Eh, even people with serious illnesses are allowed to complain a bit about mosquito bites, in my book. Yes, if we were ranking Trump gripes in order of importance, this by itself wouldn’t reach the top 0.1%.
That’s fair.
That’s my impression as well. I’ve known both print and tv/radio journalists; been interviewed by them; been on their talk programs. They’re interested in getting the story out, and getting it as accurate as they can, when faced with tight deadlines.
We’ve already seen this. Just look at the list of “news organizations” who signed onto the Pentagon’s gag rules.
OTOH, this is undiluted nonsense. It’s like generalizing about everybody who makes music using a few stars as typical examples.
I can’t figure out why these reporters don’t stand up for themselves, or why the other reporters don’t intercede. If Tump talked to me that way I’d tell him it was in appropriate, disrespectful and ask for an apology. I’d lose my job perhaps, but I’d have some self-respect.
It seems like no one is willing to stand up to Trump even for the simplistic things.
Trump is looking for an excuse to ban the entire news organization the reporter works for. He doesn’t quite dare to ban a tv network yet but he’s working up to it. That’s a ridiculous price to pay to call him out on an individual level.
The last is a good post AKA I agree.
Good journalists face these sorts of challenges in covering any dictatorship. The answers are not always easy.
This. If the reporter had told him that he was disrespecting her for calling her ‘Piggy’ and demanded an apology, he would ban Bloomberg from the WH press corps.
We’re not alone. Other folks are feeling the same way that we are about the Piggy quote.
“I don’t know why the ‘Piggy’ thing is bothering me so much,” wrote Hank Green, a YouTuber and author. “It’s one more unforgivable thing in a list of 20,000 unforgivable things, but I’ve been mad about it for like 12 straight hours.”
As Democratic digital strategist Parker Butler pointed out on X, the “quiet, piggy” clip grabbed millions of views on online accounts four days after it happened, saying: “It got almost NO coverage when he said it … A viral post can shape an entire news cycle.”
Well I started the thread because it’s the little pecks this vulture takes at our collective eyeballs like we’re dead.
I would never expect a reporter to scream like insults or make threats, but someone could’ve said something. An “excuse me” or “that’s rude”.
Of course it’ll get swept away in the latest next little peck at humanities dead eyeballs. And we just keep standing there with our mouths hanging open like we’re surprised.
If my concern is unwarranted to some, so be it. I am still bothered by it.
Thus the “flooding the zone” concept. Throw out enough awfulness and things like this (and many others ) get by un-noticed or ignored.
When good manners and social norms fall away society starts failing.
When it’s okay a high powered man degrades, as it turns out, yet another woman, however small we all lose a little piece of our humanity.
If he called a fox reporter a name it would be objectionable.
When he’s called all those rivals and enemies he has ugly names to denigrate them in his rallies we should’ve talked loud and long. But it was waved away as a nothing by oh he’s a criminal, he has trials, he involved in the Epstein mess, he done awful awful things his whole adult life.
I dare say he was never punished as a child for name calling and shaming others. It starts then. And he grows up and grabs women by their p***y or bodily holds women down on airplanes or omg thinks it’s perfectly fine to pay for a minor girl for sex.
He had no training at home. His parenting was a failure.
No thinking, just, kind and raised well adult could say any of the things he’s done, are just dandy.
And to classify them into what’s the worst to best categories and ignore the rest is just plain not where we should be.
This stuff needs to be added up in total. And shown for history to see what an altogether awful person he really is.
Well said, Beck.
To me, it felt like a frightening new low. We’ve all seen too many instances of his grotesquery to be phased anymore. But this wasn’t like when he calls reporters “fake news” , or tells young ladies they don’t know what they’re talking about. This was different. There’s a tone there, like a mixture of anger, dismissiveness, and misogyny. Mixed with the fact that it was coming out of that puckered hole we call ‘president’, demeaning a woman like that should be far beneath him. Ugly.
Nothing much to add, except remember when Nixon said, " You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore.". And people talked about that snide remark for YEARS.
Look at things now.
Of course, Nixon was elected president after that remark, so maybe things haven’t changed after all.
Now, maybe if Trump had made a noise like Howard Dean…
It is a low, to be sure, but not necessarily a new one. I seem to recall that back in his first term, there was a meeting of some sort, to which the media had been invited. Some member of the media asked a question, to which Mr. Trump took offense. I don’t remember what the question was about, nor its wording, nor why he took offense, but his answer (which completely sidestepped the question) was, “You don’t talk to the President of the United States that way. I’m the President, you don’t talk to me that way. Next?”
Looks like he’s gone further from there. It used to be “Sleepy Joe” and “Crooked Hillary” when they were out of earshot. Now, it’s insulting reporters directly. “Piggy.”
I’m not sure that there is much anybody can do, except to do what I tell my clients in civil matters: document, document, document. Get everything down on paper, complete cites, save everything regarding the matter, and so on. It may not come in handy, but it just might. If Mr. Trump says something that contradicts what he said two weeks ago, then you’ve got documented evidence that we have not always been at war with Eastasia, contrary to what he says.
Dean’s a Democrat, so he gets treated much differently. Any excuse that can be used to mock and demonize a Democrat is taken, while the worse Republicans act the more they are rewarded. The more stupid, cruel, bigoted, corrupt, ignorant, and just plain awful Republicans are, the more they match the Republicans’ ideal human being.
Trump isn’t President in spite of being an idiot and an awful human being; he’s President because he’s an idiot and an awful human being.
Hell, Democrats who mess up get treated less than kindly BY the Democrats.
But yeah opinion-makers have collaborated in creating a totally uneven “well what do you expect of these guys” vs. “we expect much better of those other guys” playing field.
I think the reason this particular comment is hitting harder is because we are on the cusp of ENOUGH ALREADY YOU BLOATED FUCKING BASTARD.
There is always a “straw” that breaks the camels back.
I work for a MAGA and it is getting very difficult to go to work every day. He is ok with everything trump is doing. Masked men throwing people around, blowing up boats and all the other terrible things I can’t even keep track of.
Every video I see of ICE mistreating people is making me ball up my fist or cry, depending on my mood.
I am very worried about the future.
For MAGAts every accusation is a confession.
So it’s better if Bloomberg and others bend over backwards at the cost of the dignity of their own reporters?
Yes, Trump can ban them, but there is a political cost to doing so. More than the political cost of the political cost of cowing reporters by merely threatening to ban them, at least. If he’s going to suppress the press, they should make him pay that political cost, not just give up in advance.
I think some of these reporters should stand up and get banned rather than going on reporting while kneeling.
There does seem to be something different, more crude about “Quiet, piggy” than his previous insults. Another indication that he’s losing it mentally.