Marco Zonetti
“Trump is taking his plane with his escort… ehm, with his wife”. So spoke, between laughs, the american journalist Alan Friedman during the morning italian talk show Uno Mattina, broadcast by Rai, Italy’s national public Tv company. Uno Mattina‘s hosts Monica Giandotti e Marco Frittella and their other guests Monica Maggioni (Tv host and former president of Rai) and the newspaper editor Maurizio Molinari remained silent. Well, to be honest, Giandotti even laughed a little. Uno Mattina‘s hosts and guests didn’t distance themselves from Friedman’s joke and let him conclude. Only at the end of Friedman’s speech, Giandotti timidly remarked he had been “too hard on Melania”. But that was all.
with guests Maurizio Molinari, Alan Friedman, Monica Maggioni
Friedman’s joke caused quite a stir in Italy and, on Twitter, Michele Anzaldi, Secretary of Italian Parliament’s Committee of Vigilance for Telecommunications, commented: “What is the point of having overpaid public Tv hosts if they silently allow sexist insults on the air? What is the point of having a public Tv service if it is politically opportunist like a social network? What does Rai have to say about Friedman’s words on Melania Trump?“.
“Escort was intended as chaperone” was Friedman’s unconvincing justification. Moreover, on Twitter he had previously used the same term about Mrs. Trump. Currently there is no official statement by Rai about the journalist’s joke on Melania Trump.
