Weinsteins step down as Miramax CEOs

welp egg on my face. adam otm!

Keillor looks like a radiation victim

Most charitable theory is that the lock-button keeps people popping in and making the “hey, are you on the phone? Can we talk after?” gesture.

it's probably for when you fire someone and they leave your office and you immediately lock the door so they don't come back and kill you.

President Keyes, you made me legit lol with "I'm a fool to do your flirty work"

Just to do devil's advocacy: My wife's a journalist who works from home. I can actually imagine situations where a door lock that she could activate without getting up would be helpful. The scenario would be: she's been trying to get an interview with an elusive and/or nervous source with sensitive information. She's left the source voice mail saying "feel free to call me at your convenience." The source calls her out of the blue, ready to talk, and it's at an odd time, like just before dinner. So she's doing a critical interview, finally getting a shy source to speak. And... the children or I bound into the room to ask her whether we have guacamole or hey the toilet's stopped or hey do you know where my charger is.

That's a reasonable professional explanation why a person WHO IS ALONE would want to be able to lock the door without telling the other person on the phone, "wait a minute while I get up and go lock the door."

THAT SAID, Matt Fucking Lauer is not a reporter working on breaking stories with nervous sources. He's a person who says things that other people wrote. So, fail.

criminalizing courtship & conflating it w predation

Yeah uh, no. People are saying it's possible to do courtship in a way that doesn't even look like predation. And they're calling out predation as what it is: predation.

this is so gross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yruIL5lVGE4

Lauer has a button under the vanity to stop his toilets whenever he wants

one of my students wrote about this frontline doc for her final paper, and in her response/recommendation section, she suggested that cameras in supervisor's offices are recording during all shifts since that is where many of the assaults occurred. from my perspective, there is no excuse for matt lauer being able to lock people into his office from a secret button on his desk.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/rape-on-the-night-shift/

Is he locking them in or keeping people from barging in and witnessing?

who cares?

the latter, or so I choose to believe. I've never even seen an interior door lock that can't be unlocked by simply opening the knob* from the inside

* = DOORknob, you pervs

xxp both, also la lechera otm

Well the former would make the whole thing WAY more frightening.

it's the same either way imo

..... why are people so confused about the way the fucking lock works

Being physically prevented from escaping is extra nightmare fuel, so I just wanted to clarify.

Because "I need to not be disturbed" has legitimate business uses.

"I need someone who's in my office to not be able to get out" does not.

A business that allowed the first is explicable. A business that allowed the second is actively evil.

ya a door locking someone IN, somehow, is prob false imprisonment & nbc could feasibly have some liability imo as it seemed they knew abt these contraptions

if he needs to not be disturbed he can walk right over and lock the door
why are people going out of their way to defend a door lock button?!

I get what Evan is saying but now IM confused because an electric deadbolt would be a clear fire code violation I believe

Sorry, who is confused or defending door lock buttons here?

La Lechera you said: "there is no excuse for matt lauer being able to lock people into his office from a secret button on his desk."

So I thought "holy shit he's locking them IN?!" and asked the question.

Isn't that all we're clarifying here?

Of course he's locking them in.

maybe you are not thinking about what it feels like to be locked in a room alone with a gross creep like matt lauer regardless of the mechanics of his stupid gross door lock
it's not like the lock is the only thing going on here -- regardless of how the lock works, YES he is locking them in while he claims to be locking other people out

evan, you think the lock only works when there is one person in the room?

sometimes it's better to google than ask

lock thread

NBC is definitely liable for SOMETHING if they let him turn his office into a panic room with a deadbolt that can only be unlocked from his desk.

maybe you are not thinking about what it feels like to be locked in a room alone with a gross creep like matt lauer regardless of the mechanics of his stupid gross door lock
it's not like the lock is the only thing going on here -- regardless of how the lock works, YES he is locking them in while he claims to be locking other people out

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, November 30, 2017 11:10 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If that's what you meant- got it! But aside from that if the other person in the room can't physically leave unless they reach under the desk and push the button again themselves then (again) holy shit it's worth pointing that out.

evan, you think the lock only works when there is one person in the room?

― Frederik B, Thursday, November 30, 2017 11:11 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no? ...what???

p sure i read on twitter or elsewhere this was not unique to his office, @ least some other nbc offices have the same mechanism. i think it has to be how ye mad puffin sez, keeping ppl from entering not from exiting

lock thread

― Simon H., Thursday, November 30, 2017

Ned Ragged with a button at his desk.

*Raggett

Perhaps.

the button-down mind of ned raggett

top button buttoned

Good DeRo piece at the New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/why-has-r-kellys-career-thrived-despite-sexual-misconduct-allegations

i guess i've never even seen office doors that had locks, like usually if my bosses door is shut it means do not disturb or they are on a call or something but also we have a lot of glass walls, but yeah it seems weird to have locks on office doors IMO

i’d kill for an office with a lock, the quality of my sleep would improve markedly

oy, now horovitz.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/theater/israel-horovitz-sexual-misconduct.html

Derogatis piece is weird. Does it contain any new info or r is it a blandly philosophical piece abt not separating art from artist? If he’s not doing investigative journalism on the ppl still pushing/enabling r kelly whats the pt

Not a bad idea to remind people about it in this new climate

This is that kind of annoying copycat journalism that takes the Weinstein headline subtext (Ronan farrow goes after the guy who enabled Woody Allen post abuse allegations!) and tries to bank off it without doing the legwork in a difft context, idk feels weirdly exploitative

Dero is definitely the one person alive who should be upbraided for not doing investigative journalism on R Kelly and ppl around him, good call

Sorry for not wanting to read the same article eight times

Fight the same series of wimps in the forect for an hour or two? I DON'T THINK SO. I think I'll BEAT THE GAME 3 times.

'what's the point' of continuing to call out a celebrity who's gotten a free pass? it took years, even decades for some of these guys to go down, and it took a critical mass of attention on them, not new investigative journalism.

i don't see the Russell Simmons news posted, so

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-entertainment-news-updates-russell-simmons-steps-down-from-1512055100-htmlstory.html

it's a bit upthread, busy morning. Simmons story was simmering for a while

'what's the point' of continuing to call out a celebrity who's gotten a free pass? it took years, even decades for some of these guys to go down, and it took a critical mass of attention on them, not new investigative journalism.

― iatee, Thursday, November 30, 2017 1:55 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also, as DeRogatis points out, the shit with Kelly is ongoing:

One of the women in the “cult” has said that she is “happy where I am at.” None of the others have spoken publicly, but the parents continue to contact me regularly, asking why, given the current public conversation, Kelly’s history, and what they call his ongoing abuse, the media isn’t focussing more on him.

the reason the media isn't focusing on him is because he went to trial and was found innocent. he is, in many people's minds, "old news". and his fans don't care.

just dropping by to say La Lechera otm re door locks
& who cares - and LL’s student is otm abt surveillance in supervisor offices. I still havent watched that Frontline doc, I keep meaning to!