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Day One of #MooreandMe: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Being Blocked by Keith Olbermann on Twitter

So! A lot has happened, since the lovely Jaclyn Friedman and I did conspire to create a hashtag of protest, on the Twitter. Lots of things! Tweeted-by-NYT-writers-and-Jezebel-and-Slate-and-reported-on-by-Mediaite-type things! And you are, no doubt, full of questions. OR CURSING! Lots of you are just cursing, and repeating false claims, and such! That’s why the good Lord gave us the “delete” button. But I thought I should answer a few questions, actually. And since our last post began with numbers, well: Let’s look at some numbers this time, too.

QUESTION 1: Shouldn’t you be focusing on, like, real issues? Who cares about rape apologism from progressive media celebrities, anyway?

The typical number of visitors Tiger Beatdown receives, per day: Roughly 3,000. (Last week, for example. Monday, 3,023. Tuesday, 3,870 w/ two posts and link from high-traffic site. Wednesday, 3,890 w/ link from other high-traffic site. Thursday, 2,907. Friday, 2,210 — low, but we got the post up in the evening, when people were out already. Saturday and Sunday, which are always low because we don’t post, 1,752 and 1,882, respectively.)

The number of visitors Tiger Beatdown received yesterday: 12,741.

Answer: Yes. They care. And they care about it more than they’ve cared about anything else we have ever posted.

QUESTION 2: How on EARTH can people effectively participate in activism, on the Internet??

Number of #MooreandMe Tweets Asking for Explanation/Apology/Support of Anti-Rape Orgs: So many. Too many to count! I don’t know if there’s a tool that will allow me to count how many! Every time I check in at the feed, and then turn away to type this, and then go back to check, there are more of them. And I’m typing this part of the post, in case you wondered, at 4:30 AM.

Number of #MooreandMe Tweets Before Yesterday Morning: Zero.

Answer: When you have a man who has built his career on the presumption that silence in the face of confrontation equals guilt, that refusal to engage with an angry political opponent equals guilt, that refusal to engage publicly equals guilt, a man whose job is essentially walking up to people and demanding that they talk to him in public, and you have a tool on the Internet that allows you to talk to that very man, and that man behaves irresponsibly and oppressively, in  a way that betrays the principles of the entire movement he claims to speak for, and he says things that are blatantly untrue in public, so that it is very easy to ascertain that he is either not in possession of the facts or lying about them — when that man, in short, behaves in a way that makes you want to engage him publicly, and the Internet has given you the capability to engage him publicly, so that this man has no option but to (a) respond, or (b) fall into the silence=guilt equation he’s built his very career on? You have a way for people to effectively participate in activism on the Internet, my friends. And, as previously stated, people will participate. Lots of them.

QUESTION 3: Well, okay. And the men you’re calling out — Moore specifically, Olbermann tangentially — may very well have participated in some blatant untruths and biased reporting. Reporting which is, I’ll admit, biased in favor of an alleged rapist, at the expense of the women accusing him, which is never good. And yeah, sure, Keith Olbermann provided all of his 166,533 followers with the name of one of the accusers, via link, in a Tweet that was so widely linked as to exceed even that alarmingly large number of readers and potentially dangerous people. And, yikes, okay, Keith Olbermann also repeated the spurious and unprovable allegation that the accuser (who he indirectly named, thus exposing to potential harm) worked for the CIA, which would undoubtedly rile up any potentially dangerous people reading him. And yeah, sure, Keith Olbermann mis-stated the facts of the case, alleging that consensual sex with a broken condom could be considered rape in Sweden, and not retracting this statement — which, again, reached at least 166,533 people — when it was proven false. And yeah, okay, Michael Moore has laughed out loud, discussing these allegations, and repeated the “it’s just a busted condom” lie more than once on the record and for a television audience, and, well, OKAY, sure, he linked all of his readers to an outdated report on the case containing assertions that have since been proven false or incomplete, and ALL RIGHT, the overall effect of all this was, pretty overtly, intended to minimize any suspicion that Assange could potentially NOT be innocent in the minds of Michael Moore’s many readers, fans, and viewers, including the 719,465 (HOLY SHIT DUDE THAT’S A LOT OF PEOPLE) who follow him on Twitter, using misinformation.

HOWEVER.

But they’re journalists, dude. Or, Keith Olbermann is. Michael Moore is a political documentarian, which is a profession that relies on the truth as well. The point is, Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore both work in what could loosely be construed as “news.” Surely they understand that if they’re caught spreading misinformation and not retracting it, and violating the journalistic standard of not reporting the names of accusers in an ongoing rape investigation, that makes them look irresponsible, unprofessional, willing to sacrifice known fact to opinion, and basically unqualified to hold the jobs they have. And that it also makes them look so deeply unethical and untrustworthy as to be useless, as authority figures who opine on ethics, morals, and who is or is not a “liar.” So, you just have to point out the errors. They’ll understand that they messed up. And they’ll retract it. Right?

Number of Beloved Progressive Journalists Who Had Blocked Me On Twitter Yesterday: None, as far as I know!

Number of Beloved Progressive Journalists Who Have Blocked Me On Twitter Now: One. And it’s Keith Olbermann.

Answer: Perhaps you would like to read the lengthy tantrum thrown by Keith Olbermann on Twitter last night, in which he demanded that one user “retract” (ha ha, Keith Olbermann! We love you when you’re ironical! Oh no wait you’re not — oh God he’s SERIOUS) a #MooreandMe tweet because it employed the term “rape apologism,” demanded that another “show him the charges.” Uum, Keith Olbermann, allow me to introduce you to… THE GUARDIAN???? They do a thing called “journalism” there, I think you’ll find it kicky and fresh!

The first complainant, a Miss A, said she was the victim of “unlawful coercion” on the night of 14 August in Stockholm. The court heard Assange was alleged to have “forcefully” held her arms and used his bodyweight to hold her down. The second charge alleged he “sexually molested” her by having sex without using a condom, when it was her “express wish” that one should be used.

A third charge claimed Assange “deliberately molested” Miss A on 18 August.

A fourth charge, relating to a Miss W, alleged that on 17 August, he “improperly exploited” the fact she was asleep to have sex with her without a condom.

But the mighty tantrum of Keith Olbermann was not done tantrum-ing! So he then accused another journalist of being a “hatchet man” because that journalist works for Mediaite (why, it’s almost as if he thinks reporting stories in a way that demonstrates or may be motivated by personal bias is… a bad thing!!!!!) and then proceeded to point out that, since one of his family members was a rape survivor, we all owed Keith Olbermann a personal apology for pointing out the clear, on-record problems with how Keith Olbermann did his job. Or perhaps a simple graphic, captured by commenter Anna last night, will suffice?

WORST upholder of journalistic standard that the names of accusers in ongoing sexual assault investigations are not to be revealed due to the substantial risk of harassment or severe personal harm incurred against them… IN THE WORLD!!!!!!

I know. I had to go there. I’m sorry. But, you see, I cannot simply talk this out with him on the Twitter. For he has blocked me, and potentially slammed his hands over both his ears and sung for me a ditty in his dulcet, baritone voice, the lyrics of which are “la, la, la, I can’t hear you, la la la la la.” But the thing is? You don’t need to be answering to ME, Keith Olbermann whose name I keep typing in full not for SEO purposes because why would I possibly want people to know that Keith Olbermann blocked an anti-rape activist for protesting and keeps representing himself as “progressive” although a “progressive” who opposes anti-rape activism simply isn’t progressive by any definition of the term, but whose name (“Keith Olbermann”) I type in full simply because your name is Keith Olbermann, Keith Olbermann. You, Keith Olbermann, need to be answering to US. Unless you’re going to go through all 166,500+ followers, and then every other user on TWITTER, and then specifically block everybody except the folks who will never call you out or disagree with you, this cause, it is lost.

QUESTION 4: Well… shit. But, okay, I have another question! Because, like, that’s Keith Olbermann. He’s not exactly known for being calm and rational and smooth about confrontation. In fact, I mostly know him for being in a Hootie & the Blowfish video! But, other than that, I know Keith Olbermann because the talk around Keith Olbermann is that Keith Olbermann blows his top, frequently. The whole “I have a very deep voice and I am YELLING AT YOU” thing is kind of his schtick. It’s supposed to trigger all our long-buried Daddy fears, or whatever. Also, the word “Sir,” particularly when he stretches out the “r” on it to make it sound like some sort of underground missile explosion. “Perhaps you knew I had a deep voice, SIR. But perhaps you were not prepared, SIR, for the awesome depth and resonance of my voice, SIRRR, when I started YELLING RIGHT AT YOUR FACE, SIRRRRRRRR, I AM YELLING AT YOU, RIGHT NOW! SIR!” It was really scary and intimidating the first 4,000 times he did it! I almost peed!

Michael Moore, though… I mean, he’s so cuddly! And nice! And he always has such nice compassion faces on when he interviews the poor and downtrodden, and even his outrage is always so good-humored, so surely he would see the joke implicit in what you’re doing. And if he knew he was hurting people, he’d stop. Right? He’d stop, and he’d apologize? Michael Moore would get that sticking up for the Little Guy of necessity means sticking up against the rape culture that works, in part, by making women afraid to report their own rapes because they see how women are smeared, lied about, and terrorized when they report rapes, particularly when they report being raped by powerful men? He’s going to get it, right? I mean…

I mean, I saw Roger & Me when I was, like, a little kid. I was so young I couldn’t handle the rabbit scene; we fast-forwarded. But I was young, and I kept getting in trouble for standing up to bullies in school, and for watching the news and talking about it, and for saying Vietnam was wrong in Social Studies class. People kept picking on me. And my mom sat me down, and she told me to watch this video, Roger & Me. Because this was about a man who stood up to people. He didn’t have anything in the world, hardly, but a simple little tool to make his voice heard. And he did it. He looked at how awful things were, and then he went to that man’s office, and he stood outside waiting for the man to come down. How powerful it was, the wait. What a simple thing he was asking, just to talk. How perfectly that summarized the cruelty, that the man wouldn’t even come down and talk to him, after doing all that damage. All that damage, to all those people, and he couldn’t just have a conversation. I remember Roger & Me. And I watched TV Nation, with my mom — she was proud of me, that I got so many of the jokes — and later, I was in high school when the Columbine thing happened, and I knew the weird kids who got kicked out of school for wearing South Park t-shirts and listening to Marilyn Manson, and I was eighteen when Bush v. Gore was happening, and it irritated me that Moore was stumping for Nader because we couldn’t afford to lose this one, but when I heard he might come to our school, I was still excited. We all were. Bowling for Columbine was an event, everybody went together. Fahrenheit 9/11. Those were movies you had to see. I grew away from him, as I grew up; I started to feel like some of his points were dishonest or intellectually lazy; I stopped laughing at the jokes. But those movies, when we were so scared that we were eighteen and just barely adults and from the beginning of our adult lives this ugliness had overtaken us and might never leave: Those movies were what hope looked like. Just that people would pay to watch them. Michael Moore got my stepdad to stop voting Republican. His movies did that. And it started with Roger & Me, with this one man, who had nothing in the world almost but one little tool to make his voice heard, and a sense of humor that made his voice more listenable, one guy cracking jokes into a cheap camera and asking the man in the tower just to come down. Just to come down and talk.

That’s what Michael Moore still is to me, maybe, though it’s embarrassing to admit it and I don’t like his recent work at all. Because eventually I became a blogger, started this little blog that no-one ever read — just me, with almost nothing but my one tool to make my voice heard — and it started, like, growing. And people started reading it. 3,000 people a day: That’s a little number, but there was a time when I couldn’t imagine ever being read by 3,000 people. Ever. I just got my tool and I made my jokes and people started listening and in some weird way, I don’t know, I thought a little about Roger & Me. I thought maybe the fact that kids had grown up and become adults and seized their own tools and their own voices in the time since he’d made that first movie would inspire him, make him proud.

So now I’m outside the tower and I’m telling you, Michael Moore, I’ve known you my whole life, my mom showed me your movie to prove that it was a good thing to stand up to the bullies, we watched every episode of TV Nation together, I got to stay up late, I was in high school when Columbine happened and I was eighteen years old and voted in my first Presidential election and I watched everything get taken away, and you were what hope looked like. Michael Moore, I’m outside the tower, we all are, and I know because I’ve talked to my friends about it that I’m not the only one who had this happen. I’m not the only one you meant this much to. We’re outside, all the people who relied on you, and we’re asking you just to come down. Just to talk. Just to prove that these little voices matter, that you really did mean it, that you should wait outside Roger’s office because for a man to do all that damage and not speak to a sufferer of it is a terrible thing, for a person to wait outside for the man in the tower with just his one small voice was the right thing to do, I’m just asking you, we’re outside, come down. We sound angry. We sound angry because we are angry, because you did a bad thing, several terrible things, over and over again and on TV, and you should apologize. And I mean, Keith Olbermann, honestly, didn’t mean that much to me. I didn’t expect anything better from him. But from you. But from Roger & Me… We’ve been standing outside all day, I’ve been called a whiny bitch and a liar and stupid and an insult to real rape victims as though I was never sexually assaulted my own damn self, I’ve been told to “fuck off and die” with like five exclamation points, I’ve been asked why I’m not “in the kitchen” because that’s always new and witty, I’ve been called so many names, all day, and it’s cold and I can’t sleep, and I’m still waiting. So please, please, please prove that you believed that story. Prove that we were right to believe it with you. We loved the story, we needed the story, please, please, make the story end better this time. Make Roger come down. Please, please, please come down.

I mean, he’s coming, right?

Hours Since #MooreandMe Campaign Has Been Active With No Response From Michael Moore: Eighteen. And counting.

Hashtag, #MooreandMe. User, @MMFlint. As long as it takes, until we get an explanation, an apology, and preferably $20,000 for a rape crisis or anti-sexual assault organization of his choice. We still believe in standing up, even if the man whose stand we believed in was just a character in a movie. Was never real at all.

48 Comments

  1. That Girl wrote:

    Thank you for fighting, Sady.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 3:33 pm | Permalink
  2. Demeter wrote:

    Tiger Takedown! Nicely done!

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 3:36 pm | Permalink
  3. Teaspoon wrote:

    It is cold outside the tower. *brings a big Thermos of hot cocoa to share and a little bottle of Bailey’s in case anyone wants a splash*

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 3:36 pm | Permalink
  4. slythwolf wrote:

    OH GOD, because the families of rape survivors NEVER minimize THOSE INDIVIDUAL SURVIVORS’ experience. NEVER. MUCH LESS any OTHER rape survivors’ experience.

    And also: yes, this.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 3:38 pm | Permalink
  5. Chicagojon wrote:

    Awesome post — +1 to your readership from me.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 3:38 pm | Permalink
  6. codeman38 wrote:

    Honestly, the silence from Michael Moore doesn’t surprise me at all.

    Remember back when his movie “Slacker Uprising” was released for free download online? It would be more accurate to say it was released to hearing people online. If you were in need of closed captions, the only option was to pony up for the DVD. There wasn’t even a transcript posted online, much less any sort of subtitle file or captioned stream.

    I left comments on the site streaming the video to point this out. I e-mailed him several times to point this out. I posted a DKos diary. I tweeted about it. None of these got any response. (The DKos diary got a lot of “wow, I hadn’t even thought about this, but you’re right” comments from the crowd, but none from Moore.)

    Honestly, I’d have been content with any response, even if it was something dismissive like “go buy the DVD already, then.” But I didn’t even get that.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 3:51 pm | Permalink
  7. beebower wrote:

    Has Michael Moore actually said anything about Bradley Manning? Maybe he should be doing something to get him out of MONTHS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT if these leaks are so important to the American people and he hasn’t done anything wrong. Why is Julian Assange even the “hero” here rather than Manning when Assange has leaked nothing, only published what was leaked?

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 3:59 pm | Permalink
  8. Jinian wrote:

    As requested, http://memegenerator.net/Privilege-Denying-Olbermann/ — I’ve submitted Rebekah’s caption from #4 to the PDD tumblr, but feel free to create your own snark.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 4:52 pm | Permalink
  9. kpants wrote:

    Thanks, Jinian. Very handy.I made two for my own (exasperated and sad) amusement:

    http://memegenerator.net/Privilege-Denying-Olbermann/ImageMacro/4369022/Sincere-apologies-always-contain-if-then-conditional-statements

    http://memegenerator.net/Privilege-Denying-Olbermann/ImageMacro/4368838/I-let-scare-quotes-around-teh-word-rape-slide-Thats-just-Twitter-etiquette

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 5:10 pm | Permalink
  10. beth wrote:

    sady, i am so proud of you.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 5:28 pm | Permalink
  11. Rossa wrote:

    On the first day of Tweetmas, ms Sady Doyle gave to me…
    An awesome Twitter hashtag.

    On the second day of Tweetmas, ms Sady Doyle gave to me…
    2nd moving blog post
    And an awesome Twitter hashtag.

    On the third day of Tweetmas, ms Sady Doyle gave to me…
    Keith Olbermans suspension from Tweeting
    2nd moving blog post
    And awesome Twitter hashtag.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 5:29 pm | Permalink
  12. lizabean wrote:

    i made a fun olberman priv denying picture. tweet away…

    http://images2.memegenerator.net/ImageMacro/4369833/Im-a-liberal-Therefore-I-cant-be-a-rape-apologist.jpg?imageSize=Large&generatorName=Privilege-Denying-Olbermann

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 5:32 pm | Permalink
  13. Irised wrote:

    Thank you.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 5:38 pm | Permalink
  14. Isa wrote:

    “Keith Olbermann, allow me to introduce you to… THE GUARDIAN???? They do a thing called “journalism” there, I think you’ll find it kicky and fresh!”

    I LOLed so hard.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 5:47 pm | Permalink
  15. Rachel wrote:

    Thank you thank you THANK YOU for this. Watching progressive darlings (and Naomi Wolf, dear god) fall all over themselves to attack and smear women for the crime of reporting rapes is somehow so much worse than watching the other side do it. Particularly when most of the world, including most of the media, has bought into a lot of slut-shaming, victim-blaming, misogynistic lies.

    I was so impressed with Stephen Colbert for making clear that the “sex by surprise” thing was an attempt by Assange’s lawyer to downplay the charges and that what’s actually be charged is rape. If only the mainstream media cared as much about getting the facts right.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 6:28 pm | Permalink
  16. scyllacat wrote:

    That’s quite a good story you wrote there. I hope it is true, also.

    Signed,
    reader #3001…?

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 7:01 pm | Permalink
  17. Stephanie wrote:

    thank you, all, for the hard work you’re doing. My twitter account has been dormant, but I’ll get to retweeting as soon as I get off of work, today!

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 7:22 pm | Permalink
  18. Tariq Kamal wrote:

    Daaamn. Now this is what I call a beatdown.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 8:07 pm | Permalink
  19. Bee wrote:

    Thank you for starting this campaign. We’ll stay loud outside the tower.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 9:28 pm | Permalink
  20. SMadin wrote:

    I held out for years, but I’m on The Twitters now, for this. It’s pretty much the least I can do, but I’m doing it.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 9:32 pm | Permalink
  21. Lora wrote:

    Yessssss!

    I couldn’t believe it when I saw the Michael Moore was posting 20K to spring this “accused” rapist because he thinks whistleblowing=cool and that justifies anything. I read and reread the article looking for the JOKE–for how Michael Moore was obviously being ironic and it was in no way a show of blatant support for violent criminal and oppressor of women because that’s not how he rolls RIGHT???
    Wrong.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 9:38 pm | Permalink
  22. wisewebwoman wrote:

    Thanks so much for this Sady.
    I would remind everyone of the horrific statements Keith Olbermann made about Hillary Clinton in the last election when he suggested she should be taken to a private room and dealt with (can’t remember the exact phrase) among other misogynistic crap.
    Michael Moore said unfounded nasties about her too.
    It turned me off both of them.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 9:53 pm | Permalink
  23. onomatopoiea wrote:

    I just love this. I’ve had the same feelings about Moore in my teenage years, and I am so disappointed in him.

    I also LOVE that Sady Doyle (interwebz blogger of awesomesauce and lady-business and other such topical topics) managed to get Keith Olbermann (purveyor of vaguely-progressive ideals WITH YELLING) to block you. You obviously threatened his loud manliness. Even if he did maybe wish you a merry christmas (Alex, I’ll take “trying desperately to save face” for 2000).

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 10:32 pm | Permalink
  24. Laurennmcc wrote:

    Sady, you are my person of the year. <3 <3 <3

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 10:44 pm | Permalink
  25. PatientC wrote:

    Unless I missed it, Olbermann said nothing about any of this on his show tonight. Hold on, I think this is interesting: he has no qualms about taking people to task for criticizing him wrongly, so it may mean he is actually *thinking* about what is happening here. I do have a small bit of hope that maybe he will get it, in that slow, painful way that “I’m a liberal so I can’t be X” people do after they think long and hard about having done exactly X (where X = racism, sexism, able-ism, cis-ism, and other atrocities). Maybe…

    If he does, then I think the credit for causing it will have to go to #mooreandme.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 10:57 pm | Permalink
  26. Vibrating Liz wrote:

    Shit. Speaking of heros falling by the wayside, I was appalled to see Naomi Klein tweet this today:

    “So first people use twitter to get KO back on air, then to drive him off line? not liking the whole lynch mob vibe.”

    “Lynch mob”, Naomi? Seriously? No no no.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 11:04 pm | Permalink
  27. Sady wrote:

    @VibratingLiz: Naomi Klein has apologized for that. So, check it out: Celebrities CAN APOLOGIZE for saying fucked-up stuff! And they don’t DIE! Wow. I wonder if there’s any applicable lesson for Keith Olbermann or Michael Moore in this?

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 11:19 pm | Permalink
  28. kpants wrote:

    He’ll address the entire country of Sweden but not feminists and progressives in his own country? And his point is to prove that since Sweden doesn’t always do such a great job at pursuing rape charges anyhow they should stop pursuing one more rape charge?

    I would like to point to some advice for Mr. Moore, written by someone I believe he has a great deal of regard for:

    “Tone it down. Lower your voice. Try listening. Here’s how it works: When someone else is talking, pay close attention to what they are saying. […] Do not interrupt. When he or she is finished, pause and reflect on what was said. Try saying nothing at all. Notice how what you have heard is stimulating thoughts, concepts, feelings, and ideas in your head. This may lead to something brilliant.” – Michael Moore, “Stupid White Men,” Chapter 7: The End of Men, pgs. 160-161

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 11:04 pm | Permalink
  29. Deirdre Tisdale wrote:

    Thank you for fighting the good fight, Sady!

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 11:14 pm | Permalink
  30. onomatopoiea wrote:

    You mean offering a genuine apology for saying something totally fucked up doesn’t cause you to implode? And may actually be a step in restoring the respect progressive individuals may have once had for you?

    I NEED SMELLING SALTS.

    Or, naw, I don’t need them. Just pass them on to Michael Moore.

    Seriously – we all fuck up. It’s what you do after you fuck up that counts.

    Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 11:39 pm | Permalink
  31. Mike wrote:

    There’s so much talent and humor and pathos and insight and empathy and compassion on this blog I can hardly stand it. Thank you so much, Sady. You deserve all the recognition (and CASH, don’t forget the COLD. HARD. CASH.) you have coming to you.

    In the same way Michael Moore [used to be] your hero, you (and Garland and, hey, I haven’t heard from CL in a while actually but her, too) have been mine. I know it’s trite to say so, but you really are an inspirational person.

    May your megaphone reach an ever-wider audience.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 12:12 am | Permalink
  32. Liz wrote:

    FUCK YES. Words cannot express how grateful I am that you are fighting the good fight. I’m a first year law student, and my inner compass is challenged by my environment on a daily basis. You’ve inspired me to speak up as we discuss rape in our criminal law class next semester, and I’m normally extremely soft spoken.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 12:41 am | Permalink
  33. Mike wrote:

    Oh wow. This is Michael Moore’s “apology”: “I don’t pretend to know what happened between Mr. Assange and the two women complainants (all I know is what I’ve heard in the media, so I’m as confused as the next person). And I’m sorry if I’ve jumped to any unnecessary or wrong-headed conclusions in my efforts to state a very core American value: All people are absolutely innocent until proven otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”

    Don’t worry guys, he was just being a Real American Patriot!

    Nowhere do I see regret for calling the women’s accusations “hooey.” Of all the ways he could have apologized while victimizing himself… Simply stunning.

    Full apology at his website:
    http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/michael-moore-on-accusations

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 1:28 am | Permalink
  34. Mike wrote:

    My bad. That was a link to an excerpt. Full explanation here: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/dear-government-of-sweden

    It’s actually worse than the excerpt! He manages to shift focus from this specific case to talking about the terrible tragedy of under-prosecuted rape in Sweden. Basically it reads like a tacit suggestion that the whole thing is just a conspiracy. Surprise! Well, it looks like we’re back where we started from, aren’t we, Mr. Moore?

    Ok I’ll stop flooding this thread with my verbal diarrhea.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 1:35 am | Permalink
  35. Samantha B. wrote:

    @Sady, do you have a link to that, because I’m curious as to what she said. Her quote from last week, “Rape is being used in the Assange prosecution in the same way that ‘women’s freedom’ was used to invade Afghanistan. Wake up!” was more than a little disturbing. Who’s in doubt that the issue of rape is being exploited here? We’re not fucking naifs here. I’m goddamned cynical as hell, thanks, lady. That comment was a pretty creepy distortion of what feminists have been saying, with a toxic red cherry on top of heavy condescension. But maybe she’s listening?

    And, to echo, a bizillion people, thanks for this! It feels fucking lonely to have “allies” pulling this shit left and right.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 6:47 am | Permalink
  36. Panic wrote:

    Moore’s got lots of money now. He IS the establishment. Of course it’s disappointing that he’s doing this, but not surprising. When people get into the establishment, they often turn their backs on those who aren’t in the club. He’s a traitor to everything he stood for, and I hope he never sleeps well again. But he’s probably got some pretty spendy bedding, so I’m sure it’s fine.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 9:03 am | Permalink
  37. Panic wrote:

    Also, pretending to care about Swedish sexual assault prosecution stats just to bolster your argument? Gross, Moore.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 9:05 am | Permalink
  38. ThankfulFather wrote:

    As a dad with two daughters (Not to mention both a wife and a mother, both of who have experienced violence against women), I applaud what you’re doing; keep up the good fight. Your post about tweets also reminded me that the ultimate source of the “CIA” allegation that Olberman tweeted was a notorious Anti-Semite named Israel Shamir. When you start cheerleading for your political team by looking to Anti-Semites who smear rape victims, I think it’s time to step back and engage in some critical self-examination – no matter what your politics are.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 10:01 am | Permalink
  39. Erin wrote:

    I think MM needs to read this comment by KPants, which I thought was brilliant:

    “The corollaries to “innocent until proven guilty” are neither “the charges are without merit” nor “the complainants are lying.”

    When journalists and commentators (like Moore and Olbermann) operate under the assumption that they are, then they are not encouraging others to withhold a rush to judgment: they are discouraging voices of objectivity or dissent.”

    Nobody on this site or anywhere else is trying to deny Mr. Assange his due process. The argument that “innocent until proven guilty” should silence rape advocates is the same thing as someone who spews forth racial epithets in public using his right to “free speech” to demand a platform for such language.

    Dear MM, if you don’t know if someone is innocent or guilty of changes leveled against him, then the best way to resolve this issue is for the accused to have his day in court, for the world to hear the evidence, and for the justice system to do it’s thing. (Even though the justice system doesn’t usually work that well for rape victims, but whatever.)

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 10:26 am | Permalink
  40. Clothdragon wrote:

    I occasionally wonder if I’m evil, but here’s the thing…. Most of these men are older than me. I’m older than you. Things for me are better than when my parents were young. Things for you are almost certainly better than they were for me. Barring unforseen fatalities on my part, I will outlive the men that are currently bothering you — as will you. The children I am raising will outlive these sexist asses.

    It’s not going to happen today or tomorrow, there’s nothing but heartbreak if we pretend it is, but eventually these old sexists will die and our world will be better. If we keep up the fight, if we raise our children to do better and expect more, the world will get better. They may shout their opinions from the rooftops right now, but someday they’ll be gone. And we’ll still be here.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 11:10 am | Permalink
  41. Warren wrote:

    If you had a LIKE button I’d push it. Go get ’em.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 11:25 am | Permalink
  42. Level Best wrote:

    PANIC at comment #85 has it right: Michael Moore is now officially part of The Problem, and he doesn’t even give a damn that he is. But I’ll bet he gives a damn that people are noticing. Sady,you are wonderful and so heart-breakingly right about all of this.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 12:23 pm | Permalink
  43. Fayra wrote:

    … this made me tear up.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 3:33 pm | Permalink
  44. GallingGalla wrote:

    Keith Olbermann actually replied to me, claiming that he didn’t out either of the women.

    By what logic does naming the one woman to every one of his followers, not outing her?

    Thanks for all that you do.

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 6:23 pm | Permalink
  45. GallingGalla wrote:

    Er, that last line should be “Sady, Thanks for all that you do.”

    Friday, December 17, 2010 at 6:49 pm | Permalink
  46. Theywentwild wrote:

    Fight the good fight sister! We all believe in you

    Sunday, December 19, 2010 at 7:17 pm | Permalink
  47. Jamie Browning wrote:

    Beautiful post, thank you.

    Thursday, December 23, 2010 at 12:12 am | Permalink
  48. John D'Amato wrote:

    You categorize your post as, “Uncategorized.” I can categorize it for you: tour de force.

    Thursday, December 23, 2010 at 5:30 pm | Permalink