Et tu, Brokaw?
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski’s has added her name to the more than 60 women [including Maria Shriver and Rachel Maddow] who signed a letter supporting NBC News veteran Tom Brokaw after sexual harassment allegations against him were published by Washington Post and Variety:
The testimonial was made public one day after … former NBC News staffer Linda Vester that Brokaw sexually harassed her in the 1990s.
(Deadline Hollywood, April 27, 2018)
Influential women like Brzezinski have been in the vanguard of those championing MeToo reckonings for influential men like Harvey Weinstein. And one of the most empowering and galvanizing features of these reckonings has been the presumptive mantra
Believe the women.
And, as with Brokaw, there are invariably more than one accuser. Which is why this open letter supporting him is so troubling. For it betrays not only that progressive mantra but also the conventional ignorance that presumes a man innocent of sexual harassment simply because he “treated each of us with fairness and respect” – as their letter protests.
Frankly, you’d think no self-respecting woman would be caught dead vouching for any man’s innocence of sexual harassment/assault in this era of MeToo reckonings. This, especially after the fall from grace of men like America’s Dad Bill Cosby and CBS News veteran Charlie Rose.
Therefore, shame on the more than 60 women who did just that in this case.
Related commentaries:
MeToo reckoning…