Allegations of sexual abuse are reaching pandemic proportions. Now it's a senior White House official who's resigning under pressure:
I have to take exception to the rush to judgment so prevalent in all of these cases. Not that I'm about to start calling the accusers liars, but it's become a pattern: Woman (or in some cases, man) accuses High-Profile Person of abuse, High-Profile Person is immediately ostracized and/or forced to resign and/or resigns because of the negative publicity.
Sorry, but I'm very much an evidence-based thinker. I'd like to see some proof -- documentary evidence (photos, etc.), corroboration by witnesses/friends who knew at the time what was going on -- before I decide that High-Profile Person really is the scum of the earth and join the calls of "Off with his head!"
In this case there does seem to be corroboration, but that hasn't always happened. I guess it's a matter of not only something that has been swept under the rug for too long finally coming to light, but that we've also been conditioned to jump to conclusions (Fox News, anyone? Or the rest of the media, for that matter).
Via Balloon Juice.
A senior White House official said Wednesday that he would resign after his two ex-wives accused him of physical and emotional abuse, with one presenting pictures of her blackened eye.
The official, Rob Porter, served as the staff secretary, a title that belies the role’s importance in any White House — but especially in President Trump’s. Porter functioned as Chief of Staff John F. Kelly’s top enforcer in their shared mission to instill discipline and order in what had become an extraordinarily chaotic West Wing. He was the gatekeeper to the Oval Office, determining which articles and policy proposals reached the president’s hands and screening the briefing materials that his visitors shared with him.
I have to take exception to the rush to judgment so prevalent in all of these cases. Not that I'm about to start calling the accusers liars, but it's become a pattern: Woman (or in some cases, man) accuses High-Profile Person of abuse, High-Profile Person is immediately ostracized and/or forced to resign and/or resigns because of the negative publicity.
Sorry, but I'm very much an evidence-based thinker. I'd like to see some proof -- documentary evidence (photos, etc.), corroboration by witnesses/friends who knew at the time what was going on -- before I decide that High-Profile Person really is the scum of the earth and join the calls of "Off with his head!"
In this case there does seem to be corroboration, but that hasn't always happened. I guess it's a matter of not only something that has been swept under the rug for too long finally coming to light, but that we've also been conditioned to jump to conclusions (Fox News, anyone? Or the rest of the media, for that matter).
Via Balloon Juice.
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