NBC Helped Create Trump — Now It Owes The American Public
By Jennifer L. Pozner
NBC giveth, and NBC taketh away.
We have the Peacock to thank for the ascension of a POTUS nominee whose campaign melds the sleaziness of Jersey Shore with the bigoted pandering of Duck Dynasty. For 11 years and 14 seasons, NBC’s The Apprentice groomed the nation to believe that a billion-dollar-losing, vendor-stiffing narcissist with multiple bankruptcies on his corporate record was the gold standard of American wealth, success, and business leadership. Worse, the series aggressively normalized statements and actions that meet the legal definition of gender and race-based workplace discrimination. As I wrote in my book, Reality Bites Back:
“If host and executive producer Donald Trump behaved toward female staffers of the Trump Organization the way he does on [The Apprentice], promoting women for sexy stunts and ignoring or rewarding the sort of treatment women have received from male Apprentice candidates over the years, he’d be setting himself up for sexual harassment lawsuits.”
Now it seems NBCUniversal, specifically their fluffy infotainment show Access Hollywood, may be the Gaslighter-In-Chief’s undoing. Since the infamous 2005 hot mic video surfaced on Friday, capturing Handsy McGrabsalot boasting about getting away with sexual assault to giggling bro Billy Bush, GOP leaders have been scrambling to distance themselves from the top of their ticket, as if they hadn’t had evidence all year of exactly how misogynistic (and racist, xenophobic, and willing to incite violence) their nominee truly is.
Voters appear to be fleeing, with polls indicating major fallout from the tape, especially among women (prompting Trump trolls to create a #RepealThe19th hashtag campaign), although the biggest impact seems to be within the party. The day after we heard Trump brag that fame gives him a free pass to “just start kissing” women or to “grab them by the pussy,” Politico obtained an internal Republican National Committee email indicating that the RNC was at least temporarily ordering “a hold/stop on all mail projects right now. If something is in production or print it needs to stop” — a potentially devastating blow in light of the candidate’s weak get-out-the-vote ground game. By Monday, House Speaker Paul Ryan…
