Not Necessarily the News

Before I begin new subjects for the new year, I have to focus my attention to a group of women I will mostly not be featuring from now on - women in the news media.

I'm not going to stop featuring women in the news media completely - in fact, I have one coming up in a few days, and for good reason - but I will be featuring a whole lot less of them than I used to.  The reason is quite simple - too many media figures of both sexes have normalized Donald Trump and have laughed off his extreme rhetoric as being bluster that provides harmless entertainment value.

Last week, Trump entertained us with threats to annex Canada and Mexico and acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal.   And CNN commentators, who apparently found it amusing, said that this would be the largest land acquisition by the United States since the Louisiana Purchase.

Some of you are probably thinking I'm going too far.  "Steve," you say, "why would you cut back so severely on featuring female news personalities because of Trump?"  I would posit that the more appropriate question to ask is, "Why wouldn't I?"  I can count all of the media personalities - again, men as well as women - who have stood up to Trump on one hand with fingers to spare.  Mika Brzezinski - whom I featured here way  back in 2008 - is the tip of the iceberg.  Because of all the women who have chosen, along with their male counterparts, to accept Trump as a normal evolution of American politics, I could not in good conscience celebrate them as journalists here.  Because, ultimately, their outer beauty doesn't matter here.  There has to be inner beauty to celebrate . . . and remember, there are actresses and singers who are considered beautiful that I will never feature here because I don't like them.

I might even decide not to post pictures of women who report for local newscasts.  Many female TV reporters work for stations owned by the right-wing Sinclair media conglomerate, which has its tentacles spread out across much of the nation.  When you see a reporter on a Sinclair-owned station telling you what happened, there is bias in favor of a right-wing, pro-business, pro-Trump perspective in that report.  Because that reporter has to worry about offending the boss, just like anyone else.       

So, I'll be featuring more actresses, models, and various entertainers.  To those of you who complain that I'm getting more insubstantial here, think about it for a moment . . . complaining that a blog celebrating people's looks is insubstantial is like complaining that water is wet.

You know who else is wet?  Mika Brzezinski, who apparently does not know her value as a woman,  and her husband Joe Scarborough.

And even though my original post of Kristen Welker is my most viewed post ever, I'm not happy that Kristen Welker, as the host of "Meet the Press," folded like a cheap suit when she began her current job with her face-palm-inducing interview with Trump.

Also, at this time, I regret to report the passing of model/actress Dayle Haddon, of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, at the age of 76.  My July 2009 post for her will remain online, but I will not post pictures of her going forward. 😭

Back soon with new subjects.