A Jury of His Peers

#MeToo has hit critical mass.

As if there weren't enough questions about Brett Kavanaugh's character, it is very likely that he is also a rapist. The Supreme Court nominee's path to confirmation has become the Clarence Thomas hearings on steroids. In a more socially conscious era in regard to sexual misconduct, Kavanaugh has become the face of the flawed "boys will be boys" mindset.

The worst part is, the GOP bigwigs were reluctant to hear Ford out. Some outright refused. Kavanaugh has become less of a jewel in Trump's crown as he has become both a partisan football and a measuring stick for what is morally just in 2018. You can gripe about the timing all you want, but that aspect is irrelevant. Regardless of whether Dr. Ford said something in 2012 or last week, the accusation is still legitimate. Her testimony on Thursday was both brave and authentic, in contrast to Kavanaugh's barely contained fury. The committee's own reluctance to ask direct questions was a bad look, to say the least. In turn, the Democrats' presentation was an awkward data dump.

Now the vote rests in the hands of the U.S. Senate. One hopes that enough members of the GOP will vote with their conscience.

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It's Over

It's over.

I wondered if sharing this Roy Orbison song was too on the nose, but it ran through my head as I forced myself to watch these last two weeks of election coverage. The temptation was too much.
As a presidential candidate, and the likely instigator of what must be the ugliest election I've ever seen, Donald Trump has been able to persist through one perceived miscue and campaign faux pas after another. Now it appears that the meltdown is all but complete. Leaked video footage of Trump making lewd and beyond appalling remarks in a 2005 "Access Hollywood" appearance cemented the floating perception that he was a hopeless misogynist. After a succinct apology in the second presidential debate, at least a half-dozen women have stepped forward to accuse Trump of lewd behavior. His foothold with woman voters, shaky as it already was, has collapsed. Just about every demographic except white males have abandoned Trump as this point, if they were ever on board to begin with. Worse yet, it reinvigorated the national discussion on sexual assault that hurt the Republican Party as a whole in the 2012 election.

One might wonder why these women haven't stepped forward until now. I suppose my response to that is why does timing matter? The women that have accused Trump of sexual harassment have their entire livelihoods at stake; the man being accused could let these accusations bounce off like Teflon. The man is a multi-millionaire and a presidential candidate, after all. There are parallels here to the downfall of comedian Bill Cosby; where the sitcom star was a serial date-rapist, Trump has a history of inappropriately touching fully conscious women. There are vast differences, overly simplified in some people's eyes, but both are appalling and reprehensible behaviors regardless.

Regardless of your opinion of Sec. Hillary Clinton --and yes, she has plenty of detractors-- we have to accept that she will be the next President of the United States. Her campaign has been at times uninspiring and perhaps even clumsy, but it never sank to the incompetence, bloviating, and pandering of the Trump campaign. (I will spare you the "Pretty Woman" reference.) It will not be a canonization or a coronation, but a reminder that most of the time, the bad guy loses.

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Don't Say a Word

In the end, it was a big journalistic train wreck. Earlier this month, the Columbia Journalism Review determined that a 2014 article in Rolling Stone magazine about sexual assault was likely totally fabricated. The article, written by Sabrina Erdely, focused on a University of Virginia undergrad who was gang-raped by her peers. Erdely, who has been criticized for fabricating details in the past, apparently ignored every journalistic commandment in the book: elevating fact-gathering over moral narratives; hunting down info; asking pointed questions. She made Rolling Stone hopelessly foolish, and a writing career that was already on the rocks is likely sinking into the abyss. Erdely's piece wasn't so much literary non-fiction as it was agenda-driven mythmaking. The story behind the story has become more interesting than the original article itself.

Part of the public outrage behind this scandal is fueled by the "rape culture" discussion that has hit fever pitch in recent years. Feminists have argued that rape is pervasive and has been normalized in the broader culture as a result of generations of traditional gender roles, and such instances are quickly and wrongfully dismissed. Erdely assumed that by interviewing the victim only and glossing over the frat brothers that she demonized, it would both sustain the brutal perspective she desired as well as cater to the audience she was preaching to. The editors of Rolling Stone, famed equally for somewhat archaic music journalism and left-leaning muckraking, thought this was the eye-opening scare story that this burgeoning controversy needed to start a broader discussion. Instead, it created a whole different scandal.

Just because one woman exaggerated allegations of sexual assault --or a second woman made up details about the first woman's encounter-- does not downplay the fact that rape is a serious issue, especially on college campuses. It happens on campuses across the country almost on a daily basis, yet most cases of rape are never reported or swept under the rug. This is a major issue that has been pandemic for several years (if not decades), but there is hardly anything to indicate that the collegiate rape crisis is under control, if not going away. Instead, Erdely and her lack of ethics has nearly trivialized a crisis without solution or resolve.

Next Week: my latest "Seasons of Love" TV essay.

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Kobe Beef

This week, ESPN magazine published "The Conspiracy Issue," the latest themed issue they've rolled out since the cable network's publishing branch overhauled their format three years ago. It's one of my favorite magazines to read --I hardly bother with Sports Illustrated anymore-- and the theme issues can be quite fascinating. I read ESPN mag cover to cover, and while I was mostly enlightened by stories about frozen envelopes and point shaving I felt that the editors made one glaring omission.

I am absolutely, positively convinced that Kobe Bryant is a rapist. Everything about the case reeks of conspiracy; there was plenty of evidence to convict the NBA star, then the alleged assault victim changed her tune. With respect to the accuser, we still don't know the identity of Bryant's victim. Unlike Samantha Gailey, the 8th grader whose rape forced movie director Roman Polanski to flee the US, there was never a big reveal or a follow-up by the media. Just a counter-accusation of schizophrenia, than she disappeared into the ether. It's one thing to acknowledge and respect the privacy of a woman who was sexually assaulted, but another if this young woman lied. Regardless of age, that would be perjury.

It was almost as if the NBA wanted to silence her. Keep in mind where David Stern's league was in 2003: attendance was down, major market teams in Chicago and New York were also-rans, Michael Jordan had finally retired for good, "next" players like Vince Carter and Allen Iverson were already starting to fade, Lebron James and Dwayne Wade hasn't played a minute of pro ball yet.  Kobe was the best thing happening in the NBA at the time, and to see Stern's meal ticket go to prison for 8 to 10 years would have devastated the league. Somehow, Stern got his way.

Basketball has always been my #4 sport; I follow baseball, football, and hockey with a tad more ardor. The Kobe Bryant rape case essentially bound the NBA to fourth on my mental priority list. People can hate on Lebron or Derrick Rose all they want, but I can't bring myself to ever support or root for Kobe. Let the NBA and the mainstream media sweep it all under the rug, but nearly 11 years later the stench of conspiracy still lingers.

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