I actually was not as upset as many readers here about Cathy's column pointing out that there was no corroboration of the story. We DO need to be careful about disinformation wherever it comes from.
What does trouble me is that the activist Right and The Bulwark seemed to agree that if it couldn't be proved, it probably didn't happen. I…
I actually was not as upset as many readers here about Cathy's column pointing out that there was no corroboration of the story. We DO need to be careful about disinformation wherever it comes from.
What does trouble me is that the activist Right and The Bulwark seemed to agree that if it couldn't be proved, it probably didn't happen. It was only proved because the rapist confessed and was arrested. This could easily not have happened, or not have happened for months or years, by which time the Right Wing assertion that "The Left lies about these abortion horror stories" would have become conventional wisdom. It would be far too late for proof to make any difference to anyone.
This is part of the double standard problem JVL often describes: Fox "News" and its allied outlets can spew any old crap, and people shrug their shoulders and say, "that's just what they do," while Democrats and their allies are held to traditional standards of journalistic ethics. I don't know what to do about it. Certainly not become crazed pathological liars too, but it's a real dilemma, and I'm afraid Cathy's article contributed to the problem.
My take too, and I was myself skeptical— it smacked of urban legend, and fit too perfectly the shape of a convenient simple minded narrative of right wing villainy—however we live in a time when each day reveals as true claims which only the day before any reasonable person would have had to dismiss as mendacious slander and impossible nonsense.
It’s as if we are watching a James Bond movie in which a cartoonish villain builds a huge island hideaway full of spaceships and private armies of gloating henchmen, and we leave the theater saying, well, Im afraid even though I wanted to I just couldnt get my disbelief suspended enough, that was so ridiculous and just too absurd even for a spy movie —but when the news comes on we find out it was all true.
It would be lovely to live in a world where the rape of a ten-year-old child was unimaginable, but as the news proves daily, that world exists only in fairy tales. It's not an urban legend: it is that poor child's nightmare existence.
What particularly galled me was everyone's willingness to forget about issues of patient privacy and maintaining the anonymity of a minor. All of which are going to be huge issues in the near future. (Although since it isn't enumerated in the Constitution, just as Justice Kavanaugh's right to privacy at dinner wasn't, it may will go by the wayside. I'd say I was being sarcastic, but not really.)
I actually was not as upset as many readers here about Cathy's column pointing out that there was no corroboration of the story. We DO need to be careful about disinformation wherever it comes from.
What does trouble me is that the activist Right and The Bulwark seemed to agree that if it couldn't be proved, it probably didn't happen. It was only proved because the rapist confessed and was arrested. This could easily not have happened, or not have happened for months or years, by which time the Right Wing assertion that "The Left lies about these abortion horror stories" would have become conventional wisdom. It would be far too late for proof to make any difference to anyone.
This is part of the double standard problem JVL often describes: Fox "News" and its allied outlets can spew any old crap, and people shrug their shoulders and say, "that's just what they do," while Democrats and their allies are held to traditional standards of journalistic ethics. I don't know what to do about it. Certainly not become crazed pathological liars too, but it's a real dilemma, and I'm afraid Cathy's article contributed to the problem.
My take too, and I was myself skeptical— it smacked of urban legend, and fit too perfectly the shape of a convenient simple minded narrative of right wing villainy—however we live in a time when each day reveals as true claims which only the day before any reasonable person would have had to dismiss as mendacious slander and impossible nonsense.
It’s as if we are watching a James Bond movie in which a cartoonish villain builds a huge island hideaway full of spaceships and private armies of gloating henchmen, and we leave the theater saying, well, Im afraid even though I wanted to I just couldnt get my disbelief suspended enough, that was so ridiculous and just too absurd even for a spy movie —but when the news comes on we find out it was all true.
It would be lovely to live in a world where the rape of a ten-year-old child was unimaginable, but as the news proves daily, that world exists only in fairy tales. It's not an urban legend: it is that poor child's nightmare existence.
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What particularly galled me was everyone's willingness to forget about issues of patient privacy and maintaining the anonymity of a minor. All of which are going to be huge issues in the near future. (Although since it isn't enumerated in the Constitution, just as Justice Kavanaugh's right to privacy at dinner wasn't, it may will go by the wayside. I'd say I was being sarcastic, but not really.)