Alicia Machado Has Lived A, Err, Colorful Life.
Why Is the Media Deliberately Making Its Stories Less Interesting By Refusing to Mention That?

Questions that will never be answered, I'm afraid. It's a mystery.

As a rule, reporters like to keep their stories interesting, which is why the coverage we’ve seen of Alicia Machado is so curious.

This has been the week of Machado, who became famous literally overnight when Hillary Clinton brought her up at Monday's debate. The next day saw numerous outlets writing pieces on Machado, boosted along by a conference call held by the Clinton campaign for journalists.

The former Miss Universe, who says that Donald Trump fat-shamed her and alleges that he called her "Ms. Piggy" and "Ms. Housekeeping," and generally humiliated her after she put on weight, is now the star of a Clinton ad. An obscure figure in America less than a week ago, Machado is perhaps the biggest story in politics at the moment.

So it's almost inexplicable that, despite all this coverage, the publications discussing the extraordinary stories of her life are mostly right-wing ones.

The most interesting thing about the mainstream articles is what they leave out.

There is no discussion at CNN or The New York Times, for instance, about her post-pageant fame as the fiancee of Phillies outfielder Bobby Abreu, or how he reportedly called it off after a reality show she was on revealed video of her apparently having sex with a housemate.

Likewise, there is little mention of how a Venezuelan judge once alleged on live TV that Machado had threatened to kill him. Or how the Mexican attorney general's office later said she was the girlfriend of a major narco trafficker, and that she he had a child with him, according to Univision and other outlets. Or how a government witness who reportedly testified about their affair was later shot to death.

...

Machado has lived a full life, and a uniquely fascinating one. So why would any journalist avoid talking about it?

By the way, the writer says that even if these things about Machado are true, that wouldn't detract from Trump's "racism and sexism" in making those remarks about her.

But we only have her word for t hat. The "racist" one -- "Miss Housekeeping" -- in particular only comes from her mouth. There are no witnesses to this claim.

So if it is true that she has had this colorful life of cheating on a fiance (on a filmed Big Brother style reality show), and being involved with narco kingpins, and issuing threats on the life of a judge, and maybe being peripherally involved in a light murder -- that sort of bears on her credibility, doesn't it?

And that, of course, is precisely why it's not being talked about -- and why MeAgain Kelly refuses to talk about it.

posted by Ace at 11:47 AM

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