Media Shaming, as Trump Aide Kellyanne Conway Under Fire for Feet on Couch

Members of the media are going nuts over a photograph of President Donald Trump’s right-hand aide, Kellyanne Conway, scrolling through her cell phone while seated on an Oval Office couch, feet tucked beneath her, a la kneel position.

North Korea? Iran? ISIS? Terrorism and national security? Jobs and the economy?

No, the story of the day, in the minds of the mainstream media, is the fact Conway would dare to put her feet on a sacred White House couch.

This, despite the fact Barack Obama set new standards of informality while serving his eight years in the White House, putting his feet on the desk, entering the inner Oval Office without coat, or even tied tie, and so forth.

But Conway’s committed the cardinal sin.

This, from NDTV:

“In an image captured by an AFP photographer, Ms. Conway appears casually kneeling on the couch as Trump poses for a photo with leaders of historically black colleges and universities.

“Twitter users were quick to berate Ms Conway, with many calling her body language a sign of ‘disrespect.’

“‘Conway with her shoes on the couch in Oval Office – consistent with general level of disrespect Trump team has shown,’ tweeted one user.

“‘The new stock photo for ‘white privilege,’ wrote another Twitter user of the image, which shows her surrounded by a large number of black people who are standing.

“‘The country’s most esteemed African American educators have gathered together at the White House, and Kellyanne Conway cannot be bothered to acknowledge them with the respect of formal courtesy,’ wrote one commentator on the women’s interest website Jezebel. …

“The photo also triggered a tide of memes: ‘The ancestors put plastic on the furniture just for women like Kellyanne Conway,’ read one post, with the AFP image juxtaposed against sofas cloaked in plastic furniture covers.”

Even conservatives got in on the shaming.

Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens, for example, took Conway to task for the feet-on-couch photo, saying “if [Condoleeza] Rice or [Valerie] Jarrett sat like this in Oval Office, conservatives wouuld have screamed themselves hoarse for weeks. Now we own trashy.”

Maybe.

Or maybe it’s the frequency of the offense that has something to do with the fact conservatives would criticize Democrats for the placing feet on desk, or feet on couch.

Conway, 1: Barack Obama, ???

To infinity and beyond, it appears.