(1) The harassment thing is just about played out. The Matt Lauer firing kind of proves it to me. For as long as I can remember, there has been a steady current of "Matt Lauer is a sh*t" articles. He's been behind a bunch of nasty things done to other employees, he's rotten to staff, and he's a sexual turd. It's no surprise that he got swept up in this harassment thing or that he was fired. What should surprise people is the outpouring of love for him from his female coworkers. Even worse, there is a strong effort to pin this on Ann Curry, even though there should be nothing to "pin" on anyone except Lauer and the source is known not to be Curry.
What does this tell us? Women will pick and choose whose harassment to tolerate based on whether or not they like the harasser more than the harassee. That's the end of any legitimacy in this debate. Add the ever-growing list of Democrats who are shocked and horrified at their own conduct but won't step down and this all becomes an exercise in pretending to care.
(2) College football has entered the silly season. They are now hiring coaches. The problem is that they are all hiring guys who stunk up the place at their last job or the job before that. It's amazing how many losers get second, third and fourth shots.
(3) Did Cyber Monday seem like a waste of time to anyone else? I saw nothing that looked like a good deal to me.
The Tennessee situation is front and center in this. I would say, college football is an insane profession. We have long since given up the notion of student athletes. Division one power five coaches make Fortune 500 salaries, and programs contribute multiple millions of revenue to the schools. With a couple exceptions, picking a coach is a crapshoot, and only a few winners
ReplyDeleteBut, you never know who gets lucky. I think Dabo Sweeney was a nobody who was on the hot seat at Clemson until he got lucky with recruiting DeShawn. Tennessee has hurt themselves with how they have handled their search.
Jed, The Tennessee situation is insane. First, they pick a total loser (Schiano) who in no way fits with Tennessee's culture. Why they think this will fly, I have no idea. The students revolt and everything goes nuts. Now the pundits are whining that nobody will want the job. Really? A multimillion dollar dream job and nobody will want it just because it's going to be challenging? Give me a break.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of picking winners, I think luck in recruiting is the key these days. It seems that the days of the genius coaches who succeed year after year are gone with only a few exceptions.
Andrew, the Lauer firing is exactly like a case I talked about six weeks ago so I'll quote my old post.
ReplyDelete1) A change in tolerance for sexual misconduct is happening. Elaborate conspiracy theories are popular in some circles make no real sense. The targets are widespread and in many cases its stuff that was known getting a second, harder look. For example Eddie Berganza the guy who edited the Superman and Wonder Woman comics with great success for many years was just fired. There had been public complaints about him for years but he was judged useful enough that DC those who complained wound up leaving because he was not going anywhere (back in those days). But in light of the changing landscape DC recently cut him loose.
End Quote
Going to Lauer specifically I've seen more coverage of past incidents than demonstrations of support but I have never watched the show itself.
Also deciding innocence or guilt not just on facts but on how charming or pretty a person is isn't just a woman thing it's a human thing.
Last but not least while standards are tightening politicians from the president on down are and will no doubt remain much slower to step down for sexual misconduct than corporations are to fire superstars. If their supporters tolerate it...
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteAlso deciding innocence or guilt not just on facts but on how charming or pretty a person is isn't just a woman thing it's a human thing.
Yeah, except that we're talking about women. This harassment thing is supposedly women changing the world. Hence, the issue is how those women are acting. And what they are doing is (1) still refusing to come forward except to pile on guys already going down, (2) still failing to define what constitutes a crime in their eyes, (3) still picking and choosing who must be punished and who they will excuse because they like them, (4) still attacking the women who raise these allegations, and (5) still pretending they are "strong" and have achieved something when the reality is that they haven't done anything.
The only thing that has changed is that a handful of liberal hypocrite predators have been brought down by their corporate masters who wanted to avoid lawsuits. Nothing else has changed.
As for Lauer, by the way, it's been a couple of newspapers who are driving the expose and a couple trolls like Kathy Griffin who are lobbing the grenades.
ReplyDeleteBeyond that, each of his female co-hosts acted like he died and gave "heartfelt tributes" during the show. Other celebrities and news people chimed in too how great he was, and dozens of articles were written blaming this all on Ann Curry... not Lauer.
To that point, people in news and entertainment are acting like this is the beginning of a movement, but really it's the end. The stuff that's happening in Hollywood and newsrooms has long since run it's course in the rest of corporate America. The archetype of the sexually harassing boss was inverted in the book/movie Disclosure in 1994! Inversion comes early in the wrap-up phase when people realize things run both ways and so they start to calm down. They Hollywood/press are lagging. Once a handful of powerful women get accused, this thing will be just about done. Ann Curry might be the start of that.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, I would argue that they're actually moving backward now, even as they wrongly think they are moving forward.
ReplyDeleteUp to now (meaning the past decade), they've had the ability to destroy careers with just an allegation -- especially on college campuses. We were told that women don't lie about these things and the allegation is good enough to convict. And since allegations usually were only made against one man at a time, it was easy for people to let him go down, especially as the media would pile on.
But now that it's the witch hunters who stand accused, they are screaming about due process rights, about it being unfair to just take the woman's (gay man's) word, and they are downplaying the level of punishment they will accept (rehab, demonstrate remorse, praise the woman for coming forward). Add in the huge number of guys who simply said, "Didn't happen" and then entirely escaped punishment. And what you have is a much harder world in which to claim harassment.
What I see now is that sexual harassment and sexual assault have lost the "an allegation is enough" standard and not only are people requiring proof but they seem to be requiring a pattern of misconduct -- six, seven, a dozen women. That is a much higher burden than they had before.
As for the guys going down, I see this as a "sh*t-bird clean out" where the worst bastards get destroyed by people who wanted them gone, but no one else really gets hurt.
P.S. The powerful women being accused is coming. I also think you will see a backlash in the gay community, where things like what Kevin Spacey did are common behavior.
ReplyDeleteJim Nabors died. He was one of my favorite actors of the 1970s. RIP
ReplyDeleteFirst - RIP Jim Nabors! He was one of my faves too and what a beautiful voice he had. Gomer Pyle was my grandmother's favorite too!
ReplyDeleteAndrew, all good points. Whichever way you look at it, we're much nearer the end of this craze than the beginning.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will add this. I agree we are coming to the end of harassment era. It's been a good run. As I've said all along, just wait for the women accusing women of sexual harassment and the will point to the real end.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons that this is fading out is the broad definition that women are defining as "harassment" and putting unwanted flirting in the same category as assault/rape. This just minimizes the real victims of assault and real Weinstein pay-to-play sexual harassment. But hopefully there are some smart women who are learning that you can't play the perpetual victim too.
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteThe harassment thing is about decreasing tolerance (which has in practice mostly been afforded to the well placed). Sure there are times where the relevant authorities are women but more often they are men.
1) In what universe was Lauer already down? This time last week he was attacking the misconduct of others, now be is fired and apologizing.
2) Sex crime like sex itself is an incredibly broad thing. Lack of consent/coercion is the unifying factor.
3) The bar is being raised. Not everyone is going to get nailed by it, but more than before.
4) Accusers of the popular will always get grilled. The heat goes down as the accusations and or evidence piles up, so being the 31st is practically painless, but being the first...
5) Not following your reasoning on this one.
I agree the phenomena will end eventually. Like I said a while ago most of these guys going down are going down for stuff that has long been known. Once they are cleared out big names will no longer be dropping daily.
That illegal who killed the Steinle girl in SF was acquitted today, what a crock..is the prerequisite to be on a jury in California to have crap for brains? The entertainment industry is imploding..good.
ReplyDeleteThat is the craziest jury verdict I've heard in a while. So now the killer will merely be deported for the 6th time. He probably started laughing as soon as he left the courtroom.
ReplyDeleteThe killer's attorney lectured those of us who disagree..as far as i'm concerned, Francisco Ugarte can go do something that's physically impossible.
ReplyDeleteFlynn pleads guilty to lying to the FBI, but so far it seems that talking to the Russkies wasn't illegal...now if they could just go after Hillary and Loretta Lynch and John Podesta for lying through their teeth..
INXS’ Kirk Pengilly, like Daryl Hall re. Cultural Appropriation, seems to have reached the point of push-back.
ReplyDeletehttp://diffuser.fm/kirk-pengilly-sexual-harassment-comment/
There’s a huge difference between genuine harassment and the grooming practiced by scum-fucks like Weinstein & Co., and the act of paying a woman a compliment, which is the point I think Kirk was trying to make. Heck, most every woman I’ve ever known really appreciated hearing how cute her dress/haircut/smile looked. Herein lies the rub, too (Shakespearean rub, too, in case any trigger-happy snowflakes wander in and go the perverted direction): methinks ladies would be frustrated and annoyed if they were ignored.
Also, though albeit to not as strong a degree, but not like casting couches haven’t been employed by women. Carrie Fisher’s role in Soapdish springs immediately to mind.
Long-ish post short, weed out and alienate the true predators so we can get back to not being so uptight.