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For a few days now I've been wondering who Omarosa Manigault reminds me of. Then it hit me. She's the female, black version of Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who never met a camera he didn’t like and who represents the porn star Stormy Daniels.
Both Manigault and Avenatti are opportunists. Both give sleazy a bad name. Avenatti actually makes ambulance-chasing lawyers look like Justices on the Supreme Court. And most importantly, both, let's just say, aren't especially fond of Donald Trump.
Avenatti a while ago set up living quarters at CNN, where he established a world record by appearing on the channel 367,914 times – in just one day. This didn't embarrass the “journalists” at CNN. They know who's watching. And pandering to your audience is the lifeblood of cable news.
Now, Omarosa is shooting for his record. She's an unserious person who used to sing Donald Trump's praises until she had a book to sell and was almost certainly told by her publisher that scandal sells more books than nice stuff. But none of that fazes the TV news folks who can't wait to get her into the studio. She has bad things to say about Donald Trump and that's all that's required to get on the air (even if they ask her an occasional tough question).
It's a deal that benefits both sides: Omarosa gives the liberal TV channels what they need and they give her face time to sell her book. It's called business. But rest assured, it's not called old school journalism.
Do you think she'd get two seconds on Meet the Press if she had good things to say about President Trump? Sorry I asked.
Neither Avenatti nor Ms. Manigault are the kinds of people you'd want to wash you hands in the same sink they just used. But that's not important to those in the media who spend most of the day bashing the president.
Oh sure, he deserves a lot of the heat he gets — but not from these two.
Avenatti is now telling people he's considering a run for the White House in 2020. I hope he does run for president. And I hope he picks Omarosa as his running mate. And I hope they run against Donald Trump.
I once interviewed George Carlin who told me, “Bernie, I root for chaos.”
Me too.
Please G od, Make it happen.
JWR contributor Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of several bestselling books, among them, Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news. He is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. Mr. Goldberg covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 10 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He now reports for the widely acclaimed HBO broadcast Real Sports.
He is a graduate of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey and a member of the school's Hall of Distinguished Alumni and proprietor of BernardGoldberg.com.