Editorials & Other Articles

riversedge

(70,201 posts) Mon Aug 28, 2017, 10:22 AM Aug 2017

This disturbing email that @kathygriffin received, it's from CBS Corporation board member Arnie Ko

Yashar Ali
🐘?Verified account @yashar

This disturbing email that @kathygriffin received, it's from CBS Corporation board member Arnie Kopelson

Link to tweet

Some replies:

T to the Davis? @TtotheDavis 12h12 hours ago

Did anyone notice the typos? "Kathyy" "meh plea"...looks like Arnie studied at Trump U.
5 replies 1 retweet 53 likes

1 more reply

New conversation
Shivershankawhat?? @me_kanth 13h13 hours ago

Replying to @yashar @kathygriffin

Arnie Kopelsen is just about exactly what everyone thinks is wrong with the entertainment industry
1 reply 12 retweets 160 likes
Jan Piller? @janpiller 12h12 hours ago

He's exactly what everyone thinks is wrong with America.

Matt Henry? @MenryAZ 13h13 hours ago

Replying to @yashar @kathygriffin

An hour and a half composing this and yet it's still typo-ridden. Ah.

Off With Her Head
Kathy Griffin lost jobs, money, and friends after releasing a provocative image of President Trump. But the comedian refuses to bend the knee.

https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/kathy-griffin-donald-trump-interview.html
By Yashar Ali

Photo by Robert Maxwell.
August 27, 2017 9:00 pm

Kathy Griffin walked into her home office just before noon in late June, still wearing pajamas. The comedian, who regularly stays up late, had just woken up to news of President Trump’s latest Twitter tear. Trump had covered a wide range of topics in a series of tweets, from denouncing Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the election to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer — or, as Trump called him in a tweet that morning, “Cryin’ Chuck.”............................

...............The photos were improvised in an afternoon: Tyler Shields, a celebrity photographer known for his provocative images (he once shot an image of a black man hanging a member of the KKK), was taking some updated portraits of Griffin, and afterward, they decided to create some spoof images involving Trump. Griffin dispatched her assistant to find a Trump mask and a friend made fake blood using ketchup. They wanted to comment on Trump’s infamous comments about Megyn Kelly — “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” — after she questioned him about his history of sexist comments in the first Republican presidential debate in 2015.

With Griffin’s permission, Shields (who did not respond to requests for comment) released the image — although he didn’t tell her where it would go first. Shields, according to Griffin, chose to give it to TMZ, and the Trump-friendly tabloid’s framing — “Kathy Griffin wants Donald Trump’s head … but she wants it bloody and detached from his body” — didn’t ponder any deeper meanings. Griffin, perhaps naively, assumed that no one would ever think she actually wants to kill anyone, much less the president of the United States. But that’s exactly what some people thought.

Chelsea Clinton tweeted, “This is vile and wrong. It is never funny to joke about killing a president.” Will & Grace star Debra Messing, who regularly tweets about her distaste for Trump, tweeted, “It wasn’t right when peoplel [sic] hung lynched Obama effigies, just as what Kathy Griffin did isn’t right now.”

When I first saw the photo on Twitter, I assumed it was a private, unfortunate gag that had leaked somehow. (Despite Griffin’s reputation as a shock comic, she is also an astute manager of her image and her act who keeps a First Amendment attorney on retainer.)

I called Griffin as the heat was building, but at that point she wasn’t at all concerned. Her first question was, “Oh, is it getting around?” I discouraged her from posting the photo on her own accounts, which have millions of followers, but there was no stopping her — she told me that she was well-versed in dealing with controversy. After it became clear that Griffin stood behind the image, a brewing controversy turned into a full-on firestorm. Three hours later, I got an Instagram alert on my phone: Griffin had posted her apology video.

It was a call from Rosie O’Donnell that made Griffin realize the mistake she had made. O’Donnell arguably has had more ire directed at her from Trump than any other celebrity, but she confirmed to me that she asked Griffin a simple question: “What is James Foley’s mom going to think when she sees this?” Foley, an American journalist, was beheaded by ISIS in 2014 while on assignment in Syria.

Griffin’s apology appeared to satiate her liberal fan base, but Republicans continued to be outraged. Her hope was that things would calm down over the next few days and she could try to return to normal life. But they didn’t. The next morning, as many expected, Trump tweeted about the incident: “Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”.................................