Enough is enough!: Trump enablers shouldn't be rewarded with big TV gigs after the president leaves office

Vanity Fair

"So how long until Josh Hawley is on Dancing With the Stars?" asks Maureen Ryan. "I wish I didn’t have to ask that question. But if past is prologue, in coming years we should expect executives in television, news, film, publishing, and other influential media industries to line up to help far too many reprehensible ghouls launder their reputations. Hawley and Ted Cruz, along with 145 other Republicans in Congress, challenged the results of the presidential election last week—hours after rioters desecrated the U.S. Capitol in a rampage that killed five people. Many politicians like them—not to mention a whole constellation of Trump cronies, racist insurrectionists, and craven agitators inside and outside the government—spent the past few months stirring up that terrifying mob. Media executives in a position to reward those folks with some convenient rebranding opportunities should not do so. They really, really shouldn’t." Ryan adds: "Many (most?) of those who hand out rich book contracts, film deals, endorsements, TV jobs, columns, and commentary gigs either have conveniently short memories or count on the public to eventually forget the offenses of the Hawleys, the Ivanka Trumps and Jared Kushners, the Stephen Millers, and the Ted Cruzes of the world. Sean Spicer got to dance in prime time after getting paid to tell lies for Donald Trump. NBC effectively rebranded Trump himself with The Apprentice and, years later, gave him a Saturday Night Live hosting gig during his first presidential campaign—after the network supposedly cut ties with him over racist remarks. No executives involved in those decisions—nor those who have given Trump, his poisonous rallies, and his craven mouthpieces endless airtime since 2015—have faced much negative fallout for helping create the monster who has just been impeached for a second time. Enough is enough. After the sh*tstorm of the past few years, culture titans and media-industry executives should not underestimate the number of things the public can be angry about at once. I will always have fury to spare for the people who gleefully supported monstrous, if not murderous, policies, botched the response to a deadly pandemic, and, more recently, undermined a free and fair election, whipped up a dangerous mob, put legislators’ lives in danger, and got five people killed."