When disgraced former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., was first accused in 2017 of sexual misconduct, a posse of his old “Saturday Night Live” buddies put out a statement vouching for his supposedly impeccable character.
Though they acknowledged he may have behaved inappropriately toward news anchor Leeann Tweeden, the main point of their letter was to make it clear that none of them had been harassed by Franken.
It was a stupid letter for a two reasons. First, no one who signed it could speak to the facts of Tweeden’s story. None of them were there. Secondly, the logic of the letter doesn’t hold. Saying Franken has acted well some of the time doesn’t necessarily mean he has acted well all the time, which is what the letter clearly tried to suggest.
Their ignorance can be forgiven. After all, they’re professional clowns.
What’s far more indefensible are the members of the news media who’ve reacted similarly to separate #MeToo stories, rushing to defend or soften the edges around the accused rather than wait for the story to play out in its entirety.
Considering it’s the media’s job to ask difficult questions and get the story, there’s no excuse for the reporters and pundits who’ve jumped in front of #MeToo scandals with what can only be described as damage control efforts.
The first high-profile example of this sort things comes from former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, who went to the mats defending the network’s disgraced former chief, Roger Ailes.
“[T]he first thing that occurred to me is that, unfortunately, we have a disgruntled employee, a colleague,” she told People, referring to former Fox personality Gretchen Carlson, who brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against the network in 2016. “I read that her show wasn’t being renewed and, being a lawyer, I thought she got angry. I deal with Roger Ailes often. I’ve often been alone with Roger Ailes in his office over the course of 15 years and I’ve never seen anything like what I’m reading about in the papers and the magazine.”
Again, just because a person hasn’t abused you or anyone in front of you doesn’t necessarily mean he has abused nobody. Ailes resigned in disgrace on July 21, 2016, taking with him a trail of allegations of sexual misconduct stretching from here all the way to the West Coast.
Much more recently, former “Today Show” host Katie Couric tried to downplay the worst details of the Matt Lauer scandal, including reports that his desk at 30 Rock had a discreet button that allowed him to lock his office door remotely.
“I think the whole button thing, you know? I think — NBC — a lot of stuff gets misreported and blown out of proportion,” Couric said this week. “A lot of NBC executives, they make it sound like some kind of den of iniquity. I don’t know what was happening. A lot of NBC executives have those buttons that opened and closed doors.”
That’s not quite the full story. The way Variety tells it, the button gave Lauer the ability to lock his door, trapping anyone unfortunate enough to be caught alone with him in his office. One former colleague claims exactly this happened to her. She said she was sexually assaulted by Lauer after he locked her in his office with him.
Couric also made sure to trot out the usual well-I-never-experienced-harassment line.
“It has been a painful time for a lot of people who work with Matt and care about him and never witnessed or experienced any of this behavior that is now obviously being talked about,” she said. “I don’t know the full extent of all of the things that happened. I can only talk about my personal experience and I was treated respectfully and appropriately.”
Well, that changes everything.
Lastly, there’s this ill-conceived letter of support that some 115 female NBC News staffers signed last week in support of former anchor Tom Brokaw, who stands accused of at least three separate acts of sexual misconduct against female colleagues.
In the absence of the facts, why would anyone in the press sign such a thing? Many of the letter’s signatories are journalists, including Andrea Mitchell, Stephanie Ruhle, and Kelly O’Donnell. It’s literally their job to collect facts and get to the bottom of things. But rather than hear out the accusers and weigh whether Brokaw is being credibly accused, they are ready to declare his innocence, which, of course, is based on their personal anecdotes.
I understand the desire by some of these media figures to speak up on behalf of their colleagues. It’s an understandable impulse, but it’s an impulse nonetheless. Prudence is a virtue. Exercise it. As a member of the news media, jumping into a story as a character witness before all the facts have been collected is about the worst possible decision one can make. It’s both short-sighted (what if the accusers are right?) and it helps perpetuate an industry-wide culture of silence.
Conservative commentator S.E. Cupp put it well the other day when she said, “Banding together to sign a letter defending a top veteran newsman is exactly the kind of thing that creates a culture of intimidation. Who would feel comfortable coming forward about sexual harassment allegations now? Rushing to the defense of an accused sexual harasser is just as bad as rushing to condemn one.”
One would expect that journalists and commentators would behave a bit more carefully in this area, especially with allegations as serious as the ones leveled against Ailes, Lauer, and Brokaw, but maybe that’s expecting too much.
