On ‘Big Brother,’ America Gets the Reality-TV Politics It Deserves

. . .people's fascination with this person is a symptom of why Trump was elected in the first place.

This is actually perfect. She petty, vain and vengeful and ready to dish on the Trump administration. I'm ready to believe the general outlines of what she says because there's so much real dirt, she doesn't need to invent it. So we get some "honesty". I love it. I hope she keeps on talking!

If Ms. Knight-Pulliam wants to atone for her Trump fascination, the best thing she could do would be to never give another interview and stay off television ans social media forever.

I believe this country will be better off if serious media will stop giving free publicity to junk shows and that includes the current White House in addition to “reality shows”.

Let the "Omarosa Apology Tour" begin.

What a surprise: a self-promoting narcissist demoted from the Narcissist in Chief makes the rounds on the reality show circuit in search of a flickering 10-watt spotlight. Going, going, gone. . .

She is the female trump...period.

Omarosa immediately began plotting with Keshia about how their Black Girl Magic will dominate and win the game. This won't end well. A couple of the other houseguests are noticing the optics but won't be able to avoid it. This is Omarosa's talent on full display: create conflict and demonize your opponent in the dirtiest way possible and then act above it all.

“We are worried,” Mr. Mathews said. “But I need you to say, ‘No, it’s going to be O.K.’” Say what?!?!?!? Matthews is pretending to be a 5 year-old -- a tired, sexist, gay stereotype. When something scary happens to 5 year-olds, they need their parents to reassure them that it's going to be O.K. But Matthews isn't a real 5 year-old, & Omarosa isn't anybody's mama -- she doesn't even play one on TV.

This woman has never merited the attention she has received. Ms Newman and the other cass, untalented inhabitants of so-called reality TV can thrive only as long as viewers give in to their worst instincts. Let's all change the channel away from these parasites.

I like your story, thanks for watching. Personally, I would rather have a root canal. Or a colonoscopy. Just saying.

When can we vote off the Presidential Apprentice??? Asking for a friend.

Never have watched any apprentice shows of trump, therefore I did no know anything about Omarosa. Now after trump Presidency only what’s been leaked out from there . I did watch Big Brother and was surprised to see ms. Omarosa capable of taking charge , calm when needed and very articulate which her previous boss was not. Therefore I would not single her out when most of trump’s associates does not seem to be trustworthy.

"Omarosa was fired three times on Apprentice," noted a White House spokesperson a few days ago. And yet, Trump still hired her. "Only the best." Maybe the Special Counsel will call her in just for fun, because she may be the only staffer who didn't meet with a Russian or lie to Congress.

So let me scrape my slack-jaw from the floor-So let me get this straight-RAJ SHAH wants to compare FAKE FIRING on a marginal reality TV show with an ACTUAL FIRING in the most important office in United States Politics... at the same time he is trying to use multiple instances of being "FIRED" (3 of which are real "FIRINGS") as evidence of some sort of character flaw on HER part as opposed to the stupidity on anyone's part who would REHIRE someone they think is incompetent over and over? This administration is just bizarre.

"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" Just one narcissist's wounded reaction to the rejection of another.

Ms. Manigault is one of many apprentices who have served in this administration. Unfortunately, because she is such an opportunist, she no longer holds any credibility.

>>Mr. Poniewozik: I couldn't find another portal tfor contacting you, so I'm trying this. ai'm curious: Stephen Colbert's "Midnight Confessions" segment soiunds a lot like the work of deadpan comic Steven Wright. Is Colbert borrowing from Wright or is Wright writing for Colbert?

One more instance of Omarosa saying whatever she needs to say or do, to get paid. Her machiavellian ways are no different than Trump's and what really must be done is ignore her. This is bald crazy making and high drama and no different than what's going on in the White House with our narcissist-in-chief. Look away folks and perhaps Omarosa will sink into the obscurity she so richly deserves (and we'll all be the better for it.)

Please cancel all these shows ASAP starting w "The White House Addition" This TV and form of "entertainment" have run its course and quite frankly are boring us TO DEATH! Snap Out Of It America!

Before Trump there was the “State of Ideocracy.”

LOL.....I mean..LOL....America elected Trump and continues to tolerate him! .... So Sad, Too Bad....When y'all wake from this nightmare America will be gone.

Two things: Who. Cares,

I peeked in on the lunacy via YouTube and was truly amazed at, how- someone could debase themselves for attention. I guess- though, the bills from the high-end wedding and high-end life style Omarosa and new hubby aspire, has come due: Unemployment checks won't cover it: Perhaps Journalist April Ryan will take pity and interview her on a "Where are they now" segment.

Omarosa needed a job, yes "Big Brother" is a job, and she got one. She's getting $1 million to be on the show and i'm sure her marching orders are to skewer Trump and the White House. If the WH has a problem with what she might say, they should have asked her to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Oops, too late. She won't "win" but she gets that winning is unnecessary.

"... volunteered to enter a surreal house in which minor celebrities..." Or Begged to enter (gotta get paid somehow).

One of several "top and professional" individuals Mr. Trump chose to be in his administration, who have left. NOW she cries about how bad it really is? Please.

...And such trivialization of the political—of being American—is exactly what corporate life wants: the "Conservative" annulment of government credibility—because It's All show business. So, predatory marketing gathers its forces for the 2018 election circus. America deserves the best in passively filling time.

Ms. Newman has a book to sell and will shrewdly dish stories one-by-one in order to polish her image and inflate her potential worth. Any truths that might emerge will be eclipsed by her tall tales. Regardless, it will be too little and far too late. She deserves to never be in the spotlight again.

Ever wonder if we're all SUPPOSED to be caught up in the drama and suspense?

I'm 69 years old. I have gotten to the point where, after enduring so much unbelievable, nonsensical garbage coming out of TV, social media and our government and our "leaders" that I find more comfort as a spectator. And becoming a more casual spectator as time goes on. My favorite team is the US but I find myself much more appreciative of the other "teams" like Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Costa Rica, etc. The list is long and getting longer by the day. Kind of like watching the Super Bowl: I was for the Eagles but, if the Patriots won, no big deal. it's just not good for me to get too involved with the drama of our reality show of a government. My wife and I fantasize about moving to the Coast of Italy, maybe rural France. But I know as the mid-terms get closer, I will give some money, maybe make some phone calls and do some volunteer work - maybe. I do want my team to improve. But for now, I just can't stand it.

A colleague of mine was a friend of Omarosa's during her days on The Apprentice. He swears she's a sweet, soft-spoken, well-humored person with a business background who was smart enough to have parlayed her creation of an alternative persona into wealth (apparently she was successful on the lecture circuit) and celebrity -- and ultimately the White House. I can't imagine she's not trying to sell her experience in the Trump administration to the highest bidder. But while anyone with a gag reflex should feel revulsion that she'll reap additional profit from her $179K -per-year public sector job which no one seems able to define, and for which she herself seems unable to document any accomplishments, there is a measure of justice in imagining the "reality TV president" being brought down a peg (or just being brought down) by another reality TV personality -- one he thinks he helped make. That the misogynistic, racist Fauxtus might be undone by a woman of color is nothing short of delicious.

Probably the most surprising thing to me was that Omarosa was in the White House to begin with. From my perspective, she was about as qualified as any of the other awkward appointments from Trump...and while she was there, was never trotted out when Trump was denying his racism. We should not be surprised by any of the reality shows being semi-scripted or edited for "shocking" entertainment value. What should concern us as a nation is that our general population has become so immune to the artificiality of reality shows that overall we have accepted the one that is running our country - namely The Donald Show. As a huckster, he deserves credit for turning the honor and dignity of the presidency into a horror-circus. Finally he does have one attribute at which he is "the greatest". Unfortunately, his show has produced disastrous and probably long term damage to our democracy

One can only hope that perhaps this highest rated program of the evening might be a way of getting to the low information Trump supporters on their own terms and in the same fraudulent environment in which Trump rose to fame. And end run around Fox and Friends.

I think she is really a Kardashian and, as such, I can't read the article because I refuse to spend a moment of my life reading about or watching any of them.

The only people who believed Trump was the smart, impressive business genius portrayed by the producers on "The Apprentice" were the folks in red state America who voted for him (actual NYC real estate moguls and real billionaires knew he was a joke) and Trump himself.

The "we" was an interesting choice of words, and since it was the guy's first time at the briefing podium and the question had to be anticipated one has to assume its use was not an accident. Will Donald John Trump ever catch on that there's a huge difference between presiding over The Apprentice and presiding over a nation with the power to save or literally destroy the world? Will he ever realize that the Presidency is not a toy? I don't think he understands the difference or the consequences caused by that lack of understanding.

I'm someone who was a BIG fan of the Apprentice (before the Celebrity version) and did watch a few seasons of Big Brother early in the 00's. Reading this article was surreal. I just kept thinking about someone waking up from a 30 year sleep and wondering what in the world was going on. What is reality TV, who are these so-called "celebrities," what has happened with Bill Cosby and how is Donald Trump president? Not to mention what has happened to journalism and what is "Fox and Friends?" Yet somehow this life is not strange because we are deep in the Trump era despite it being one year. Not much is surprising. It's just one dump after the next. The stock market dips 1,000 points but the big news is that Trump wants a military parade. Then that there are domestic abusers in the White House. As for Omarosa, she may well be back in Trump's good graces. Like George Steinbrenner, Trump seems to like to bring people back that he's fired. I'd rather have Omarosa back at the White House than Bannon, Priebus or Porter.

"Big Brother"? They should call it "Oh Brother!" The only important message to be gleaned from this show is that so long as Les Moonves remains chairman of CBS his supremely untalented spouse will always have at least two godawful TV shows running concurrently on which to serve as hostess. Keep Omarosa off the airwaves, and Julie Chen along with her.

"WE" fired her again?

Some people will do anything to get "fame". I feel dreadfully sorry for this poor, deluded woman and those poor deluded people who watch "big brother" and other supposed reality tv shows when every single word is scripted and edited. WE THE PEOPLE must get out of the rabbit hole right now before total unreality takes over.

I'm surprised this article doesn't focus more on Raj Shah's comment that "we" fired her on the Apprentice and now a fourth time. Begging for a more in-depth piece on Reality TV Presidency, Orwell, the inversion of truth and lies.....these people clearly see themselves as inside an episode of a reality show.