Liz Trotta

Liz Trotta is a Fox News contributor and former New York bureau chief of The Washington Times. The author of "Fighting for Air: In the Trenches with Television News", Trotta was the first woman to cover a war for broadcast news. She began her career in journalism in 1965 working for the NBC affiliate in New York and won network recognition by taking on tough assignments including covering the Vietnam War and 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern. [cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/printable.aspx?id=1G1:10843605|title=Fighting for Air: In the Trenches with Television News.|work=The Washington Monthly|date=1991-06-01|accessdate=2008-05-26] Trotta has worked for Hillman Periodicals, Inter-Catholic Press Agency, Long Island Press, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, NBC, and CBS. She has taught Journalism at Stern College of Yeshiva University. The winner of three Emmy awards and two Overseas Press Club awards, Trotta is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.cite web|accessdate=2008-05-26|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34775,00.html|title=Liz Trotta|publisher=Fox News Channel|date=2004-10-04]

Controversy

On May 25, 2008, Trotta made news after expressing on Fox News an apparent desire that U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama be assassinated in the run up to the 2008 United States presidential election. [cite web
url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003808177
title=Fox News Contributor Jokes About Bumping Off Obama
work=Editor & Publisher
accessdate=2008-05-25] [ [http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/same-joke-more-regret/ Same Joke, More Regret - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog ] ] [ [http://blogs.bet.com/news/newsyoushouldknow/?p=3157 BET.com - News You Should Know » A Call For Liz Trotta’s Job After On-Air ‘Joke’ About Obama Assassination ] ] Prior to her comment she referred to Barack Obama as "Osama".

In reference to Hillary Rodham Clinton's controversial reference [cite web|accessdate=2008-05-26|url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080524/wl_afp/usvote|title=Clinton tries to move past Kennedy assassination comment|publisher=Yahoo!|date=2008-05-24|author=Collinson, Stephen] [cite web|accessdate=2008-05-26|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vyFqmp4wzI|title=What Does RFK's Assassination Have to Do with It?|publisher=YouTube|date=2008-05-23] to Robert F. Kennedy's June, 1968, assassination in a discussion of the ongoing 2008 Democratic primaries, she stated,

The New York Times editorial board called her comments " [a] far more offensive assassination reference" than Clinton's. They continued, stating "We still do not understand why she thought talking about assassinating Mr. Obama was appropriate for television — or why she laughed after saying it." [ [http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/assassination-humor-fox-crosses-a-line/ Assassination Humor? Fox Crosses a Line - The Board - Editorials - Opinion - New York Times Blog ] ] Jeffrey Feldman of The Huffington Post characterized her remarks as continuing "the trend in violent rhetoric about Sen. Obama" and as "vile, utterly disgusting, 'assassination' humor". [cite web|accessdate=2008-05-26|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/fox-pundit-wishes-for-oba_b_103500.html|title=FOX Pundit Wishes for Obama Assassination, Laughs|publisher=The Huffington Post|date=2008-05-25|author=Feldman, Jeffrey]

On May 26, 2008, Trotta apologized for the incident, saying:

"I am so sorry about what happened yesterday. In a lame attempt at humor I really just fell all over myself in making it appear that I wished Barack Obama harm or any other candidate for that matter. I sincerely regret it and apologize to anybody I’ve offended. It’s a very colorful political season and many of us are making mistakes and saying things we wish we hadn’t said." [ [http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0508/Fox_analyst_apologizes_for_Obama_assassination_joke.html Michael Calderone's Blog: Fox analyst apologizes for Obama assassination joke - Politico.com ] ]

A petition for the sacking of Trotta was soon up on Care2 petitions gathering over 14,000 signatures. [cite web|accessdate=2008-05-27|url=http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=382654&rel_no=1|title=Fox News Commentator Criticized for Remarks|publisher=OhmyNews|date=2008-05-27] [cite web|accessdate=2008-06-01|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/la-oe-daum31-2008may31,0,1316586.column|title=In the context of no-context|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=2008-05-31]

On Sunday, October 5, 2008, Trotta made additional inappropriate comments towards Sarah Palin's down syndrome affected child. Trotta referred to the child as an inanimate object when she said [Palin was] "dragging it around". Trotta was intimating that Palin was trying to using her baby to garner sympathy. This drew outrage from parents and viewers.

References