On Friday's NBC Today, news anchor Natalie Morales worried about the
safety of reality star Kim Kardashian after a "nasty surprise" at a red
carpet event: "...a woman threw white powder on the starlet. Paramedics
were called to the hotel, but Kardashian refused treatment....The woman
who allegedly threw the so-called flour bomb was detained but later
released."
The same concern was never extended to Republican presidential
candidates who endured glitter-bomb attacks from radical gay activists
at campaign events. In fact, NBC actually depicted those incidents as
gaffes and stumbles for the candidates.
Back in May of 2011, after Newt Gingrich had glitter dumped on him, then-Today co-host Meredith Vieira touted the assault [1]
as another problem for his campaign: "Newt Gingrich's presidential
campaign off to a shaky start. Just this week he has upset
conservatives, refused to talk about owing the high-end jeweler
Tiffany's as much as half a million dollars, and then this – why a
protester showered the former House Speaker with glitter."
In a later report, correspondent Andrea Mitchell declared: "Topping off
a bad day, the Gingrich's book signing in Minneapolis was briefly
interrupted by a glitter attack. Activists said it was a gay protest."
On the February 2 broadcast [2],
correspondent Peter Alexander described a similar glitter attack on
Mitt Romney as another "distraction" for the campaign: "He was greeted
in Minnesota by a pair of glitter bombs from gay rights protesters."
Notice the lack of concern for the candidates and the promotion of the childish actions as a form of gay rights protest.
In contrast, on Friday, with Kardashian in the line of fire, Morales
described the incident as "very scary." Co-host Ann Curry agreed: "Yeah,
because you don't know what it is at first." Morales added that it was
"frightening," while fill-in co-host Willie Geist remarked: "Easy to
laugh after the fact, but in that moment, that's kind of scary."
Weatherman Al Roker chimed in, "that's terrifying."
The Washington Post reports [3] that the flour-bombing of Kardashian was also a form of protest, by an anti-fur activist.
Here is a transcript of the March 23 report on Kardashian:
7:00AM ET TEASE:
ANN CURRY: And flour bombed. Kim Kardashian walking the red carpet one moment, then this:
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN [DUMPING BAG OF FLOUR ON KARDASHIAN]: ...you fur hag!
CURRY: Her assailant detained at the scene and the reality star is laughing the whole thing off.
7:19AM ET SEGMENT:
NATALIE MORALES: Kim Kardashian got a nasty surprise on the red carpet,
as we showed you, last night when a woman threw white powder on the
starlet. Paramedics were called to the hotel, but Kardashian refused
treatment. Instead, she took the incident in stride, dusting herself
off, getting cleaned up, and returning to the event.
The woman who allegedly threw the so-called flour bomb was detained but
later released. Kardashian told deputies she did not want to press
charges. Joking about the incident, Kardashian said, "I told my makeup
artist I needed more powder." It is 7:19 right now. Let's turn it back
over to Ann, Willie and Al. Still, very scary.
CURRY: Yeah, because you don't know what it is at first.
MORALES: Yeah, absolutely.
CURRY: You're not sure if somebody let her know that it was flour at the beginning.
MORALES: But it's – yeah, frightening.
CURRY: But it sounds like she handled it with aplomb.
WILLIE GEIST: Easy to laugh after the fact, but in that moment, that's kind of scary.
ROKER: Yes, that's terrifying.
CURRY: Yeah, exactly.
-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here [4] to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.