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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

THE DIRTY OLD MAN

by Howard Winn



Donald Trump this weekend defended longtime friend Roger Ailes, the ousted chief executive of Fox News who is accused of sexually harassing at least two dozen women. Trump also questioned the motives of some of the women. —The Washington Post, July 24, 2016. Image source: DonkeyHotey: This caricature of Donald Trump was adapted from Creative Commons licensed images from Michael Vadon's flickr photostream. This caricature of Roger Ailes was adapted from a photo in the public domain from the U.S. Army available via Wikimedia.

The dirty old man
stands revealed when
led from his office
for the last time by
Security and denied
entry ever again to
the mostly anonymous
cheers of the Foxy
female news purveyors
behind the transparent
desks on camera to
reveal great legs so
who was listening
to their reports in
that old white male
audience captured
by the Republican
Master Mind without
morals who gave us
Nixon who was a crook
despite what he said
as was this now banished
Svengali of politics who
wished to turn news reporting
into a sexual trade-off
and sincere women
reporters into the slaves
of the dirty old man
who could give them fame
fair and balanced they
report you decide.


Howard Winn's work has been published in Dalhousie Review, Galway Review, Descant. Antigonish Review, Southern Humanities Review, Chaffin Review, Evansville Review, and Blueline. His latest work is a novel published by Propertius Press. He is Professor of English at SUNY-Dutchess.