Canadian Politics Today

Last week New York Times published a huge expose on Harvey Weinstein.  Weinstein has been one of the biggest executives in Hollywood since the 1990s, but probably won't be any longer, as he's been fired from his own company and there are now a parade of significant industry figures coming forward to relate their own horror stories about Weinstein.

I can't link to the NY Times report, because I already used my 10 free articles this month.    Nonetheless, here is a New Yorker Magazine piece on the topic that is powerful in its own right:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories

Reading through this, one is strongly reminded of similarities with other figures like Bill Cosby, Jian Ghomeshi, Bill O'Reilly, and Donald Trump. 

Like Cosby, Weinstein liked to promise to boost the careers of young women who were "nice" to him.  Like Ghomeshi and O'Reilly, Weinstein made life hell for female subordinates.  Like O'Reilly, Trump, and Cosby, cash settlements and non-disclosure agreements were used to pursuade women to not pursue legal action against him.  Like Trump, "when you're a star they let you do it" seems to rationalize everything in Weinstein's mind.

Incidents described in the New Yorker piece range all the way from the early 1990s to one incident just a couple of years ago where Weinstein assaulted a young actress, who went to the police to complain and met with him again later with a microphone provided by the police. The recording can be heard in the New Yorker piece. Weinstein at one point confesses to groping her, and apologizes when she tells him he was too agressive, and yet the whole time he is demanding she join him in his hotel room in a very menacing tone.

Imagine being one of these young actresses who gets inviting to a meeting with Weinstein and a group of executives, only to see the executives exit the meeting and leave you alone with this slime-ball. Imagine working for somebody like that.  Imagine knowing that if you did complain, Weinstein had the power to destroy your career, smear you in the media, put you up against immense legal resources.  The New Yorker mentions that women they've interviewed for this story asked their names be removed after receiving legal threats from Weinstein's lawyers. Weinstein is also planning to sue the New York Times.

The only similarities are really with Cosby...and obviously Clinton (whom you forgot about).  I don't know anything about O'Reilly TBH, but it's not anything like Ghomeshi or Trump at all.  I understand how you would want to bring Trump into this, but it's disingenuous.  What this guy did was real and goes way beyond anything we've ever seen before, this isn't simply making unwanted advances or being in a consentual , however rough sexual relationship with someone, this is the real deal, and you should recognize it as such.  The fact that so many knew - yes, Streep, Clinton and Obama, makes it even more disturbing.