| Donald Trump labels sexual harasser Bill O'Reilly 'a good person' | |||||
| Although 23 advertisers have withdrawn their support and ads for The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News due to multiple allegations of sexual harrassment, the veteran backslapper has won support from friend Donald Trump. In an interview with The New York Times, Trump said: “I don’t think Bill did anything wrong … I think he’s a person I know well — he is a good person.” Fox News and O’Reilly have settled five claims of sexual harassment against the host for a total of US$13 million (including the largest of US$9 million settled by O’Reilly himself). Trump said in the interview that O’Reilly’s only mistake was in settling the lawsuits.“I think he shouldn’t have settled, personally. I think he shouldn’t have settled. Because you should have taken it all the way,” said Trump, whose was seen in last year’s election campaign on an old Access Hollywood video in which he was heard bragging about being so famous he could grab women “by the pussy” with impunity. White, college-educated women ignored those comments and voted for Trump over Hilary Clinton in the November 8 election. Several media reports pointed out that Trump’s latest comments after a White House press release last week touted Trump proclaiming April as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. “At the heart of our country is the emphatic belief that every person has unique and infinite value,” he wrote. “We dedicate each April to raising awareness about sexual abuse and recommitting ourselves to fighting it. Women, children and men have inherent dignity that should never be violated.” |
There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives? In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...
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