At the end of Season V of “Game of Thrones,” former King’s Landing queen Cersei Lannister was subjected to the “walk of shame” for her transgressions against the religious cult which was positioning itself to turn the Seven Kingdoms into a theocracy.  The “walk” consisted of being paraded naked from the temple to the royal palace during which townspeople shoved and spat on her while they repeated the word, “Shame!”

Fortunately, we live in a society which does not allow such barbaric rituals.  However, there are occasions in which public shaming is justified.  This week, media leads the list of nominees for the Walk of Shame Award.

The most obvious case is CNN’s decision to hire deposed Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to be an election year “commentator.”  My question is, “If CNN existed during the rise of the Third Reich, would Jeff Zucker, CNN president, have hired Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda, to join their election coverage.”  [Dear Reader: Before you start sending nasty comments, I am NOT comparing Trump to Hitler.]  This analogy is to point out that Goebbels sole mission in life was to promote and justify the actions of the German chancellor.  Should we expect anything less from Lewandowski?  His first paid appearance on CNN proved the point.  He claimed his former boss had predicted BREXIT would pass, even though the facts (i.e. Trump’s own words) suggest otherwise. That is what ministers of propaganda do.

Shame!  Shame!  Shame!  Shame!

Less obvious, but equally egregious, was Joe Scarborough’s comments this morning on Trump’s shift from a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States to a regional approach (better screening of entrants from countries with known ties to terrorist organizations).  Scarborough saw this as “a pivot.”  Okay, the presumptive Republican nominee is trying to roll back his previous biased, and by the way unconstitutional, position on how to protect America from terrorist attacks.  But Scarborough then showed how shallow his journalist skills are.  He said, “This puts Trump more in line with the position of the Secretary of Homeland Security.”  In other words, Trump, without realizing it, endorsed the current system of screening potential threats to Americans.  If Scarborough were a more acute analyst, his next comment has to be, “If Trump is now suggesting we currently are using the correct approach to screening potential threats, you have to ask what would he do differently.  And how, if he agrees, can he call the people who implement this system ‘not smart.?’ Is he equally ‘not smart?'”  One should keep in mind a “pivot” is a basketball move designed to “fake out” one’s opponent.  Scarborough seems overly susceptible to this ploy.

Shame!  Shame!  Shame!  Shame!

You may have noticed I left Fox News off the list of nominees.  They have already received a Walk of Shame Lifetime Achievement Award for media malpractice.  Therefore, they are no longer eligible for individual awards.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP