It's absurd to place Al Franken in the same frame as monsters like Harvey Weinstein

[MASTERBAKER]

'Saturday Night Live' takes careful stand against Harvey Weinstein
BYNICOLE HENSLEY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Sunday, October 15, 2017, 6:01 AM

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Bob Weinstein says brother Harvey has not an 'ounce of remorse'

NBC’s show made headlines during the volatile presidential race, and much of 2017, for skewering powerful men accused of sexual harassment, including President Trump and Bill O’Reilly.

Michael Che jokes about Harvey Weinstein looking like a ball of chewing gum rolled in hair on "Saturday Night Live."
(NBC)
By contrast, the "Saturday Night Live" failed to bring the same satiric ire to bare on the Hollywood executive during its Oct. 7 episode.

A sketch and some “Weekend Update” jokes were reportedly written for the season premier but ultimately shelved before showtime,according to the New York Times.

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“I think it’s very possible that the audience wasn't ready to laugh at what was a really dark story,” former cast member Seth Meyers said at PaleyFest NY this week.

Late night hosts finally address Harvey Weinstein allegations

Colin Jost tried making up for the absence by kicking off with news of Apple's latest emojis: someone fresh out of the shower, a vomiting face and a shushing finger.


Women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault
Jost remarked that the emojis would finally give iPhone users "the ability to describe what it was like to work for Harvey Weinstein."

He then offered a tough stance on what to do with Weinstein as droves of victims continue to come forward with chilling encounters with the accused pervert. Sequestering himself at a rehabilitation center in Europe is no solution — especially for the accusers, Jost said.

“He needs a specialized facility where there are no women, no contact with the outside world, metal bars — and it’s a prison,” Jost said.

Women face creeps like Harvey Weinstein everywhere: Anita Hill

Che was not won over by the Hollywood executive’s mea culpa, when Weinstein on Wednesday told TMZ he was trying to seek help.

"Saturday Night Live" finally fired shots at Weinstein, after a conspicuous silence on the scandal last week.
(COLIN YOUNG-WOLFE/INVISION/AP)
“We all make mistakes,” Weinstein said.

“You assaulted dozens of women. That’s not a mistake, that’s a full season of ‘Law and Order,’ ” Che retorted.

The show looked to its female cast members to take another shot at Weinstein and the entertainment industry’s sordid history of abuse toward women.

Seth Meyers expects to see Harvey Weinstein skewered on 'SNL'

The sketch portrayed a New York Film Festival panel with a moderator asking three A-list actresses — Viola Davis, Marion Cotillard and Kate McKinnon’s fictitious Hollywood legend Debette Goldry — if they had unwanted encounters with Weinstein, or any other producers.

Colin Jost says Apple's new emojis will help people describe working with Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment.
(NBC)
“A producer asked me if I was comfortable with nudity, but it turns out he meant his own,” SNL’s Cecily Strong said as Cotillard.

Leslie Jones, as Davis, said a producer asked her for a massage.

“When I refused, he threw 10 or 12 phones at me. And then I realized he was trying to knock my shirt off,” Jones said.

McKinnon’s Goldry threw the woman for a loop by recalling her time with Weinstein.

“I was invited to his hotel room and when I arrived he was naked, hanging upside down from the monkey bars,” Goldry recalled.

“He tried to trick me into thinking his genitals were actually his face. It almost worked. The resemblance is uncanny.”

 

[MASTERBAKER]

It's absurd to place Al Franken in the same frame as monsters like Harvey Weinstein
BYJONATHAN ZIMMERMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, November 19, 2017, 12:41 PM

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Weinstein,Roy Mooreand all of the other miscreants in America's Sexual Hall of Shame. Frankenforcibly kissed a womanwhile rehearsing for a comedy skit, then groped her breasts while she was asleep.

Inappropriate? Of course. Deserving of some kind of penalty? Sure. But should Al Franken suffer the same disapproval-and the same consequences as Weinstein and Moore? Of course not. In the Me Too world, they're all the same: they harmed women, and that's that. But in the You Too world, they're vastly different.

Radio host accuses Sen. Al Franken of groping her during USO tour

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken forcibly kissed a woman while rehearsing for a comedy skit, then groped her breasts while she was asleep.
(ALEX BRANDON/AP)
Weinstein is accused of using his moviemaker power to harass, threaten and rape dozens of women. Moore reportedly trolled shopping malls and restaurants for underage girls, even writing a romantic note to one of them in her high school yearbook.

It is absurd — and, yes, it is unjust — to place Al Franken in the same frame as these monsters. He didn't threaten anyone's job or livelihood. He didn't prey on girls who weren't old enough to vote. And, unlike Weinstein and Co., he doesn't have a long list of accusers who came out of the woodwork after the first one did.

Let's be clear: nothing can excuse or exculpate Al Franken's behavior. But as soon as we start mixing it up with much worse behavior, we forsake a basic principle of a just society: let the punishment fit the crime. Everyone who did a bad thing is equally bad! So all bad people must be punished, in exactly the same way.

Harvey Weinstein has been accused of harassing, threatening and even raping multiple women.
(RICHARD SHOTWELL/RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/AP)
Then all bets are off. After the first set of charges against Franken surfaced, another woman came forward to say that she, too, had been "stalked and harassed" by him. Websites pinged with reports of a "second accuser." But it turns out that Franken allegedly yelled at her for what he considered inaccurate reporting on her radio show. Then he called her at home, at least three times.

Late night show hosts take on Al Franken allegations

Again, that's probably inappropriate. But it's not sexually inappropriate, in the same way that Franken's other misconduct was. And nothing that he did in either case rises — or, we should say, descends — to the sordid levels that Weinstein and Moore occupied. Not even close.

And that brings our discussion-as all such discussions must be brought — to one William Jefferson Clinton, whose serial misbehaviors have come under renewed scrutiny in the past few months. But even here, we have witnessed the rolling of very different behaviors into the same blanket of condemnation.

Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky — but he did not prey on her.
(ANDREW HARNIK/AP)
Monica Lewinsky? Sure, his affair with a 22-year-old White House intern was disgusting. And Clinton lied about it afterward, which-depending on your tastes-may or may not have been grounds for his impeachment.

But it wasn't sexual harassment. As Lewinsky herself has confirmed, Bill Clinton did not prey on her. She initiated the affair, at least in part, and he called it off. That doesn't make it good or wise or decent, and of course it was none of these things. But nor was it unwanted or coercive, which are the hallmarks of harassment.

Supreme Court Justice pens bizarre response to Franken allegation

And that's also what makes it different from the case of Juanita Broaddrick, who alleges that Clinton raped her while he was campaigning for Arkansas governor in 1978. If that turns out to be true, surely Clinton belongs in the same camp as Weinstein and all of the other creeps who harassed or assaulted women against their will. But what he reportedly did to Broaddrick is entirely different from what he did with Lewinsky.

Roy Moore has been accused of pursuing relationships with teenage girls.
(BUTCH DILL/AP)
And yes, the words matter. In the Me Too moment, they didn't: every victim had a story, and the stories multiplied upon each other. That's what gave the movement such power and resonance. It was a great thing, because it made all of us sit up and take notice.

But now that we've begun You Too, assigning specific penalties to specific wrongdoers, it's a very dangerous thing. When we start equating every kind of misconduct, we empty the words of their meaning. A bully becomes a harasser becomes a stalker becomes a rapist. You can't hold anyone to account when everyone is the same. And the only route to real justice is to talk about their differences.

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author (with Emily Robertson) of "The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools" (University of Chicago Press)

 

[QueEx]

It's absurd to place Al Franken in the same frame as monsters like

Listen.
Hear that rumbling sound that's getting louder and heavier?
Its a Tornado rolling in.
Don't pitch a tent in its path.
You'll get blown away.