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March 29th, 2024

Insight

Michelle Fields and the Elephant on the Couch

Bernard Goldberg

By Bernard Goldberg

Published April 4, 2016

Look, I watched the video a hundred times and I still don’t know what actually happened between Michelle Fields and Donald Trump’s campaign manager. But I do know that whatever happened, wasn’t Kristallnacht, as Jonah Goldberg so elegantly put it.

But if the Nazi analogy is a bunker too far, let me suggest that it wasn’t the O.J. case either. In terms of its legal importance, I don’t think it’s even up there with someone fighting an overtime parking ticket. But that’s me.

Besides not knowing what actually happened, I don’t know Corey Lewandowski, the alleged “attacker.” Heck, all I know about the supposed victim, Michelle Fields, is that she came off as way too young to be so predictably conservative, when I used to see her on Fox. Besides, I’m uncomfortable with someone in her mid-twenties being a pundit. Cover a fire or a train wreck first. But that’s also me.

I’ve tried to stay away from this story, figuring it wasn’t nearly important enough to waste both your time and mine. But it won’t go away. And almost all the “wisdom” coming out of the chattering class on television has to do with a) what happened to Ms. Fields, b) does what happened constitute a crime, and c) what does this tell us about the Trump campaign.

But I keep wondering about the elephant sitting on the couch: the confrontation itself. Ms. Fields calls herself a journalist and she’s making a big deal over this? Really?

I don’t usually quote Piers Morgan, but in a tweet he said what’s been going through my mind and I suspect a lot of other minds too.

“If a male reporter tried to claim this was ‘battery’, he’d be rightly mocked.”

Sexist? I don’t think so. In fact, I bet a lot of female journalists aren’t cheering for Ms. Fields either. Tough women have covered dangerous stories in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and have done it with dignity and courage.

Compare that to what a visibly shaken Ms. Fields told Megyn Kelly: that the whole ordeal has been “awful” and the “worst experience” she has gone through other than her own father’s death.

Please!

I’m willing to believe that Corey Lewandowski is a jerk. He ‘s Donald Trump’s campaign manager, after all. And, OK, maybe he should have simply said he’s sorry and, who knows, maybe the tempest in the teapot would have gone nowhere – and most importantly, I wouldn’t have had to spend 10 minutes of a Saturday morning knocking out this column.

But Lewandowski doesn’t belong on trial – and he sure doesn’t belong in jail for this. Oh, and did I mention that the Florida prosecutor handling the case against him is a member of Hillary Clinton’s “Leadership Council” in Florida – and donated $1,000 to her campaign?

Whatever. But be assured that it’s way past time for serious journalists to move on to other things, like the many other more important ridiculous events that go on daily in the Trump campaign.

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