The point is: Matt Lauer means nothing to me one way or the other. I'm just not interested in following that story.
But GARRISON KEILLOR?
Garrison Keillor, the former host of "A Prairie Home Companion," says he's been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior.Let me be clear. I will believe Keillor's side of the story no matter what he says and no matter what anyone else says. Even if Keillor's word conflicts with video evidence, I'll say "To hell with the video." If God himself contradicts Keillor's version of events, I'll ask God: "Who got to you? What do they have on you?"
Keillor told The Associated Press of his firing in an email. In a follow-up statement, he says he was fired over "a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard."
He didn't give details of the allegation. Minnesota Public Radio didn't immediately respond to messages.
Sorry. That's my attitude and I really don't give a shit what you think of me. Garrison Keillor is one of the very few people left on this planet whose word I refuse to doubt.
(Aung San Suu Kyi used to be on that list, but even she let me down.)
It's open season on Democrats, folks. None of this will touch Trump. Roy Moore will soon be a senator. The Republicans are positioning themselves as the party of respect for women. You should look at the right-wing comments on Twitter: Former Gamergaters who loathe females are now pretending to be the great defenders of womanhood.
This is the single most astounding (and obvious) op I've ever seen. What we are witnessing fits in with the Putin playbook: In Russia, anyone who gets on Putin's bad side will see his sex life splayed all across the media, while anyone who plays ball with Putin is protected, no matter how ghastly his private sins.
I'll say it again. We are endlessly told -- by alleged progressives -- that we must reassess the Bill Clinton presidency and that we must believe any and all accusations against him without question. Yet we are never told that we must reassess Ronald Reagan, even though a far more credible accusation of rape was leveled against him by actress Selene Walters. This selective targeting is very telling.
Look at what's going on.
George Takei. Al Franken. Garrison Keillor. Bill and Hillary Clinton. John Conyers.
This isn't about defending women. This is a right-wing witch hunt designed to increase the Republican majorities in both Houses of Congress in 2018.
13 comments:
Joseph,
As they say in talk radio - long time reader, first time commenter. You don't have to be a died in the wool conspiracy theorist to hear Roger Stone cackling in the background. It was painfully obvious that they would weaponize the #metoo mania against us. Sort of "Well, you want to "just believe", huh? Well, get ready to "just believe" ALL of them no matter what" In typical Charlie Brown fashion, we fall for it once again as, you said, they selectively target people and use it as cover for their folks.
Despite the pleas and warnings from folks like yourself and others to not treat accusations as facts and treat all the accusations as the same things (e.g. from Franken to Moore) and not to believe blindly largely based on gender, here we are. Now somebody can make an anonymous accusation of "inappropriate behavior" against someone and off we go! At this point we don't even need to know what the actual accusations is much less whether it's true or not.
Franken looks smarter and smarter by the day by refusing to resign. Bill Clinton too.
Nate Silver's site had a discussion about this but thinks that Democrats are hypocrites and that Gillibrand was smart to throw the Clintons under the bus even though her whole political career is built on the backs of the Clintons. I'm convinced that we will never properly address sexual harassment and assault because we cannot have a rational conversation about it. I've also noticed the BernieBros are now blaming Franken not resigning for why Jones will lose his Senate race. As long as this issue is merely used as a political football, and a clumsy one at that, this issue will never be solved.
Joseph,
To further add to your and my points, the next stage of this mania is predictable. All of the people, mostly women, who are reveling in some sort of reckoning against "toxic masculinity" are being played. Now that we've established we will accept and immediately react to anonymous claims based on an impossibly broad and vague standard like "inappropriate behavior" how long do you think it will be before that is turned against women in power? One second or two? Tick..tick... The bigger game is that they are forcing the #metoo movement to eat itself.
Btw, if any thinks Keith Olbermann didn't get a heads up and is leaving political talk because he needs a break or he was just talking about Matt Lauer or others, I have several bridges to sell you..
Jesus, the scorched earth campaign that has been carried out against Keillor.
Off the air, the old "best of" off the air too. The current show to be renamed. Stalin would be proud of how MPR has turned him into a non-person. How can all that happen so fast?
Selfishly, I guess this means that there will never be an archive of the Prairie Home Companion made available. Ooh well, then.
nemdam, I disagree with you about Bill Clinton. He should have resigned, because it would have left a stronger party with an incumbent President Gore heading into the 2000 election. I can't claim to have seen this at the time, but I saw it by 2002. A smart politician should have seen that by the mid-90s that the GOP had become the party of treason. Clinton should have acted against the "vast right wing conspiracy" that Hillary Clinton saw and named. To be clear, he should have given a reason along these lines, not because of the scandal -- they are different.
We've been a fake democracy since at least then.
ps Nate Silver and his site suck.
Why is it so hard to wait for evidence? I don't get the impulse to stampede to the gallows as soon as allegations are announced. We should never automatically assume they're not true, but should also never assume that they are. Why can't people see that? Have we lost all impulse control?
Here's Keillor's statement: http://www.garrisonkeillor.com/index.html
Anon:
Right on about how #MeToo will be used on women. Let's say Warren wins the Dem nomination (she won't but let's pretend). Some sleazy conservative men will make up stories saying she sexually harassed/inappropriately touched them. Hell, they might even get some women to say it to throw in a lesbian angle. The whole race will be about how she is an affirmative action hire (woman and Pocahontas) and gropes men. Her Wall Street record and progressive credentials will be exiled to the actual liberal media and play no factor in the race. Same thing if it's any other woman. It's like everyone has forgot the role of due process.
Tom:
If it's done under even the slightest whiff of scandal, there's no way a President resigning strengthens the party for the next election. It does the opposite as it is basically an admission that the current party cannot fulfill the role of President. Bill Clinton resigning would have been the wrong thing to do both morally and politically.
I have to disagree with you all. Lauer is a big deal. He, Charlie Rose, and Mark Halperin, unfortunately had the power to frame and poison the narrative against Hillary Clinton. They were instrumental in foisting the narrative of lies, emails, blah blah blah. Now it's revealed that the men who manhandled her reputation manhandled women. We get to see in real time the power of misogyny. I don't know any info about Keillor - MPR not forthcoming with details.
Joseph, in regards to Lauer...isn't it curious (or not) that these journos who have also gotten busted for sexual harrasment/abuse spent 2016 attacking Hillary? From Lauer to Thrush to Chariton to Halperin to the head editor of TNR...
I think you're generally right--but. I've heard from friends in broadcasting for years that Keillor is a dick. So today's new was no surprise....
I stopped reading Keillor when he joined the heavenly chorus singing the praises of Obama in 2006.
peg
"“I put my hand on a woman’s bare back,” he told the Star Tribune by e-mail minutes after MPR’s statement. “I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.”
The 75-year-old humorist who helped build MPR into a dynasty seemed more resigned and defensive than apologetic.
“It’s astonishing that 50 years of hard work can be trashed in a morning by an accusation,” he said in a Facebook post Wednesday evening. “I always believed in hard work and now it feels sort of meaningless. Only a friend can hurt you this badly. I think I have to leave the country in order to walk around in public and not feel accusing glances.”"
http://www.startribune.com/garrison-keillor-reportedly-fired-for-improper-behavior/460802703/#1
nemdam, you could be right. But we're talking about Bill Clinton, enormously popular, even during and after the impeachment. Gore made a real mistake in not getting Bill to campaign for him. That decision was the sign of weakness originating in scandal.
I had thought that they'd go after Obama with a bunch of false smears back in 2008. But the world is different now. I share your concern.
Anon 8:41
I've heard reliably that Keillor is a true oddball. Obsessive, anxious, awkward, minimally relational.
Now all of that could make him sound like a dick, a big guy pacing around a small studio chain smoking could be off-putting, but would not be the same as groper or abuser.
"In his e-mail to the Star Tribune, he said “anyone who ever was around my show can tell you that I was the least physically affectionate person in the building. Actors hug, musicians hug, people were embracing every Saturday night left and right, and I stood off in the corner like a stone statue. If I had a dollar for every woman who asked to take a selfie with me and who slipped an arm around me and let it drift down below the belt line, I’d have at least a hundred dollars. So this is poetic irony of a high order.”"
Post a Comment