Weinsteins step down as Miramax CEOs

In my brief experience working at magazines in the 00s (I was a digital editor at a small mag with Harper’s ties), every office had a Hockenberry or multiple Hockenberrys. If not sexual harassment, non-sexual harassment was PFTC

Oh hey, remember this guy?

I am hearing that Jian Ghomeshi is apparently writing an upcoming cover story for the New York Review of Books. I only have one and not two sources, but my email is very easy to find if you have confirmation or “lol r u crazy?”

(Would love it to be the latter.)

— Nicole Cliffe (@Nicole_Cliffe) September 13, 2018

Update: I can now confirm that this is happening, and soon.

— Nicole Cliffe (@Nicole_Cliffe) September 13, 2018

Wow.

nyrb has been v. worried about the slandered innocent for years

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/02/05/rape-campus

I've been pissed at Harpers since their cartoon graphic cover of the women of the alt-right made them look like angelic greek goddesses.

nyrb has been v. worried about the slandered innocent for years

Probability favors the construction that someone claiming victimization is more likely to be telling truth than lying, but Every three year old has discovered how to lie, so dismissing the possibility of untruth in any aspect of human interaction is not a credible position. Can't we all agree that justice is better than injustice and proceed from there?

i've already let harpers and the economist lapse and now i've sent the nyrb a pissy yet extremely otm letter about this crap

guess i really will be living in an ilx bubble soon. good mourning!

Hmmm.

"I'm Julie Chen Moonves. Goodnight." #BB20

— Andy Dehnart (@realityblurred) September 14, 2018

That's how Julie Chen signed off Big Brother, and it is not how she usually signs off. It was a clear reference to her husband, Les Moonves, being forced to resign early this week in the wake of sexual assault and harassment allegations. #BB20

— Andy Dehnart (@realityblurred) September 14, 2018

a reference how? don't think I care what Julie Chen Moonves says or thinks

Worthless.

Harper’s also likes to publish the work of irritatingly dense probably anti-trans “just covering the story” douchebag J3ss3 S1ngal, and they had that blow-up about exposing the Bad Media Men list’s collator. I remember them maybe publishing something sympathetic to the “HIV doesn’t cause AIDS” conspirators long ago. Readings and Harper’s Index and Findings are all classic but the actual features seem like the editors are being undergraduate-level contrarians a bit too often. xps to something or someone

I am the person here honestly saying "big brother is still! on!?"

dont remember: you arent watching big brother

yeah silby that was why i was expressing disgust. the shitty media men piece was by katie roiphe ffs! and it was awful because i guess contrarianism doesn’t need editing.

VG otm on Macdonald and his Fall of the Comedy Giants bullshit

https://local.theonion.com/high-school-drama-teacher-already-has-pretty-good-idea-1829058955

Buruma: unbelievable asshole

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/jian-ghomeshi-new-york-review-of-books-essay.html

jesus fucking christ burn it all down

yeah he certainly picked one of the worst possible writers to make an already quite murky point there.

I know everyone just wants to get this one behind you, but I'm writing something on Hockenberry and Ghomeshi which means I have to read them and gaaaaaaaaahhhh. Even discounting for how wrong it is, it's just fucking boring and pointless. Hockenberry at one point just begins to list books he read in the sixties and then says that he likes Andrea Dworkin. 'More about this later'. It sounded like a fucking threat. Why on earth do we need these people in our culture?

I embraced the freethinking spirit of Zorba the Greek when I played him onstage in high school. Was this wise?

Who the fuck cares?

Why on earth do we need these people in our culture?

They were media personalities. They are our culture.

max hedrom would not stand for it

Unbelievably he returns to the Zorba the Greek story for three paragraphs later on. It does not get more interesting.

Why on earth do we need these people in our culture?

i realize that does not exactly fit your (or my) definition of “need” but it’s the top explanation for why all these shitheads who are really mediocre anyway keep getting chances. same with the moonves board meetings. same with the defenses of shithead brett kavanagh. until masculinity gets fixed this is going to keep happening.

I am SO GLAD that there is now a term for this. Because seriously... this shit drives me crazy.

“The Straw Girl” a technique that “posits the existence of a hypothetical observer who is conflating things that should not be conflated. It discredits the testimony of real women by implying that other, imaginary, women are too stupid to know the difference between getting raped and having a guy be ‘creepy in the DMs.’”

ian buruma is no longer the editor of the new york review of books

can’t wait for his 10,000 word thinkpiece

Truly a delight to see that happen. And to know Ghomeshi won't be getting any more traction.

I wonder if it was equal parts publishing the piece/clearly being clueless in the followup interview.

maybe they just want to replace him with a cheaper 25-year-old dude

Wow wasn’t expecting ian burma to be fired. Good, i guess-/that article showed bad judgment

meanwhile, there's this, which is horrifying: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/opinions/arlington-texas/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a0513c899c30

(the "faith" part is the most horrifying because it is pretty emblematic of the lengths people go to make bullying/harassment seem not just plausibly deniable, but plausibly deniable to the point that if you indicate what it is actually happening, you look ridiculous.)

that was a good article

know what else shows bad judgment?!?!?!!??!?!?!?
raping someone in high school

sorry i keep getting these inappropriate outbursts that are becoming more difficult to control the more people try to defend him

I definitely never defended kavanaugh (not that you implied i did—just for the historical record)

omg no i know, don't worry
like i said i am outbursting and my usual composure is compromised

xxp re: the Amber Wyatt piece, agree, the description of how cruel everyone else in the school and in the community was to her afterwards was sickening to read

i may never understand this whole small town football insanity

also WTF at this unrelated tidbit:

“We had cases where there were photographs and confessions from the suspects that were no-billed,” Johnson told me in 2015 in the tidy living room of her Fort Worth home. One case in particular stuck with her: A man admitted to giving a woman drugs that would render her unconscious — and then raping her after she had passed out and photographing the act. The victim was sent the photographs of her own rape, which she turned over to police. Still, the grand jury decided not to indict.

it's not just small town football insanity
this is why you/we don't know about all the sexual assault that happens
if there were a metal detector that would beep when it detects someone has experienced sexual assault, the noise would be deafening

it's not just small town football stuff, but there is frequently a popularity component. this is how it worked in steubenville (where the victim was accused of trying to "social climb"), it's how it worked in glen ridge (where the victim was disabled)

i can't even begin to start reading about this case -- it will send me into a tailspin
the way people will twist themselves into 150,000 tons of rold gold pretzels to blame victims is beyond what i can tolerate

yeah if you are not in a great place I would recommend holding off on reading about either of those

Le Lechera otm

But of course

Ex-NY Review of Books editor: "I have now myself been convicted on Twitter" https://t.co/LaYiIJPgxT pic.twitter.com/C16wmc2NBg

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) September 20, 2018

Buruma reportedly maintains that he was not fired, but that threatened boycotts made it impossible for him to remain in his role.

...

“I still stand behind my decision to publish,” Buruma said. “I expected that there would intense reactions, but I hoped that it would open a discussion about what to do with people who behaved badly, but who were acquitted in a court of law.”

“You could be right that it gave him too much room to tell his side of the story, without a response and without critical questions,” he continued.

Yes, possibly right there.

threatened boycotts made it impossible for him to remain in his role.

in what way is this even remotely true

They’ve been taking some epic shots on Buruma and Hockenberry over at LGM

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/09/fired-youre-bad-job-not-violation-due-process

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/09/book-entitled-lolita