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The Jian Ghomeshi 'scandal'.

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    Yeah. Fuck him. Seriously. The whole tone is of a guy who just doesn’t quite get it.

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      Anne Thériault: What Women Want From Jian Ghomeshi

      When the Jian Ghomeshi story first broke back in 2014, I knew with unwavering certainty exactly how the story would play out.

      “Just wait,” I would tell friends. “He’ll disappear for a few years, and then he’ll come back with some kind of mea culpa story, and everyone will praise him for being so humble and honest and brave. He’ll do some kind of apology press tour, and then it’ll just be business as usual, as if nothing ever happened.”

      I’m not a particularly gifted psychic, I’ve just seen this redemption arc before and I know that it’s always the same: a man is accused of abuse, he expresses some kind of remorse, and after a little while everyone seems to forget about it. If it comes up at all, it will be regarded in the same way as a mildly off-colour joke—offensive, but only if you’re the type who gets offended by things. It’s complicated, people will say. Or: We’ve all done things we regret. But what they will especially say is: He apologized, what else do you want from him?

      What else indeed?

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        I think I’ve read 8 or 10 responses to the column already, and the condemnation is scathing and universal. As it should be.

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          Looks like the decision to run the Ghomeshi piece, but probably more the horrific interview with Slate, has cost Ian Buruma his job as editor of the NYRB. Good to see that they wanted to take some swift action.

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            Holy crap. Talk about....talk about...what...the toxicity of publishing certain writers....or editorial independence in the MeToo era? Honestly, I don't know what to think. I mean, it was clear that he was drowning fast in that Slate interview, but this seems...I dunno. I think Buruma has some pretty sad ideas about women that came to the surface in light of this, so maybe it's for the best.

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              Yeah. Do we want a culture where publishing unpopular opinions by total assholes is a reason to lose your job? I sure don't.

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                The interview made manifest that he didn’t have the vaguest idea of the most fundamental aspects of the job.

                Good riddance.

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                  Still don't like it. It just adds to the pervasive miasma of fear hanging over everything these days.

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                    If you're going to publish an issue called The Downfall of Men, you were certainly going to be publishing some of those men. And who knows what they'd write? Ghomeshi is exhibiting a Trump-like ability to take others down with him.

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                      Did you hear Anna-Maria Tremonti's interview with the (male) publisher of Harpers on John Hockenberry's article yesterday? It was exceptionally spiky. It left me feeling that, soon, intelligent men and women won't be able to talk to each other anymore

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                        Nah, I'll have to catch the re-airing tonight.

                        But yes, I agree. The discussion of 'ideas' is now utterly fraught with peril. It feels like it's just best to keep your own counsel.

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                          Here's the link. Not sure if it works outside Canada

                          https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/the-...isode/15599990

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                            Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
                            Looks like the decision to run the Ghomeshi piece, but probably more the horrific interview with Slate, has cost Ian Buruma his job as editor of the NYRB. Good to see that they wanted to take some swift action.
                            Excellent.

                            I'm kind of shocked at the description of him as "publishing unpopular opinions". That seems...well, I'm not sure I have the words. Wrong. Weak. completely missing the point. Understated by some extraordinary amount. I dunno.
                            Last edited by DCI Harry Batt; 19-09-2018, 19:44.

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                              The stink of smug Classical Liberal from Buruma’s essays makes me glad he’s gone, notwithstanding this shit mess of his own making. Would have made the NYRB all Both Sides Liberal, doubtless Lobster Boy would have been commissioned next.

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                                This essay in Slate is pretty good.

                                https://slate.com/human-interest/201...nal-essay.html


                                That interview with Buruma is remarkable. He seems to be trying to say that they published Ghomeshi’s piece because what Ghomeshi did just wasn’t really all that bad.

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                                  A lot of the 'local' editorializing has been around whether Ghomeshi - or anyone really - deserves a 'second chance'. My gut reaction has been a) second chance...what the fuck are you...five years old? This isn't about being trusted with the family car and coming home late. And b) that article was his second chance. He blew it, too.

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                                    The minimum requirement to earn a second chance is evidence that one understands what they did, why it’s so bad, and how to avoid doing it again.

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                                      That people deserve a "second chance" is not unreasonable once they've served out a punishment. Whether they deserve a second chance in a hugely high profile public facing role which comes with inherent power after they've been shown to have abused that power is, I think, a different question. Ghomeshi perhaps deserves a second chance that starts as a night-shift manager at a Home Depot, and if after a few years he can be shown to have not abused that power and to have not been a complete arse, then maybe he could be rehabilitated further. But nothing says his second chance has to be in a high profile media gig.

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                                        Yeah. The cries about no one receiving a second chance and being punished by the public are all from the assumption that once you get some bad publicity, you should go back to your prior standing in the culture and enjoy all of the privileges and status that you had before. No one is stopping anyone from moving down the career ladder or trying to find something else to do. These are things that regular schmucks have to do all the time, even without accusations of sexual assault or harassment. Somehow this is seen as something akin to The Crucible, though.

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                                          I agree with all 3 of those posts. Mainly that, yeah, of course he deserves a chance to earn a living and 'put food on the table', etc. Go get your air-brake license and drive a long haul rig for the next twenty years. Take some time for quiet contemplation. Listen to some radio. Dig a ditch or two. But stay the fuck out of people's faces and ears.

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                                            Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                            This essay in Slate is pretty good.

                                            https://slate.com/human-interest/201...nal-essay.html


                                            That interview with Buruma is remarkable. He seems to be trying to say that they published Ghomeshi’s piece because what Ghomeshi did just wasn’t really all that bad.
                                            Yeah, that isn't so much a #metoo issue, and more a realization that the editor is a dangerous idiot, and if he's prepared to say this sort of thing now, then christ knows what dark alleys he's going to lead the magazine down in future. He really doesn't handle it well when the interviewer points out how much they allowed Ghomeshi gloss over, and that OJ Simpson answer is a bad answer to an obvious question.

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                                              Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
                                              Yeah, that isn't so much a #metoo issue, and more a realization that the editor is a dangerous idiot, and if he's prepared to say this sort of thing now, then christ knows what dark alleys he's going to lead the magazine down in future. He really doesn't handle it well when the interviewer points out how much they allowed Ghomeshi gloss over, and that OJ Simpson answer is a bad answer to an obvious question.
                                              The interview isn’t too bad right up until that “but....” part. Then it escalated quickly.

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                                                NYRB has updated the editorial preface to JG's piece to clarify that 'several women' was actually 20+, highly documented by The Toronto Star and went much deeper than him being a 'bad date' or emotionally unavailable.

                                                So, I mean, good on them for that, at least. A better man than me could go line by line throughout the entire piece and add much clarity.

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                                                  Jesse Brown did that already.

                                                  Jian Ghomeshi’s essay in The New York Review of Books, titled “Reflection from a Hashtag,” chiefly concerns his suffering, how his friends betrayed him, and how he was wronged by an ex-girlfriend, “certain reporters,” and even his own crisis PR team. It also informs readers that he still has female friends and opportunities to have sex. It does not deal in much detail with the facts surrounding his disgrace or with the substance of the many allegations against him. Nevertheless, the scant details he does provide are largely wrong. The piece is filled with inaccuracies, omissions, evasions, and mischaracterizations about what he did, what he is alleged to have done, and what happened to him as a result — much of which are matters of public record.

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                                                    Ah, good man Jesse. Excellent piece. I totally forgot he was early-days on the Ghomeshi file.

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