson, or Snuggle, or Party City, or McCormick Overpriced Spices, all of which also pulled their ads.  Now it's nurses?

Aw, c'mon.  If you have been advertising for this show, you knew what was on it.  And this is not like companies that sponsor shows featuring hip, with-it street comedians, and then pulling their ads when the hip, with-it street comedian says something offensive.  This was simply a flat joke.  I don't get the PC aspect of this at all.

I don't know if it's a PC issue to expect that, if someone tangentially accuses the president of being a Muslim (note that the media-used word is "accuses", as if practicing Islam is somehow innately evil), the richest person in the room is supposed to correct them.

Well, I tried to put myself in The Donald's place.  The fellow was putting some statements in the beginning of a question, much as the press or congressional committee members do.  You wait until they're done, and then try to process everything they said, fast enough to reply to the actual question in context.

The Donald did just that.  He could be criticized for what was in the answer (i.e., nothing) a lot more than for not defending the indefensible president.  But it is not his job to determine what Barack Obama's religion is, and frankly, he would be just as offensive (to me at least) if he took too much time to elaborate on his view of what the president actually believed.

But that, friends, passes for news as, whatever his faith, the president sells our security down the river to Iran.

As Charlie Brown would say, "Auuuugggggghhhhhh!!!!!!"

Copyright 2015 by Robert Sutton
 Like what you read here?  There's a new post from Bob at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com at 10am Eastern time, every weekday, giving new meaning to "prolific essayist."  Sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu.