JONATHAN TURLEY: When journalists whine about #MeToo, they don’t mean Platner, too
Some people just like classic Coke. Others insist on the original Reese’s recipe. New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor went on CNN to explain why Democrats can vote for Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner despite multiple women coming forward to denounce him: this is really not the classic Me Too allegations that Kantor and others seem to prefer for outrage.
Kantor won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse and was called forth by CNN to explain why it is OK for liberals to support an alleged abuser of women. A prior girlfriend has accused Platner of physically abusing her and even locking her into a room overnight. He is also accused of sexting women and dismissing rape victims.
None of that, however, necessarily presents a barrier for those who want to retake power by any means necessary.
Kantor clinically explained that these "are not classic MeToo accusations." Specifically, "they’re not about a boss and a young female employee being subjected to sexual advances. They were mostly made in the context of consensual relationships. … There are these, like, very sensational texts about sex. There are allegations from former girlfriends that are not — the way my colleagues reported them were not like classic abuse allegations," she stressed.
In a statement that would have produced a torrent of condemnations if used during the Brett Kavanaugh controversy, Kantor insisted that "they were mostly like being his boyfriend gave me a view into him and I did not like what I saw. His character was scary. He had this Nazi tattoo. Etcetera."
In fairness to Kantor, she was attempting no small feat: to allow liberals to continue to claim Me Too outrage while grabbing Maine.
Of course, Kantor quickly brushes over the other controversies beyond the abuse allegations as simply a Nazi tattoo. She omits his mocking of a wounded veteran, rural people and rape victims while praising Hamas and embracing communism.
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However, her diminishing of the account of women like Lyndsey Fifield as "they were mostly like being his boyfriend gave me a view into him and I did not like what I saw."
What Fifield alleges that she "saw" were marks left on her body after being yanked and grabbed by Platner. In one case, she claimed "he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, telling her to remain there until she was ‘calm.’"
Kantor seems to begrudgingly acknowledge that "there was one allegation of crossing a line physically, but I think that means that these are pretty different accusations than, say, the one that — the ones that President Trump faced."
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Previously, Kantor did not draw this distinction between classic MeToo and new knockoffs involving non-employment situations. She once grouped a wide variety of controversies from former Democrat Sen. Al Franken to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to Jeffrey Epstein under the banner:
"[I]t felt like there was this period where discussion of #MeToo was actually pretty bipartisan. Democrats like [Sen.] Al Franken were accused, but so were Republicans, like [Alabama Judge] Roy Moore. And also, a lot of these stories played out in the corporate arena, which is not particularly political. But the Kavanaugh hearings almost felt in a way like a return to an older pattern, like a return to a pattern that we saw with the allegations against Bill Clinton, Clarence Thomas, and Donald Trump. Those are scenarios in which the allegations take on all of the heat and the poison of American political life. And in those stories, it turns into a holy war very, very quickly and can almost feel like it’s not even about the women anymore.
…The #MeToo movement has proven so durable and so self-correcting. I think there was a moment after the Kavanaugh hearings where it all just felt like it had become impossibly politicized, to the point where it was almost preventing constructive conversation."
Ironically, Kantor’s rationalization returns to the very partisan "older pattern" that she once denounced in how allegations from women are treated in the media.
In rationalizing the Platner support, Kantor was obviously singing to the choir on CNN. Democratic figures like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren celebrated his securing the nomination.
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Yes, he may be a rape-mocking, sex-texting, Hamas-praising, Nazi-tattooed, veteran-abusing, self-proclaimed communist. However, he will return them to power.
Other media figures, like "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin, have added their own rationalization for choosing power over principle. She has declared that he is "a liar, a racist, an antisemite, and a homophobe." However, he is still better than voting for a moderate Republican woman. This week, Hostin explained:
"let’s be strategic, let’s get some power, let’s take over the Senate, let’s take over the House and let’s right the ship. Let’s get our country back…I am sorry, I am someone that believes in character, I am someone that believes that morals matter," she concluded. "But because of the state of this country, I would — if I lived in Maine I would hold my nose and I would vote for Platner. I would."
And so, MeToo becomes Meh when Maine is at stake.