The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Jeff Wrangler:
Anybody else hear that Ryan Lizza got fired?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-new-yorker-severs-ties-with-star-reporter-ryan-lizza
Front-Ranger:
Wow, those must be serious accusations. ???
I read the story "Cat Person" mainly because it was short. It was a fairly good story but not a "Brokeback Mountain" by any means. For writing about the sorry state of straight dating today, I prefer "Modern Romance" by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OZ0TMYG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on December 12, 2017, 11:03:08 am ---Apparently there's a short story in a recent New Yorker called 'Cat Person.' I rarely read the NYer's fiction these days, but I might try to find this one; it sounds interesting. What caught my eye was this piece about it:
--- End quote ---
I'm unusually far behind in my mags, even for me. Either I didn't read this story, since I rarely read the short fiction, or I haven't gotten to it yet. I'm only now zeroing in on finishing the Nov. 27 issue. I'm finishing the article on the Mexican woman and the People's Police. That sounds very much like a neighbor town watch I participated in back in the first half of the Nineties, except we didn't have vehicles. Or guns.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 12, 2017, 12:12:58 pm ---Wow, those must be serious accusations. ???
--- End quote ---
With each new one of these episodes, I get increasingly worried that at some point the fairness pendulum will swing the other way.
I mean, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Roy Moore ... no question about any of them and they got what they deserve (except possibly Roy Moore -- today's the election!). Charlie Rose's and Matt Lauer's misdeeds seem well documented, Al Franken's milder misbehavior alas, seems fairly indisputable at this point. And I suspect there's more to Garrison Keillor's story than we've heard, just based on the fact that Minnesota Public Radio didn't just fire Keillor -- it blew up its own most famous brand and shows as well. I suspect they would not have brought upon their own loss on the basis of an accidental back touch. As for Trump, well, he bragged about his own assaults, then shrugged them off as "locker room talk," then denied having said them even though according to Billy Bush there were eight witnesses on the bus. Pretty cut and dried.
But ones like this, where it's one anonymous person saying undisclosed things about a man who says they dated, and he loses multiple opportunities as a result ... At this point, we seem urged to always believe the accuser and I'm less and less able to be rock-solid sure. I mean, I'm not questioning or doubting Lizza's case specifically. But it seems like a potentially harmful setup -- losing a career, perhaps permanently, isn't quite like going to prison but it's a pretty severe punishment. As a society we demand more proof and due process for imprisoning people (and even then, we make mistakes all the time!).
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on December 12, 2017, 04:36:57 pm ---With each new one of these episodes, I get increasingly worried that at some point the fairness pendulum will swing the other way.
--- End quote ---
I'm not sure I understand what you mean here. Do you mean like the bad old days when a rape victim was practically put on trial instead of her rapist?
--- Quote ---But ones like this, where it's one anonymous person saying undisclosed things about a man who says they dated, and he loses multiple opportunities as a result ... At this point, we seem urged to always believe the accuser and I'm less and less able to be rock-solid sure. I mean, I'm not questioning or doubting Lizza's case specifically. But it seems like a potentially harmful setup -- losing a career, perhaps permanently, isn't quite like going to prison but it's a pretty severe punishment. As a society we demand more proof and due process for imprisoning people (and even then, we make mistakes all the time!).
--- End quote ---
I won't highlight or quote, but I agree that this situation is cause for concern. I wonder if Lizza has had or will have an opportunity to confront his accuser?
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