Europe
In the age of Trump, the American media insist that freedom of speech is in danger because they somehow consider mocking journalists a suppression of free speech. Yet these First Amendment worshipers were missing on October 25 when the European Court of Human Rights upheld an Austrian court verdict that a woman should be punished for casting aspersions on the Islamic biography of Mohammed, the prophet, who married a child bride named Aisha.
Joe Scarborough thought he was being so cute. No fewer than six times during his little spiel this on today's Morning Joe, while reading from the US government's WWII psychological profile of Adolf Hitler, Scarborough stressed that he was not intending to refer to anyone else. Joe never uttered the President's name, but coming from this world-class Trump hater, there was no doubt what parallel he wanted viewers to draw.
Sexual scandals and inappropriate behavior are as old as the Bible. I give you (1 Corinthians 5:1) in which Paul writes: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father's wife.” In more modern times, there have been sex scandals involving TV evangelists from Aimee Semple McPherson in the '20s to Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart in the '80s. And there have been more recent examples, too, Ted Haggard, Bob Coy, Bill Gothard.
The New York Times broke the news that Asia Argento, an Italian actress prominent in the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment in Hollywood, has herself been accused by a man who says she sexually assaulted him five years ago, when he was 17. Now, reporter Elisabetta Povoledo has written a sympathetic article about Argento for Wednesday’s edition: “Italy, Already Wary of Unorthodox Star And #MeToo, Pounces on Actor’s Claim.” The story’s text box lamented the possibility that #MeToo may apply to victimized men as well as women: “‘This will be used as an excuse to blame all women,’ one said.”
At a Wednesday press conference in the White House Rose Garden, President Trump and E.U. Chief Executive Jean-Claude Juncker announced that the two trade partners were moving forward on a plan to end their trade war. Juncker’s presence at the White House illustrated that it was the E.U. that caved under pressure, but the liberal broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) were having none of it and refused to give Trump the win.
Between President Trump’s trip to the NATO summit last week and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, the liberal media had been trying to portray Trump as a bull in a china shop damaging relationships with allies and upending global norms. During Wednesday’s edition of Cuomo PrimeTime, CNN host Chris Cuomo tried to continue that narrative only to have it turned around on him by Brigadier General Anthony Tata (U.S. Army Retired).
NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel reacted during a Tuesday afternoon Special Report to President Trump’s attempt at damage control following the Helsinki summit by dubbing the remarks a “magic trick” meant to deceive the world and gives Russia “a green light” to continue its cyber-hacking and meddle in elections across the globe.
Reacting to the late Monday morning joint press conference (U.S. time) between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, CNN’s Anderson Cooper declared that he had just witnessed “perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a summit in front of a Russian leader certainly that I've ever seen” at “[a]n extraordinary press conference.”
If there’s one thing the anti-Trump resistance members in the liberal media love more than themselves, it’s praising other like-minded people protesting the President. And if it’s people from another country, that’s even better. NBC demonstrated that love during Sunday Today when White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell praises a dangerous aerial stunt at Trump’s Scotland resort as “spectacular.”
Following Friday’s joint press conference in Chequers, England between President Donald Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, NBC rushed to its safe space amongst their pals in the anti-Trump, far-left protesters marching the streets of London and fretting that the President tussled with reporters.
During Wednesday’s edition of New Day, the panel suffered a meltdown over President Trump’s suggestion that NATO members should pay their fair share and bringing up Germany’s reliance on Russia for oil. According to co-host John Berman: “This kind of diplomacy looks like Hulk smash. This looks like the avengers, Hulk smash.” Later, panelist John Avlon lamented that the office President Trump occupies “is the office formerly known as the leader of the free world. And he sure isn’t acting that way.”
The establishment media couldn’t stump the Trump, the US politicians couldn’t derail the Donald’s campaign, and the purple-haired feminists couldn’t put a chink in his armor with all that screaming. Still there is one last hope. The petty pranksters and irreverent humorists in the UK have sworn to give the U.S. president the “trolling of a lifetime.”