MGM Television president and hitmaker mega-producer Mark Burnett may be the man most responsible, besides Donald Trump himself, for the surreal hellworld of a Trump presidency. Not only did Burnett create The Apprentice, which returned Trump to the spotlight after a decades-long slide into tabloid irrelevance, but he’s since covered up a trove of information in the public interest: The Apprentice footage. But so long as Burnett is making everyone in his orbit rich with shows like The Voice, Survivor, Shark Tank, Steve Harvey’s FunderDome and Jamie Foxx’s Beat Shazam, he’s protected from the reputational damage of hiding the truth from 325 million Americans. And now he’s making a show about Jesus for Netflix.
Netflix has ordered Messiah, a modern-day Jesus story from Burnett and Roma Downey, actor and co-producer with Burnett on History Channel’s whitewashed, ahistorical garbage heap, The Bible. Messiah is about some chud popping up in the Middle East and insisting he’s the Messiah.
Series write Michael Petroni (The Book Thief) said in the press release, “Messiah will have every viewer asking the question ‘is he or isn’t he?’ How you answer the question may reveal more about you than it does about the show. Messiah challenges us to examine what we believe and why.”
Biggest, loudest, longest fart noise in the whole world.
Three women have accused Trump of rape or attempted rape. Last Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump by Harry Hurt III describes a court deposition by Ivana Trump in which she describes a vicious sexual assault by her husband. Ivana later walked back her description, not by denying the account, but by writing, “I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”
Rather than denying Ivana’s description of the sexual assault, Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, stated, “You cannot rape your spouse.”
Sixteen other women have accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment or assault. And, of course, Trump described his own sexual assaults in the Access Hollywood tape of his conversation with Billy Bush.
Meanwhile, Burnett sits on thousands of hours of footage which could easily corroborate, back up and confirm what is absolutely essential for the public to understand about the president.
Twenty people who worked on The Apprentice have confirmed that Trump made racist and sexually harassing comments on camera. “It must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees,” he allegedly told one contestant. He also reportedly made racial comments about black and jewish people. These accusations aren’t unsourced rumors, but come from producers in the room. The sheer volume of reports and anecdotes suggest that Trump constantly and pervasively sexually harassed women on-set, both employees of the show and contestants.
Burnett has many excuses for why MGM has decided to keep voters uninformed. “I am NOT pro-Trump,” he said in a statement. The New York Times offered several reasons Burnett would want to keep thousands of hours of Apprentice footage hidden, including staying on the president’s good side and not wanting to jeopardize future celebrity relationships.
But anonymous sources indicate that Burnett has gone beyond a refusal to release The Apprentice tapes himself, additionally threatening employees with lawsuits and severe consequences should anyone violate NDA or leak footage.
There’s really no question that The Apprentice footage Burnett guards contains damning information essential to properly informing the electorate. Burnett can eat shit. The real question is why any outlet is writing up his dumb new Jesus show when he’s so profoundly betrayed us all.
