UltraViolet Action Petitions NBC, MGM to Release Trump Tapes

UltraViolet Action, a women's advocacy organization fighting sexism, says it has collected over 115,000 signatures on its own petition demanding that MGM and NBC release tapes of the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on reality show The Apprentice.

The petition was launched Monday—MoveOn has launched a similar petition—and, according to the group, had 30,000 signatures in less than four hours.

UltraViolet Action cited a Huffington Post story from Tuesday featuring alleged transcripts from The Apprentice in 2010 where Trump is commenting on a music star's makeover and saying insulting things about her skin quality, suggesting he is a "skin man."

Trump has been on the defensive since last week, when The Washington Post reported on tapes of his misogynistic conversation with then Access Hollywood's Billy Bush. Trump has said he was not proud of the comments but repeatedly dismissed them as "locker-room" talk rather than actual conduct.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.