The transcript fleshes out the context a little bit:
BECK: Well, Dina, has it ever struck you as a good idea to take naked photos?
SANSING: It depends from what perspective you`re coming from. You know, it`s probably not the best idea.
BECK: Probably not the best idea? You know, I just read a story in "USA Today" this morning about how there`s a digital footprint, that people don`t -- you know, everybody`s fine about the carbon footprint. It`s the digital footprint.
People now have cell phones with pictures everywhere, and your photo is going to be everywhere. You can`t take stupid photos and expect those to be you know, locked away forever.
SANSING: Certainly not if you want to become a big celebrity. You have to understand that the minute you go on "American Idol" or want a career as a singer, people are going to look into your past and find these kind of photos and post them everywhere, which is what happened.
BECK: Dina, let me tell you something. I don`t think you have to be famous. I think you just work in the average environment in America now, somebody would get a picture of you, and then it would be posted all around, and it will happen in your office.
SANSING: Possibly.
BECK: You don`t think so?
SANSING: Well, it depends. You know, it depends...
BECK: Dina, I`ve got some time and a camera. Why don`t you stop by? No? OK.
The transcript, sadly, does not capture the awkward, uncomfortable pause after that, as Sansing smiles blankly and Beck, obviously a bit embarrassed at letting his riffing get out of control, looks askance. Since Beck makes a living being a smug, supercilious tool in the first place, this is obviously not all that surprising.
Still, his point was pretty clear, if inadvertently creepy and inept in making it. Does he really want to take pictures of Dina Sansing nude? Probably. If she lets him, I expect him to post them on the internets. For research purposes, of course.
I have no idea who Sansing is, or if she plans on discussing the frivolous minutiæ of American Idol contestants with goony talk-show ravers for a career. But, you know, how surprised could she possibly be, in such a context, that she was jokingly, incompetently "propositioned" by a time-killing putz. Nature of the beast, sweetheart. Any time you're sick of shoveling shit in the monkey-house, there's plenty of actual journamalistic work to be done. The added bonus of that is that, by definition, you'd never have to talk to Glenn Beck again.
In the rest of the segment, though, what I really found interesting was the presumptive moralizing going on between the two of them [emphases mine].
[BECK:] Do you think that, with "American Idol," this is really pretty much a win-win for them? I mean, they`ve got to be saying to themselves, "Oh, the hot one in naked pictures? This is great."
SANSING: Well, yes, it`s certainly a great thing for the show. All publicity for this show has been a great thing. Their numbers just keep going up and up. This is certainly, again, another scandal, and they`re profiting from it.
I don`t know that it`s a great thing for her. I think, ultimately, when America is deciding about "American Idol," they`re going to say, "I`m not sure we are ready to name this woman the American idol. We have seen her in these pictures. It`s kind of shocking, and that`s not really what we`re looking for, for the next great singer."
BECK: No way. Come on, you -- I got 100 bucks right now. You want to bet? Come on.
SANSING: You think she`s going to do it?
(CROSSTALK)
SANSING: Are you going to be voting for her?
BECK: No. I`ve got a life, thank goodness. No, here`s the thing. Vanessa Williams, Vanessa Williams was shot in provocative, lesbian, you know, action shots, if you will. She`s very well-respected now. I mean, that was, what, 1980 something or other?
SANSING: It took a while, but that was certainly after she had won Miss America. You know, I think it`s tough, especially this show is very - - you know, this is a sort of family show. People watch it with their kids. Their kids are voting. You know, they just aren`t ready to have someone who`s exposed themselves.
BECK: OK, so let me look -- with that being said, let me look at -- do we have the screen shot of all of the felons there -- all the trouble that people have had? Do we have that shot?
Here are all these people that have, you know, posed nude. They were, you know, involved in battery and everything else. I mean, this has happened on "American Idol." Is it that this shows attracts these kind of people or this just even worse, this is just a reflection of American society?
SANSING: Well, let`s hope it`s not a reflection of American society. You know, I think it`s a lot of things. I think anytime you have a show with so much success, people are looking in every corner to see if there`s another scandal, because, quite frankly, that`s what "American Idol" has been known for. They love the scandals. You know, and these are real people with imperfect pasts.
I'm sorry, but that just strikes me as all kinds of weird, assuming Sansing is correct (and I'm willing to bet that she is). While Antonella Barba may not have exercised the greatest judgement in not only having nude photos taken of herself, but apparently allowing someone else access to them, the fact of the matter is, unless this was an elaborate self-initiated publicity stunt on her part, she did not intend those photos for public consumption.
And even if she did, so what? What the hell is wrong with people who need to feel that their entertainment personalities lead personal lives which conform to their expectations of moral purity? They're titties, people, grow the fuck up. Your precious children will, believe it or not, survive the trauma of seeing a stray nipple here or there. It's the ones who are kept completely in a protective, paranoid bubble that end up storing cold cuts of hitchhikers and neighbors in the chest freezer.
And the blowjob photos, the veracity of which is in dispute? Okay, that might be a bit more embarrassing for Barba and her family, but again, that's their business. Guess what -- everyone you have ever or will ever see on your idiot box is having the sex. So are you, if you have any brains. That this kid -- who, judging by the few comments I've read about her, can't sing for shit anyway -- is supposed to genuflect to a bunch of hypocritical, self-righteous soccer moms and their fecund mallrat progeny is an awful notion.
Don't give 'em the satisfaction, honey. Tell 'em all to get bent.
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