“The Weinstein Effect”: millions for silence and new victims

Photo: depositphotos.com

The wave raised by the moral fall of the famous film producer Harvey Weinstein, who is currently accused of harassing more than 50 women, flooded Hollywood and turned into a tsunami that hit the influential journalists first, and then prominent politicians.

What has been happening over the past two months has been called a “cultural revolution” and compared to the Watergate scandal.

As reported last week Los Angeles Times, the stream of complaints of sexual harassment pouring from Hollywood is increasingly occupied by the local police, who have never dealt with such an influx of claims to so many stars of show business at once.

According to Air force, the city police department formed 5 investigative teams, each of which consists of 2 interrogators, and threw them to study complaints of home-basedness.

Dozens of cases against the stars

“We're getting an unprecedented number of complaints,” says Capt. Billy Hayes, special teams commander.

28 is currently in charge of cases involving Hollywood figures and media representatives, including Harvey Weinstein, actor Ed Westwick, screenwriter Murray Miller and agent Tyler Gresham.

The police also received 37 complaints, but they belong to other jurisdictions to which they were transferred.

The applicants complain of crimes of a sexual nature, such as rape, and less serious “indecent acts” (lewd acts), for example, inappropriate touch or masturbation. But the statute of limitations for the second category of violations is only a year in California, so in many cases it will be difficult to attract someone for them.

Recently, the police refused for this reason to respond to the complaint of actor Corey Feldman, who claimed that in 1990-s. He was molested by two adult actors.

The statute of limitations for rape is 10 years.

According to Captain Hayes, in 95% of cases, there is no actual evidence. Investigators have to rely on the testimony of people who were told about the incident by the victims after committing depraved acts against them.

Often, sexual crimes that have been lodged have occurred in hotels. In such cases, on-site police are studying guest registration books and videotapes from surveillance cameras.

Los Angeles Police collaborates with colleagues from Beverly Hills, New York and London, who also opened cases on Weinstein. According to former Los Angeles Prosecutor Dmitry Gorin, Weinstein’s alleged victim may come to the United States from Britain to testify against him.

So far the producer is not officially accused of anything. Three weeks ago in the New York press flashed messages that the police were about to receive a warrant for the arrest of Weinstein. They were premature.

Actor Westwick, who was accused of rape by actress Christina Cohen, says he is innocent. Screenwriter Miller and actor Terry Cruise, who is accused of groping his victims, say the same thing.

But even if the accusations against them turn out to be unfounded, the damage to their careers has been irreparable. Weinstein was removed from the company that bears his name, and the almost finished film, which starred actor Kevin Spacey, who was accused of harassment, was partially remade to “erase” his presence.

Turmoil in journalistic circles

A wave of revelations from Hollywood has reached the editorial offices of various media outlets and has broken the careers of political observer Mark Halperin, correspondent New York Times in the White House of Glenn Trash, Matthew Zimmerman (NBC), Michael Oreskés (EnPI), Lockhart Steele (left site Vox) Hamilton Fish (liberal magazine New Republic), Leon Wieseltir (liberal magazine Atlantic) and six-foot-tall Charlie Rose, whose show "Charlie Rose," produced by his own company of the same name, was broadcast on PBS public television and Bloomberg.

Rose was also one of the leading morning TV programs on CBS. This Morning and occasionally reported for CBS's 60 Minutes.

If Weinstein's ruined New York Times then rose exposed The Washington Post, which last Monday published a huge article with the eloquent headline "Eight women say Charlie Rose harassed them with sexual advances - showing his nudity, explicit touching and obscene phone calls."

Three women allowed to call themselves in the article by name, the rest preferred anonymity, fearing Rose's influence in television circles. True, he no longer has this influence, because he was instantly expelled from the air.

As usual The Washington Post Requested comment from Rose before publication. He sent the following statement: “Having been a journalist for 45 years, I have always taken pride in advancing the careers of the women I have worked with. However, recently there have been some allegations made regarding my treatment of some of my former female colleagues. It is extremely important that these women know that I sincerely apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I'm extremely embarrassed. I have been insensitive at times and I am aware of my responsibility for that.”

According to the women, this “insensitiveness” consisted in the fact that Rose invited his subordinates to work at his home and, while taking a shower, did not close the bathroom door or came out to them with his robe open on his naked body.

One lady claimed that Rose allegedly grabbed her buttock at a corporate party.

In the light of the current revelations, a number of companies are reportedly taking steps to avoid such manifestations at their holiday parties. Some, for example, will not apply alcohol to them or limit its quantity.

Five women complained to the newspaper that Rose sometimes put his hand on his leg or upper thigh.

According to the website HillMany media now devote enormous resources to investigating the behavior of their colleagues and competitors. In journalistic circles, the lists of editors, reporters and administrators suspected of harassment go hand in hand.

According to media research professor Jeffrey McCall, the Americans viewed the media as their advocates and representatives of the people’s interests and are now unhappy that such scandalous stories took place in the editorial offices.

The public also blames the media for hypocrisy, because they arrogantly denounced harassment in other areas, but at the same time looked through the antics of their own colleagues.

The first to suffer was Mark Halperin, the best-selling author of presidential races of 2008 and 2012. He also covered the election of 2016 of the year in the popular pay-TV program. showtime. Now he is also suspended from the air.

Politicians cry too

Photo: depositphotos.com

The storm lifted by Vainshtein fell on the congress, the rating of which was already much lower than that of Trump, and now threatens to sink below the plinth.

The victim of the first scandal among politicians was 70-year-old Republican Roy Mohr, the former head of the Alabama Supreme Court, twice dismissed from this post for failing to comply with federal judges, and now running for the US Senate in the place of Jeff Sessions, who Trump appointed Minister of Justice.

Special elections to the Senate will take place on December 12. In heavily Republican Alabama, Mohr was ahead of his Democratic opponent by a wide margin, but was stymied by complaints from several older women who began accusing him of sexual misconduct dating back to the late 1970s and '80s, when Mohr was a young prosecutor in his thirties. years old, and they are teenagers.

One of the accusers of Mora says that he harassed her when she was only 14 years old, and her story sounds quite plausible. It is not surprising that both the National Committee of the Republican Party and the majority of its elders turned away from Mora and urged him to withdraw from the struggle for a place in the Senate, although it is too late to find a replacement for him, and the victory of his Democratic rival will reduce the Republican Senate majority by one mandate now makes up all 2 voices.

Democrats spend far more money on the Alabama race than More, they scold him on television, and the state’s mainstream 3 newspapers advise him to withdraw his candidacy.

More denies all the accusations and says that they were inspired by his enemies and the political establishment, which does not tolerate principled conservative Christians.

He is supported by Trump and many Alabama Republicans, for whom it is preferable that there be a person accused of sex crimes in the Senate than a Democrat.

“I have no reason not to believe them,” Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey says of Mor’s accusers, but stipulates that she will still vote for him. “We need to have a Republican in the Senate to vote on nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, on other appointments that must be confirmed by the Senate, and on major decisions.”

Have you slept?

At first, More seemed to many Democrats a gift of fate, since he fit under the image of the Republican women haters that they create. But the joy was short-lived, because blame Harassment was also directed at two prominent Democrats—Senator, former stand-up comedian Al Franken, and the oldest member of the House of Representatives, African-American John Conyers, who was elected to it 27 times, first in 1964.

Franken is currently accused of 4 women, one of whom announced a photo of 2006 of the year, at which the future senator grabs her by the chest while grinning. Moreover, the woman is clearly asleep and dressed in a helmet and body armor, which made Franken's critics accuse him of contempt of the servicemen.

The picture was taken during a touring tour of the bases of American troops in the Middle East.

Some Democratic lawmakers called for the resignation of Franken. He did not confess, but he apologized and gave himself at the mercy of the Senate Ethics Committee, to which critics refuse to take seriously and predict that Franken will get off with a slight fright.

According to the site survey Politico, 50% of voters believe Cho Franken needs to resign.

Millions for silence

How many women accused Congressman Conyers, while not exactly clear, because, for example, it turned out that Congress paid one complainant in exchange for the silence of 27 thousand dollars.

Photo: Facebook / Congressman John Conyers, Jr.

Conyers says it's about severance pay. The woman, under the terms of the transaction, has no right to comment on it.

In the wake of the scandal, one embarrassing circumstance surfaced: it turns out that in recent years, the Congress secretly paid complainants about the behavior of lawmakers and their employees 17 million dollars. In exchange, the women pledged to remain silent.

Critics of the congress, whose rating fell to a miserable 6%, were outraged that it was not the perpetrators themselves who paid for the behavior of the servants of the people, but taxpayers.

It is predicted that the tsunami of revelations will overwhelm other areas of human activity. There are concerns that some men will suffer innocently.

This is not a problem, the documentary filmmaker, writer and columnist said. Teen Vogue Emily Lindin.

“Here's an unpopular point of view,” she tweeted on November 21. “I’m actually not too worried about innocent men losing their jobs because of fake allegations of sexual assault or harassment.” What to do. If the reputations of some innocent men are damaged in the course of dismantling the patriarchy, then that is a price I am absolutely willing to pay!”

Read also on ForumDaily:

How many people in the US suffered from harassment at work

What's the problem? In Russia, they did not understand the Weinstein sex scandal

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