The 'me too' movement

[K]

[Previously,
http://magpies.net/nick/bb/viewtopic.php?p=1890118#1890118 ]


Emma Husar settles BuzzFeed defamation case

https://www.theage.com.au/national/emma-husar-settles-buzzfeed-defamation-case-20190729-p52bnu.html

"The defamation battle between former federal Labor MP Emma Husar and online publisher BuzzFeed will not proceed to a trial after the parties reached an out-of-court settlement.

The dispute was among the most bitterly-fought defamation battles ever to be heard in the Federal Court, which is emerging as the forum of choice for high-profile plaintiffs including MPs and celebrities.
...

At a preliminary hearing in February, presiding judge Steven Rares urged the parties to consider mediation, saying if the "complicated" and "expensive" case went to trial, "a lot of collateral damage might be done to a whole lot of people".

The parties in the defamation case had been engaged in settlement discussions since they attended a court-ordered mediation session last month."

[K]

Emma Husar's career is dead - it's right to hold an inquest

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/emma-husar-s-career-is-dead-it-s-right-to-hold-an-inquest-20190729-p52buq.html

[K]

John Jarratt abandons defamation case against The Daily Telegraph

https://www.smh.com.au/national/john-jarratt-abandons-defamation-case-against-the-daily-telegraph-20190816-p52hqw.html

"His defamation action against the newspaper and reporter Jonathon Moran was launched in the NSW Supreme Court in November 2018.

Days after the verdict, Jarratt's lawyer, Chris Murphy, said on Twitter the statement of claim was filed at that time pending resolution of the police charge.

Documents were then to be served on the defendants, and the matter was due to be mentioned in the Supreme Court on Friday.

But a court media spokesperson said the actor filed a notice of discontinuance on August 9."

[K]

He's written a book.

'I’m angry': John Jarratt presents his side of rape case in new book

https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/i-m-angry-john-jarratt-presents-his-side-of-rape-case-in-new-book-20190902-p52n6g.html

'His book is, as you might expect, entirely one-sided. He refers to his accuser – whose name remains suppressed by the courts –as The Female. He calls her charges fabrications and lies. He wants changes to the legal system, and says he’s going to take his case all the way to Canberra if need be.

“They can fix this,” he tells me. “In a he said/she said case where there’s very little evidence both parties are assumed innocent by law. So I should have had a suppression ruling, and she should as well, right up until the hearing. If I’m found guilty, the suppression order is immediately lifted and then the press can go nuts. That’s all that needs to happen.” '

[David]

It’s interesting. On one level, you can just about auto-generate the feminist op-ed response to this: here’s another angry man accused of sexual assault lashing out at the complainant and painting himself as the victim, cue obligatory references to Brett Kavanaugh, defamation actions, etc. On the other, we must, if we have a shred of fair-mindedness, countenance the possibility that he has been falsely accused. If that is the case – and the not-guilty verdict doesn’t conclusively prove it – then such fury is, one would think, entirely warranted. Imagine having your life, career and reputation derailed in the way described in the article over a malicious or mistaken claim of this nature. And before anyone quotes the statistics of false accusations (2–10%, from memory), remember that that means that a non-negligible minority of men are falsely accused at any given point in time, and unless you were there or have access to the evidence, you’ll never know which cases fall into that category.

I think if ever there was evidence that the current societal approach to sexual assault claims is deeply wrong, it’s this. Jarratt shouldn’t have lost work over an unproven allegation, and neither should he be writing this apparently vitriolic book attacking a woman who may be a rape victim, or might have had a different experience of the incident to him, and so on. What all this external noise of companies, sponsors and institutions blacklisting individuals does is to raise the stakes and interfere with the justice system, which should be as clean a process as possible. This is where, despite my usual preference for transparency, I tend toward supporting Jarratt’s argument about suppression orders: whatever the principles involved, it’s clear that our media and commercial sector can no longer be trusted to respond to these cases fairly or in a way that serves justice well.

What I – and, I presume, most people here – want is for more legitimate sexual assault cases to be successfully prosecuted. I also want unaccountable extrajudicial punishments to be reined in, both to preserve the integrity of the justice system and to prevent innocents from having their lives ruined. Both of those things require a strong legal process that isn’t interfered in by public-image-obsessed companies. That won’t happen organically, so I think some legislation in this area prohibiting discrimination against criminal defendants is urgent, perhaps along with the suppression orders Jarratt is calling for.

[Skids]

This is just getting even more ridiculous....

'Ring girls' are out of Battle of Bendigo bout

The use of 'ring girls' to signal the start of a new round in a boxing match has been knocked for six at the 'Battle of Bendigo' on Saturday night.

Promoters of the fight between Jeff Horn and Michael Zerafa have sacked three women who were going to carry the traditional ring cards after protests from women's groups and local councillors.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/boxing/ring-girls-are-out-of-battle-of-bendigo-bout-20190831-p52mpl.html

Perth vegan takes neighbours to court over barbecue smell
A Perth vegan has taken her neighbours all the way to the Supreme Court, demanding they stop smoking, bouncing balls and even cooking barbecues in their backyard.

Cilla Carden from Girrawheen, in Perth’s northern suburbs, said she is fed up with the smell of meat cooking on the barbecue next door. Ms Carden, a massage therapist, is also furious at cigarette smoke wafting into her yard and the sound of children playing with basketballs next door.



“It’s been devastating, it’s been turmoil, it’s been unrest, I haven't been able to sleep," she said.


https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-vegan-takes-neighbours-to-court-over-barbecue-smell-20190903-p52nc4.html


There's also some lunatic vegan trying to sue her neighbours for having BBQ's as she doesn't like the smell.

Years ago, these crackpots were either, ignored, or put into a padded cell where they belong.

[David]

There have always been wowsers of some variety or other. Nothing new there.

[think positive]

Gees I hate 2nd hand smoke but that is just plain ridiculous!
You can do what you want in your own back yard, at least until whatever time the noise curfew is!

Though I can see my nutty new neighbor coming up with done bullshit, she has before we even move in!

Some people have too much time on their hands

[stui magpie]

I read about the Perth Vegan today and just laughed. Doesn't want the neighbors to BBQ, smoke or let their kids play outside as it affects her enjoyment of her back yard. Self centred imbecile.

On the Jarrett case, thats just the power of social media, I'm not sure what can be done about it.

I absolutely agree it's not right that someone should have their career impacted by accusations, particularly when they aren't even taken to court in some cases, but as soon as an allegation is announced, the social media pile on puts the ones who pay the bills under pressure, and they or advertisers blink.

A 24/7 news cycle that is desperate for content and resorts to referencing Social Media is also part of the problem.

[K]

Why it took me more than 20 years to tell my #MeToo story

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/05/opinion/sunday/harvey-weinstein-rowena-chiu.html

"A senior colleague advised us to hire lawyers, but we had no experience in how to do that, nor did we have Harvey’s deep pockets. We eventually found a small firm that agreed to represent us, but the imbalance of power between our lawyers and his lawyers led to us accepting an outcome we had not sought. We had wanted to report Harvey to his superiors; instead, we were pressured into signing a nondisclosure agreement that prevented us from speaking to family and friends, and made it extremely difficult to work with a therapist or a lawyer, or to aid a criminal investigation. Chillingly, it also required us to identify anyone we had already spoken to.

The negotiations were conducted under conditions of extreme duress: We were once kept at the office overnight, from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., escorted to the bathroom, provided with the barest minimum of food and drink and not permitted pen and paper to keep notes. We were not even allowed to keep a copy of this most egregious of agreements: We had signed our lives away in a complex 30-page document that we could not refer to.
...

Last month, 21 years after Harvey attempted to rape me, I finally stepped out of the shadows to allow the public to know my name. The day after I was interviewed on the “Today” show, Harvey denied my account and threatened to sue me, claiming we had a consensual “six-month physical relationship.” It isn’t true. But muddying the waters is a common tactic of abusers."

[think positive]

Way to much noise with this guy, you’d think there has to be some truth here

[K]

Ronan Farrow overcame spies and intimidation to break some of the biggest stories of the #MeToo era

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ronan-farrow-overcame-spies-and-intimidation-to-break-some-of-the-biggest-stories-of-the-me-too-era/2019/10/10/9cc46c9a-eac1-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html

"Unlike most journalists — most human beings — Ronan Farrow can tell you what it’s like to be tailed, surveilled and tracked by people with possibly sinister motives. It is, he attests, kind of stressful.

“I don’t want this to sound like woe is me, but I’ll be honest,” Farrow says. “It’s really hard when you’re in those moments . . . when you wonder if you’re being followed, and it turns out you are, it’s frightening.”

For a few months in 2017, he nervously eyed suspicious-looking vehicles, spent nights in friends’ apartments and took evasive maneuvers, such as walking against traffic to foil anyone following him in a car.

A friend advised him: Get a gun.

There are a number of these moments threaded through “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators,” Farrow’s chronicle/memoir of his pursuit of allegations of sexual predation against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. As Farrow recounts, Weinstein arrayed not just some big legal guns to thwart him and other reporters, but a host of black-ops characters: former Mossad agents, Ukrainian surveillance pros, European undercover operatives. Their mission was to monitor Farrow and other journalists who were closing in on Weinstein. One of Weinstein’s sub rosa retainers was an Israeli intelligence company called — no joke, Mr. Bond — Black Cube.
...

In the days leading up to the book’s publication next Tuesday, the network has launched a furious public relations counterattack against Farrow. NBC News President Noah Oppenheim has visited seven news organizations, including The Post, to present an elaborate rebuttal, complete with binders containing timelines, interview transcripts, expense logs and contemporaneous text messages and emails to and from Farrow and his editors documenting his progress on the Weinstein story."

[David]

Interesting:

https://www.mediamatters.org/sexual-harassment-sexual-assault/forty-three-new-women-came-forward-describe-assault-and-harassment

The first thought as to why major newspapers have neglected to cover these stories is that they couldn't independently verify them, or else doubted their credibility. And that would be fair enough if so – if anyone's going to attract false sexual assault allegations, you'd have to think it'd be the most powerful, most famous and most loathed man in the world. But the story in the link, at least, seems as credible as any other allegations that were raised over the course of the campaign, and it seems strange to me that it wouldn't have been considered newsworthy.

[Wokko]

The left in the USA has shown a penchant for big, flashy, fake sexual assault claims to discredit and attack figures on the right (Kavanaugh, Trump). It's the boy who cried wolf, the media who are firmly Democrat (except Fox who are establishment Republican) have been made to look like fools by parades of fake and fraudulent claims.

[David]

^ Is there any evidence that the Kavanaugh allegations were fake? Whether they should have been weaponised as a way to discredit his appointment is a fair question, but I've never seen any reason to think that Ford's allegation, at least, was actually spurious.

The same goes for many of the claims about Trump; accusations of political bias can only go so far, and, after all, we have him on tape more or less bragging about doing stuff like this (among other things). I think it's objectively likely, on the balance of evidence, that he was a serial sexual offender. So while the media should obviously exercise caution and not uncritically broadcast every allegation made without investigation, I also don't think it's right to ignore them or put them in the too-hard basket. Alleged crimes committed by the President in earlier life are absolutely newsworthy.