Melania Trump maybe a gold digger and posed for some racey photos but she is NOT an escort.

The left side of our blog demands critical thinking and evidence.  We mean it.

The Daily Mail, one source of the story (among others, but notably the one source that has not retracted the story to date) has been threatened with legal action over their reporting of the story by the magazine Suzy that Melania Trump was a pricey prostitute / high end sex worker / escort.   Importantly, the Daily Mail made no conclusions and only reported the story and in fact used language calling the veracity of the story into question.  Even so, Trump threatened suit as is his norm.  Most other websites which carried the story and which are far smaller operations than the Daily Mail, pulled their stories down for fear of suit.  This is a pattern for Trump and a VERY chilling event as it calls into question what Trump might do to the concept of a free press but that's a different story.

In a related story, dug up by equally sleazy and frequently fact-challenged bigot spigot 'Red State', they advance the claim that Donald Trump appears to have licensed his valuable Trump name to an escort service.  Except that as uncovered by the WaPo, NO, Trump never licensed his name or in any way was part of the Trump escort business, now operating under another name after they were hassled over it by the real Trump.

Because serious journalism digs up facts, even when those facts benefit someone like the Trumps.  It is a matter of professionalism and ethical standards. It is about honesty, it is about valuing an objective world view.

More than that, those on the left who ran with the story got push back for it from the left.

The Daily Mail still reported the story, yet at least had the decency to be clear they had no evidence or identifiable on-the-record sources.  Perhaps they should have considered not running the story at all. The Daily Mail, is an unreliable irresponsible freakishly bad sleazy tabloid, hugely mocked in the UK where it is based, and oft quoted by right wing nuts in their alternate reality blog bubbles where facts usually do not penetrate.  They and Red State both deserve condemnation for doing a substandard job of investigative journalism.  Because the right wingers are incompetent and use their media services for slime-ing and to promote a constant and consistent false narrative to taint the world view of their crazier, and more gullible supportive base.

Let us demonstrate in one post a couple of important things.  The first is that so-called 'lefty blogs' like this one apply one single standard by which to evaluate current events and scientific data; there is no double standard hypocrisy here for righties with a different one for the rest of the planet.  The second is that we really DO demand evidence and critical thinking be applied, all the time, to everything, equally, for and from everyone.

The Daily Mail, by contrast, ran photos of Mrs. Trump.  Photos which were less than flattering and more revealing than most women would appreciate.

That has raised questions about Mrs. Trump's work history and immigration status.  If one were small minded, one might even speculate that the local right wing media went after Ihan Omar, Somali-American candidate for the state lege, by making a bogus claim she committed immigration fraud. That would be petty; but then the right is often petty.

I consider anyone who has a background like Melania Trump unqualified to serve as  First Lady, given the misuse of intellectual property in using key parts of a speech given Michele Obama; and given the questions about her educational accomplishments.   No First Lady we know of so far has posed for what were known to be published very revealing photos,, nor is marrying for money as it some might suggest was a motivation for her relationship to a MUCH older man, rather than finding someone who is likely to share your life. The Trumps are not honest people, they are not decent people; and they are greedy and bigoted people.

We have a polarized electorate in large part because there is a right wing media that exists to lie, to smear, to ignore and deny facts, while promoting a false narrative that deludes their supporters into believing things which are not true, which makes them paranoid, which leads them to credit crazy crack pot tin-foil-hat-wearing conspiracy theories.  It embraces bigots and extremists, no matter how violent or evil, while driving out moderates who do not pander to the fact-averse or crackpot. 

The right wing media, and their candidate, have dumbed down America and encouraged the most evil and hateful tendencies among us.  They are wrong.  They are bad.  They are destructive - even to themselves.