GOP Mississippi gubernatorial candidate refuses to be alone with female reporter

[Fuzzy Bear]

Even if you're a Clinton/Epstein/Trump-level sex pest, would you really be so stupid as to be sexually improper with a reporter who is writing stories about you?

In this #MeToo era, I would be incredibly anxious.  If I were a candidate for office, I'd bring my wife along.

There are women who would fabricate accusations.  There are others who would attribute something that may be totally innocent as something with an inappropriate motive, and they will be believed instantly these days.  And the reaction to those who have "victimized" the "women who are believed" is unremitting.  There is no repentance accepted, no defense viewed as credible, and the desired outcome is the utter ruin of the "predator". 

And when we say that women don't lie, Catherine Crowell Webb happened.  Tawana Brawley happened.  Crystal Mangum happened.  If I were in public life, I would have a healthy skepticism as to what level someone would go to for their own fame and notoriety.

People have the right to be safe.  People have the right to experience a sense of sexual and emotional safety, and people ought to adjust to ensure that people.  But people should not be blind to the realities of the #MeToo movement, and the fact that, at present, there is absolutely no check on excesses and abuses, because these things are being denied as ever possibly existing.

[Fuzzy Bear]

If he can't be trusted alone with a female reporter, why on earth should he be trusted with the responsibilities of being a governor?

Perhaps he doesn't trust the female reporter.

He'd be ridiculous for taking this posture 15 years ago, but it's not 15 years ago.

[Fuzzy Bear]

"In this #MeToo era"

3 examples listed from long before the #MeToo era, one from as far back at the mid-1970s (!), and none of which involved a politician

Are there false accusations in this, the #MeToo era?

That's a "yes" or a "no".

[Fuzzy Bear]

It made lots of sense for him to do this. Why would someone polling in single digits let a liberal journalist write a likely unflattering article that no one will read anyway, when instead he can try to set off a firestorm in the national news and get free publicity? Every liberal who insults him will make him sympathetic to the base he wants but isn't getting.

Granted, it's pretty silly to invoke Billy Graham when  Graham himself had this as a guideline rather than an ironclad rule (for example, he once famously ate lunch with Hillary Clinton, just the two of them), but what does Foster have to lose? It's too late to drop out and run for his legislature seat again.

Okay... except he didn't. He made the request for her to bring along a colleague and she made that public.

Don't be naive. He knew what he was doing. It's a cheap Hail Mary from a hopeless loser, desperate for some kind of attention to his floundering campaign.

Well, there's no evidence to corroborate your take on this, and the "firestorm" was in fact caused by the reporter, so this is pretty much a matter of opinion.

Again, don't be naive. Foster knew this would blow up. It was a surprisingly smart and inspired strategy from someone who's been a total dud up until this point.

Now I might agree to that.  A guy that far behind does need a gimmick of some sort.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Now, the question is, which do you want to have happen? Should victims simply shut their mouths and just deal with rape, intimidation, harassment, and other predatory behavior, or should the (disproportionately male) people who engage in this behavior be forced to behave and think differently? Because the issue here is that, yes, this is a major problem in American culture and these problems, despite #MeToo, are still extraordinarily under-reported and under-investigated and under-punished.

If these are criminal accusations, law enforcement should be investigating.  Dispassionately, without prejudice, seeking an outcome that is in the interest of justice and public safety.  This, of course, becomes harder to achieve when the Paparazzi, social media, and the 24/7 national media get involve. 

I would note that "rape, intimidation, harassment, and other predatory behavior" are hardly equivilent behaviors.  Rape and intimidation of witnesses  are criminal offenses that deserve immediate reporting and immediate investigation by law enforcement, with the desired result being a proper conviction that will punish the perpetrator and dissuade others from these behaviors.

"Harassment" and "other predatory behavior" are terms that beg specific definition.  If by "harassment", you mean stalking a victim with a pattern of annoying behaviors, that is a specific criminal offense (and a felony, under some circumstances) that can be dealt with.  Harassment in a work environment is a defined civil matter, with defined processes and penalties.

Then, there is the world of he said-she said allegations.  This is where reputations are unfairly damaged and ruined.

In my personal life, I am very, very careful as to my interactions with female co-workers and clientele.  Aside from being happily married, I do not want anything to be misinterpreted that I say or do.  I believe that if I were ever accused of something, however unproven the allegation would be, my reputation in some quarters would be forever damaged, regardless of the outcome of any "investigation".  If someone went online, the end result for myself, personally, could be bad any number of ways.  I could sue for defamation, but what would that take, and what would that yield? 

So I can't blame this guy for wanting to not be in this situation when he does not have to be.  And there is no reason for him to allow anyone in his truck he doesn't want there.  It's not like he's banning her from his press conference (which, from what Harry says, might be as lonely as his truck).

[Fuzzy Bear]

Men like Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, Larry Nassar got away with raping and assaulting women and girls for years and years. The #metoo movement was needed. In all these cases the authorities failed the victims. Can't blame women and girls for going on social media and literally screaming and pleading for justice when the system in place did nothing for them until they made an uproar with the help of journalists who refused to let these guys get away with it.

 If you can not be in room with a woman alone who is a professional trying to do her job you have no business being a public official.

But many of these allegations were not made until years after the acts.

I do not believe that a person has a valid claim to say "the system failed me" when you did not report the issue in the first place.  I'm not blowing off the horrible situation victims and their families are in, but the Scottsboro Boys happened.  Gary Dotson happened.  There are folks being freed from prisons thanks to DNA evidence that happened.

The Scottsboro Boys are an extreme example of how removing the presumption of innocence and denying a person a jury of their peers results in the gravest injustice.  It would be far better for Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, etc to have never spent a day in jail if doing so would have undid all the suffering of the Scottsboro Boys and Gary Dotson.  It is better that the guilty go free than it is for the innocent to be punished, if we cannot have perfect justice.  My concern about the #MeToo movement is that the reaction to it presents a threat to the principle of the presumption of innocence of all criminal defendants, and a thread to the "Reasonable Doubt" standard.    

[Fuzzy Bear]

Claiming we live in the "#MeToo Era" is a deliberate attempt to negatively portray the attempts by victims of sexual assault and harassment to speak out about a serious, long dismissed issue that can have serious psychological consequences for its survivors. These people blaming the victims for speaking out, as if it's their fault that so many men are inclined to predatory and abusive behavior, are disgusting. If you feel uncomfortable around women because of this, then everyone should question what sort of behavior and thoughts you have to make you so overly cautious and feel persecuted.

In short, this guy is a moron and if he can't handle being around women in a professional setting, then he doesn't belong in a professional setting. The same applies to anyone else who feels like they need to protect themselves from women because of the "#MeToo Era."

Women who abused the popularity of #MeToo to make false accusations are the reason many men are cautious around women today. Especially men in positions of power that can easily be brought down by a false accusation. Even if the accusation is proven to be false and they clearly did nothing wrong, the man still has an incredibly damaged reputation they're unlikely to recover from.

There's nothing wrong with taking additional steps to avoid potential issues later on.

So if the mods decided to ban you from the Atlas Forum because they were afraid you might accuse them of rape in real life, you'd think there was "nothing wrong" with that?

And this is just a hobby for you - not your career like in the case of the journalist in this story.

This female journalist isn't entitled to access to a candidate.  The candidate can give access or deny it as he chooses.  Now the candidate isn't entitled to freedom from blowback at the polls from such a decision.

But this woman does not have the right to an exclusive interview. 

[Fuzzy Bear]

Claiming we live in the "#MeToo Era" is a deliberate attempt to negatively portray the attempts by victims of sexual assault and harassment to speak out about a serious, long dismissed issue that can have serious psychological consequences for its survivors. These people blaming the victims for speaking out, as if it's their fault that so many men are inclined to predatory and abusive behavior, are disgusting. If you feel uncomfortable around women because of this, then everyone should question what sort of behavior and thoughts you have to make you so overly cautious and feel persecuted.

In short, this guy is a moron and if he can't handle being around women in a professional setting, then he doesn't belong in a professional setting. The same applies to anyone else who feels like they need to protect themselves from women because of the "#MeToo Era."

Women who abused the popularity of #MeToo to make false accusations are the reason many men are cautious around women today. Especially men in positions of power that can easily be brought down by a false accusation. Even if the accusation is proven to be false and they clearly did nothing wrong, the man still has an incredibly damaged reputation they're unlikely to recover from.

There's nothing wrong with taking additional steps to avoid potential issues later on.

So if the mods decided to ban you from the Atlas Forum because they were afraid you might accuse them of rape in real life, you'd think there was "nothing wrong" with that?

And this is just a hobby for you - not your career like in the case of the journalist in this story.

This female journalist isn't entitled to access to a candidate.  The candidate can give access or deny it as he chooses.  Now the candidate isn't entitled to freedom from blowback at the polls from such a decision.

But this woman does not have the right to an exclusive interview. 

No one is saying that he legally has to give her one, just that he's an outrageous asshole for not trusting a professional journalist not to accuse him of improper conduct based solely on her gender, and that he's a charlatan for doing this on purpose to get attention and hock tacky shirts.

I'll place my order as soon as I log off here.  They'll be collectables in a few years.