Note: This appeared in the Life, Under Construction Newsletter on November 4, 2024. For subscription information, please click on the button below.
Become a subscriber!Clean Up in the Newspaper Aisle (Adult content)
One of the most frustrating aspects of the 2024 election campaign is the decision by the news media to clean up what Trump says and does in his campaign appearances. At his recent appearance at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Trump had another meltdown about the microphone. At one point, Trump appeared to be simulating an oral sex act on the microphone, including choking on it. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did two stories on the rally and neither mentioned the incident.
When some members of the crowd said they couldn’t hear him, Trump became frustrated with the microphone. He complained throughout the remainder of the speech about the microphone, which he removed from its stand and lamented he had to hold.
Alison Dirr originally wrote:
He ended up holding the mic and after a while started complaining that it was heavy.
“Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage? … I am up here seething. I’m working my ass off with this stupid mic,” Trump said. “I’m blowing out my left arm, now I’m blowing out my right arm and I’m blowing out my damn throat, too, because these stupid people.”
I don’t know how many other people joined me in complaining online, but the skit on Saturday Night Live may have forced the newspaper to run a third story, this one also by Dirr. However, the sex act was not mentioned until the last paragraph, not even hinted at in the lede or in the headline.
The last paragraph:
Clips of the stage antics with the microphone circulating online suggested Trump was pantomiming a sex act, provoking laughter from the audience along with a mix of outrage and jokes on social media and during this weekend’s episode of “Saturday Night Live.”
Because what could possibly be newsworthy about a former president miming a sex act in a crowd with children present?
