President Donald Trump has called on Bob Iger, president of The Walt Disney Company, to apologize for the plethora of slurs that his employees have hurled at Trump on air.
Trump’s comments come after Iger personally called to apologize to Valerie Jarrett, a close associate of former President Barack Obama, who was recently addressed in an insulting tweet by Roseanne Barr, star of the ABC show Roseanne. ABC is owned by Disney.
On May 29, Barr posted a tweet that read: “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” referring to Valerie Jarrett.
The comment was picked up by the media as racist because Jarrett, despite her light complexion, is half-black, and calling black people monkeys or apes is a racial slur.
Still, within hours, she was fired and her show cancelled.
That inflamed her fans, who criticized ABC for hypocrisy since the network has given jobs and kept people with more a questionable record than Barr.
Trump’s comments zero in on Disney’s hypocrisy too.
Ross said on air in December that Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was “prepared to testify that President Trump, as a candidate, Donald Trump, ordered him, directed him to make contact with the Russians which contradicts all that Donald Trump has said to this point.”
The stock market nosedived 350 points in minutes. It took ABC hours to walk back the statement—Flynn was asked to start talks with foreign governments, including the Russian, only after Trump was elected (not as a candidate), which is a standard practice.
But Ross wasn’t fired. He was only suspended for four weeks and removed from reporting on Trump.
“He’s simply pointing out the bias. The President is pointing to the hypocrisy in the media,” she said.
The media say “the most horrible things about this President—and nobody addresses it,” she said, listing several examples.
“Where was Bob Iger’s apology to the White House staff for [ESPN journalist] Jemele Hill calling the President and anyone associated with him a white supremacist; to Christians around the world for Joy Behar calling Christianity a mental illness?
“Where was the apology for Kathy Griffin going on a profane rant against the President on ‘The View’ after a photo showed her holding President Trump’s decapitated head?
“And where was the apology from Bob Iger for ESPN hiring Keith Olbermann after his numerous expletive-laced tweets attacking the President as a Nazi, and even expanding Olbermann’s role after that attack against the President’s family?” Sanders said.
ESPN has distanced itself from Hill’s comments on Twitter, saying they “do not represent the position of ESPN.”
While criticizing Vice President Mike Pence, Behar suggested in February on ABC’s The View that Christians are mentally ill if they believe their prayers are being answered. “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus,” she said. “It’s another thing when Jesus talks back to you. That’s different. That’s called mental illness if I’m not correct. Hearing voices.”
Olbermann posted many tweets filled with most expletive insults and slurs addressed to Trump, including a 17-word rant in August containing 13 expletives and slurs.
None of the examples listed by Sanders led to the people losing their jobs or, apparently, prompted Iger to call and apologize to Trump or Pence.
“This is a double standard that the President is speaking about. No one is defending [Barr’s] comments. They’re inappropriate, but that’s the point that he was making,” Sanders said.
Several “prominent failures” of the subsidized housing “were developed and managed by Obama’s close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama’s constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted,” the extensive report states.
