Liz Trotta

{{Short description|American journalist and conservative commentator}}

Elizabeth Trotta (born 28 March 1937) is an American journalist and conservative commentator.

Life and career

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?20663-1/fighting-air Booknotes interview with Trotta on Fighting for Air: In the Trenches with Television News, August 18, 1991], C-SPAN}}

Trotta was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Her parents, Gaetano "Thomas" Trotta, a successful pharmacist, and Lillian Theresa Mazzacane, were both Catholics who had emigrated from Italy.{{Cite book |last=Hoffmann |first=Joyce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZaQlHPGbntwC&dq=Elizabeth%20Trotta%201937&pg=PA243 |title=On Their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam |date=2008-06-24 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-81059-6 |language=en}} Trotta had a sister, Mary L. Juba, who died in 2002.

Trotta is a Fox News contributor and the former New York City bureau chief of The Washington Times. She began her career in 1965, covering the Vietnam War as a correspondent for NBC News and later working for CBS News.{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/printable.aspx?id=1G1:10843605|title=Fighting for Air: In the Trenches with Television News.|work=The Washington Monthly|date=1991-06-01|accessdate=2008-05-26}} {{Dead link|date=November 2010|bot=H3llBot}} Trotta has taught journalism at Stern College of Yeshiva University. She has won three Emmy awards and two Overseas Press Club awards, and is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-26|url=http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/personalities/liz-trotta/bio/#s=r-z|title=On Air Personalities – Liz Trotta|publisher=Fox News Channel|date=2004-10-04}} Trotta also holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Boston University.

Controversy

On 25 May 2008, Trotta expressed on Fox News what some could claim as an apparent desire that presidential candidate Barack Obama be "knocked off" prior to the 2008 United States presidential election.

{{cite web

|url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003808177

|title=Fox News Contributor Jokes About Bumping Off Obama

|work=Editor & Publisher

|accessdate=2008-05-25

}}{{cite news| url=http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/same-joke-more-regret/ | work=The New York Times | title=Same Joke, More Regret | first=Jim | last=Rutenberg | date=2008-05-27 | accessdate=2010-05-11}}{{cite web|url=http://blogs.bet.com/news/newsyoushouldknow/?p=3157|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529160849/http://blogs.bet.com/news/newsyoushouldknow/?p=3157|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 29, 2008|title=Celebrities|publisher=}} While speaking about Hillary Clinton's reference{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-26|url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080524/wl_afp/usvote|title=Clinton tries to move past Kennedy assassination comment|publisher=Yahoo!|date=2008-05-24|author=Collinson, Stephen |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080527234123/http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080524/wl_afp/usvote |archivedate = 2008-05-27}}{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-26|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vyFqmp4wzI|title=What Does RFK's Assassination Have to Do with It?|publisher=YouTube|date=2008-05-23}} to Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, Trotta said:

{{blockquote|... and now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama. Um, uh, Obama. Well, both, if we could.{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-27|url=http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=769481|title= Media Frenzy|publisher=Fox News|date=2008-05-25}}}}

Trotta apologized the next day.{{cite web|url=http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0508/Fox_analyst_apologizes_for_Obama_assassination_joke.html|title=Fox analyst apologizes for Obama assassination joke - - POLITICO.com|last=POLITICO|website=www.politico.com}} A petition demanding that Trotta be fired was soon up on Care2 gathering over 14,000 signatures.{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-27|url=http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=382654&rel_no=1|title=Fox News Commentator Criticized for Remarks|publisher=OhmyNews|date=2008-05-27}}{{cite news|accessdate=2008-06-01|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/la-oe-daum31-2008may31,0,1316586.column|title=In the context of no-context|work=Los Angeles Times|date=2008-05-31}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}

In October 2011, Liz Trotta mocked the participants in Occupy Wall Street for being "people who like good weather" who spout "the ravings of what sounds like the Unabomber."[http://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-news-liz-trotta-occupy-wall-street-message-is-like-the-ravings-of-the-unabomber/ "Fox News’ Liz Trotta: Occupy Wall Street Message Is Like ‘The Ravings Of The Unabomber’"], Mediaite, 2011-10-08

In February 2012, she made remarks on Fox News suggesting that women in the military should not be surprised by the increase in sexual assaults by members of the army. In direct response to a Pentagon report that indicated a 64% increase in sexual assault in the military, Trotta said, "Now, what did they expect?" She went on to say that women "have demanded too much money to fund [military] programs for sexual abuse victims.”{{cite web|accessdate=2012-02-14|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/fox-news-liz-trotta-rape_n_1274018.html|title=Fox News' Liz Trotta On Women Raped In Military: 'What Did They Expect? These People Are In Close Contact' (VIDEO)|publisher=Huffington Post|date=2012-02-13}} Trotta responded to criticism of her comments the following week.{{YouTube|StUC3ScquHo}}