An omnibus thread may not be necessary, but in case folks want to keep track of the public figures who are accused of these kinds of wrong behavior, they can be noted here. I am putting this in the Pit so as not to limit any vituperation that may be appropriate.
The latest I heard about is John Hockenberry, former host of the NPR radio program The Takeaway, which is produced by WNYC. A one-time guest on the program, Suki Kim, was on the wrong end of his apparent abuse, and so she started researching others on the show, including three women of color who had raised complaints about Hockenberry’s behavior and who were either let go or left the show. So a large part of Ms Kim’s accusations are against the station management for ignoring what she describes as 10 years of complaints.
Here is his statement in response:
I will leave it to others whether these words are sufficient.
Another one: James Levine of the Metropolitan Opera. Apparently he has been abusing teenage boys associated with places he has worked, such as the Ravinia Festival, since 1968. Jeebus, how does someone get away with something like that for so long?
Danny Masterson has been fired from The Ranch after 4 women came forward with rape allegations. At least some of these allegations were reported to the police at the time they occurred, but there are further allegations that the church of Scientology (all were members) pressured the women to withdraw the charges and/or helped cover up the crime.
YES!!! Finally!!! This has been going on for a VERY long time. The women went public over a year ago. The LAPD hasn’t been doing anything most likely because of Scientology involvement.
No official word that he actually named anyone just that they found the recording. As far as I know he has named everyone since then so there shouldn’t be any big revelations or changes. At best it would just prove that he was right when he said he told police.
I’m guessing that we are going to be hearing the name Bryan Singer a bunch in the next little while.
He was just fired from the Freddy Mercury biopic. He was accused of raping a 17 year old boy. Also, this isn’t the first time his name has swirled around these sorts of allegations.
There should be two threads in the IMHO forum for each perp, enabled for polling. One to rate the seriousness of the offense on a scale of 1 to 10 and one to rate the apology on a scale of 1 to 10. Shouldn’t be limited to public figures either, let’s get everybody out there.
I don’t get the sense that there was much shame behind Conyers’ resignation (nor behind Al Franken’s resignation to come). Just bowing to public pressure, especially from their own side. Trump’s side clearly doesn’t care, so there is no pressure to bow to.
Next on the list is Federal Appeals Court Justice Alex Kozinski, on the 9th Circuit here in San Francisco. He says that “it is regrettable if a handful have been offended by what I may have said or done.” Clearly a 0.5 on the apology scale. I’ll leave it to someone else to rate the actual offenses alleged by his denouncers.
Anybody got a link to a good summary of all of them Post-Weinstein? It would be interesting to categorize each… political, journalism, entertainment, Fortune 500, etc
All of Disney is a kind of perversion, as far as I’m concerned, but that’s for another thread.
These charges can bring heavy jail time (9 years plus in this case), so perhaps it’s not surprising that the person charged is completely denying the charges and his lawyer vows to fight “to the end to clear his name.” And Disney has only suspended, not fired him. Two girls (now women) accusing him of child molestation, and perhaps because he will actually face a trial, he is innocent until proved guilty. For the others, adult women make charges that will never go to trial, and the accusee is fired or forced to resign, and branded a pariah. Unless he’s a Republican, of course, and then it is nothing to talk about and the women are probably liars. Anyway, I’d be more comfortable with some consistency, but this is a giant boil being lanced and it’s going to take a while for some sort of normal order to assert itself.
There will be a new normal, I hope, a normal that’s more likely to be equal in many more ways than now.
One caveat to what you wrote - not all the accusers have been adults or women and I think that speaks to the breadth of the problem w/ power imbalance being at the root of these incidences as much, if nor more so than, sexual attraction.
A doctor who can call off a gymnast’s career for all intents and purposes takes sexual advantage of pubescent gymnasts for nearly a generation.
A powerful agent repeatedly grabs the genitals of an actor in front of other people, secure in the knowledge that actor will have trouble finding work if they complain.
A millionaire waits until the woman interviewing him is alone in a room to press against and try to make out w/ her knowing she needs his compliance for her story.
None of these assailants would have tried to make the move they wanted to had they not held more power than the victims they had in mind.