The New York Times has weighed in on Donald Trump’s ongoing battle with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, and has decided that Trump has a “history of sexism.”
“Averting any discussion of his war of words with Megyn Kelly, the news anchor who angered him by asking questions about his history of sexism at last week’s presidential debate, Mr. Trump tried to keep the conversation [in a new TV interview] focused on policy,” the report said.
Trump fell under scrutiny over the weekend after Kelly confronted him during the debate with public comments he has made about different women, like calling Rosie O’Donnell a “slob” with a “fat, ugly face.” The Times, in a different report, said that “the exchange highlighted the idea that Mr. Trump had been sexist over the years.”
In a Friday interview on CNN, Trump accused Kelly of unfairly targeting him with her questions, saying, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her, wherever.”
Some interpreted the remark to be a reference to menstruation, but Trump maintains he cut himself off mid-thought and would have finished it by saying, “blood coming out of her nose.”
The Times rejected Trump’s explanation, and published another report the next day that plainly said Trump’s comment was a reference to feminine hygiene. “Donald J. Trump’s suggestion that a Fox News journalist had questioned him forcefully at the Republican presidential debate because she was menstruating cost him a speaking slot Saturday night at an influential gathering of conservatives in Atlanta,” the Times wrote.
There’s something of a debate over whether Trump is being covered fairly. One national politics reporter, who requested anonymity in order to candidly discuss a subject he covers, told the Washington Examiner media desk that Trump hasn’t received entirely fair coverage.
“I do see news outlets occasionally skipping the he-said-she-said framing with Trump controversies where the facts aren’t clear and he strongly disputes the substance of what is being attributed to him,” the reporter said. The reporter suggested, however, that Trump may have a role in that.
“Some of that may be Trump’s fault as he sometimes denies direct quotes or otherwise makes implausible claims,” the reporter said. “Other than that, I’m not sure why his side isn’t always explained on this stuff.”
Still, Alex Griswold, a conservative blogger for the media news site Mediaite, believes Trump has been treated fairly by the news media.
“Part of the problem is that Trump often speaks in a way to shield himself from criticism, when everyone else knows exactly what he actually meant,” Griswold said. “In the Kelly feud, for example, he doesn’t come out and say he’s talking about menstruation. But virtually everyone interpreted it that way because that was the only context that made a lick of sense. I don’t think the media ought to ignore obvious innuendos.”
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, a friend of Trump’s, disagreed with the Times’ characterization of the “bleeding” remark as an obvious reference to menstruation.
“There was a stunning lead in the New York Times [Sunday] morning that stated as fact that Donald Trump was talking about Megyn Kelly’s menstruation cycle,” Scarborough said on his “Morning Joe” show Monday. Scarborough said he spoke with people who work in and out of media and that none of them who saw the CNN interview live interpreted Trump’s remarks as a reference to menstruation.
“But yet by the next morning it was a stated fact in the [Times] lead that that’s what he was talking about,” he said. “Again, assume the worst of Trump if you want to assume the worst of Trump.”
Trump, who is leading the Republican field in most national polls, has often said he is not getting a fair shake from the media. While he was visiting the U.S.-Mexico border in July, Trump was confronted by a reporter, who began, “When you said that people who cross the border are ‘rapists’ and murderers…”
Trump cut the reporter off, saying, “That’s a typical case of the press with misinterpretation. They take a half a sentence, then they take a quarter of a sentence, they put it all together.”
“I think he is getting a fair shake,” said Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik in an email to the Examiner. “Front-runners get vetted harder than others. That’s how the process works. If that is too tough for Trump, he should get out of the race. But if he is going to stay in, he should quit whining.”
