That didn’t take long.
After every instance of reported sexual misbehavior by high profile media or political figures, we get a torrent of confessions by other people in the media, claiming to have known about the accused’s behavior for years.
With Harvey Weinstein, it seems that everyone and their mother in Hollywood knew the mogul had a penchant for preying on vulnerable women. But it took Ronan Farrow writing in the New Yorker to finally blow the story wide open. Only afterwards, did people in the media finally admit Weinstein was a huge pervert.
Whatever happened to speaking truth to power? What happened to reporting on the news, no matter the cost?
The Weinstein scandal was an example of journalistic malfeasance. But now, with news that NBC star Matt Lauer was a sexual deviant causing his downfall from the network, journalists are playing the same game, claiming to know about their behavior but doing nothing to thwart it.
Just look what Yashar Ali, a popular freelance journalist who writes for the HuffingtonPost and New York Magazine, tweeted:
I, and other reporters , have been aware of several women who have come forward privately in the past few months …even before Weinstein. They weren’t willing to go public though…they were terrified of Matt. https://t.co/jR3VV1AWGt
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 29, 2017
He goes on:
Matt Lauer put the fear of god into these women. He had relationships with reporters outside NBC that he cultivated just for this purpose. They knew that. https://t.co/47UKT8DuJA
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 29, 2017
Lauer is among the worst I've heard about. Not in terms of the kind of misconduct but the way in which he manipulated these women into silence. It's evil, frightening stuff. https://t.co/5FiFmajUw0
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 29, 2017
Those last two messages are way more revealing. So Lauer had a known history of intimidating women, yet only now he was fired? How many journalists knew about this but kept it under wraps? Why did they protect Lauer by not coming forward sooner?
These journalists say that Lauer was an evil man. Yet they all sat on the news until it was convenient to share.
This was disgusting, craven behavior.
When is this going to stop? When will journalists finally speak up when they hear about powerful figures abusing women?
For years, we’ve heard from talking heads that President Trump is a lecher who preys on women. Yet these same bomb-throwers are perfectly willing to hide the crimes of media figures they care about.
For shame.
Share this story with others to let them know the media is full of frauds!
