A4 • Friday, December 20, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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Why do harassment cases
take so long to come to light?
ment complaints, reached out to former
employees, and knocked on doors of
reluctant witnesses.
Their reporting turned up a lengthy
record of predatory behavior.
As evidence mounted, so did the
pressure to drop the story. Weinstein’s
legal team — among the brightest and
most prestigious in America’s legal pan-
oply — did what they could to stifle the
allegations.
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
O
ne of the most vexing things
about the Harvey Wein-
stein case — and many of the
“#MeToo” movement cases, against
Bill Cosby, CBS exec Les Moonves,
Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and others —
is why did they take so long to come to
light?
Was it really just a cultural norm for
men in power to routinely bully, harass
and sexually intimidate women? If so
many people were affected, and so
many women victimized for so long,
how did it all become just a matter of
“business as usual” for decades?
In “She Said: Breaking the Sexual
Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a
Movement,” New York Times journal-
ists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey fol-
low the history of sex charges and sub-
sequent arrest of Miramax founder and
film producer Harvey Weinstein, who
was charged in May 2018 with rape, sex
abuse and sexual misconduct.
Weinstein, who is out on bail, awaits
trial. If convicted, he could go to jail for
life.
“She Said” is based on three years of
reporting, from early 2016 through the
spring of this year.
“Dozens of Mr. Weinstein’s for-
mer and current employees, from assis-
tants to top executives, said they knew
of inappropriate conduct while they
worked for him,” Kantor and Twohey
write.
“She Said” not only illuminates
the particular misdeeds of Weinstein,
co-founder of the film company Mira-
max with his brother, Bob, offers a case
study in the journalistic steps necessary
to follow the lead of a story from its first
inklings to its publication in print, and
the many steps — and powerful will —
necessary to bring it to light.
For journalists, along with dogged
determination comes an imperative to
be willing to stand up to intimidation,
while being sensitive enough to tell a
victim’s personal story.
Kantor and Twohey do just that.
But without the backing and support
of a powerful and deep-pocketed news
entity, The New York Times, this story
may have never been told — NBC
decided not to tell the story and The
Code of silence
New York Times
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, authors of “She Said.”
New Yorker held back. The Times
itself faced pushback and legal threats
that could have cost the newspaper
millions.
A three-decade pattern
In their preface, the authors share
the origins of their story in 2017, a
time of unprecedented opportunity
for women, but also a time when “all
too often women were harassed with
impunity.”
When cases rose to the next level,
as at Fox News, where a system of
harassment thrived under news man-
ager Roger Ailes, “women who
spoke up were frequently dismissed
or denigrated.”
Victims were isolated, pressured
or fired. Their best option was to
trade money for silence, carved out
in lawyers’ offices in the form of
binding nondisclosure agreements.
In contrast, perpetrators often “sailed
to ever-higher levels of success and
praise. ... Serious consequences were
rare.”
Harvey Weinstein’s alleged miscon-
duct spanned decades — actress Anna-
bella Sciorra said Weinstein raped her in
1993 or 1994.
In 2017, actress Rose McGowan
alleged an unnamed producer had raped
her at the Sundance Film Festival in
1997. She was planning a memoir —
released in 2018 under the title “Brave”
to expose the industry’s treatment of
women.
The point of the Times investigation
was to “dig for what had never been
reported, bringing to account people
and institutions whose transgressions
had been deliberately concealed.”
A code of silence hung over many
past and current Weinstein employ-
ees. Victims felt reluctant to dredge up
the past, or afraid of the consequences
if they did. Victims feared breaking
settlements.
As Kantor and Twohey pursued
their story, the big guns came out:
attorneys threatened, cajoled, negoti-
ated, and sought to squelch the story by
approaching higher-ups at The Times.
Weinstein’s team came up with a
six-point plan for “positive reputa-
tion management,” including a Wein-
stein Foundation to develop and pro-
mote films directed and produced by
women.
The producer hired private detec-
tives to protect his reputation, and an
internet firm to “scrub” negative search
results that might come up — paying
$100,000 a month to shield his behav-
ior from scrutiny.
“Weinstein was going to fight,”
Kantor and Twohey write.
He painted his accusers as mentally
unstable. He tried to pre-empt the story
with a puff piece in the industry paper,
The Hollywood Reporter.
#MeToo
McGowan’s allegations spurred the
reporters to go to editor Dean Baquet to
find out if McGowan’s story could with-
stand editorial scrutiny.
Going public
Winning confidence in their sources
was a major victory for the reporters.
“She Said” chronicles the slow and
painstaking efforts of following the
many women who had similar inter-
actions or stories to tell — and getting
them to tell their stories publicly.
They included stars like Ashley Judd,
Rosanna Arquette and Gwyneth Pal-
trow, and a litany of assistants, company
staffers and employees — a list that was
to exceed 80 women.
The reporters tracked down Cal-
ifornia Department of Fair Employ-
By 2017, the climate had changed. It
was the year of #MeToo.
Harvey Weinstein’s brother Bob
Weinstein voiced his concerns. A com-
pany accountant became alarmed about
the number and magnitude of the years
of settlement agreements. A board mem-
ber feared future corporate liabilities.
The inevitable day of publication came
— and even with lawyers, editors and
witnesses, the story came with the threat
of a $100 million Weinstein lawsuit.
The ensuing 3,300-word article
caused a crisis for the Weinstein Com-
pany. The story documented episodes
of harassment from 1990 until 2015. It
landed Weinstein in jail with $1 million
bail.
“You are finished, Harvey,” his
brother Bob said.
Who doesn’t love a Santa dog?
VIEW FROM
THE PORCH
EVE MARX
L
ast Saturday I urged Mr. Sax
to accompany me to the Lovell
Tasting Room at Fort George in
Astoria for the annual December hol-
iday party and fundraiser for Clatsop
Animal Assistance.
There are loads of parties and fund-
raisers to go to this time of year, all
of them worthy, but I have a soft spot
for shelter animals having rescued or
adopted many. It is also my custom
this time of year to spread my donation
dollars, few as they may be, to animal
charities.
When we arrived on the early side,
the tasting room was already packed
with folks with and without their pets
perusing the large array of silent auc-
tion tables, purchasing raffle tickets,
and buying scrumptious baked goods.
Mr. Sax, who can’t resist a terrific loaf
of bread, purchased a huge and beau-
tiful round loaf as well as a couple of
chocolate brownies that were super
moist and delicious. Among the local
businesses who donated auction items,
baked goods, services, and in-kind
donations were Josephsen’s Smoke-
house; Karalee’s Sweet Treats, Mag-
gie’s on the Prom, Vintage Viaje, West
of the Moon, Buddha Kat Winery, the
Astoria Coffee House and Bistro, Ecola
Seafoods, Finn Ware, the Pig ‘N Pan-
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
Eve Marx
She’s not an easy model, but Santa and Lucy bond at Fort George.
cake, Sesame + Lilies, Mo’s, Safe Har-
bor Animal Hospital, Curly Tail Pet
Massage and about 60 others.
Although advised by a friend with a
sweet tooth that the baked goods alone
were a tremendous draw, I was deter-
mined to have our min-pin, Lucy, get
her picture taken with Santa Claus. The
last time I had anyone’s picture taken
with Santa, it was our son, and he was
four years old. Our son is 32 now, but
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
ADVERTISING SALES
MANAGER
Sarah Silver-Tecza
MULTIMEDIA
ADVERTISING
REPRESENTATIVE
Kim McCaw
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
John D. Bruijn
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Skyler Archibald
Darren Gooch
Joshua Heineman
Rain Jordan
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Cara Mico
Esther Moberg
Lucy just turned four. Like all min-pins,
she is a bit standoffish and skittish, so I
wasn’t sure how it would go.
Santa was taking a brief break from
his photographic duties outside the Lovell
Tasting Room when we arrived. He put
out a gloved hand to greet Lucy but she
was upset by his costume. She started
barking, which was a tad embarrassing.
To the best of my knowledge, this was her
first experience meeting Santa.
A nice lady helped us figure out
what we had to do to get our Santa pic-
ture. You got a ticket and a number and
you paid up front in cash. Then you got
in line to have the picture taken. There
were a few dogs already in line includ-
ing a pair of adorable Labradors, one
light brown, one black, and they were
experts at standing quietly by San-
ta’s knee and posing. Lucy, by con-
trast, wasn’t sure what to do. I picked
her up and plunked her on Santa’s knee.
I was a little worried she might growl
or worse. She is a miniature pinscher
after all.
Santa offered her a bit of biscuit,
which she immediately snatched from
his fingertips.
I let out a sigh of relief.
Now they were friends.
It was all over a moment later when
the photographer got the snap. She took
a few images, but I imagine Lucy was
squirming or not looking at the camera
in most of them.
Luckily there was one perfect picture
and it is a doozy.
A keepsake to remember forever in
an attractive, old school black and sil-
ver cardboard picture frame.
Great job, Clatsop Animal
Assistance.
As always, you’re amazing.
It’s not too late to make a charita-
ble donation to the shelter. They’ve
got mouths to feed and cats and dogs
to re-home and vet bills to pay. For
more information, contact them at 503-
861-0737 or visit at 1315 SE 19th St.,
Warrenton.
Seaside Signal
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