The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff Reports

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 06:32 PM

OUR VIEW: 10/12/2017 - Where Is Gloria Alred and Her Cameras With the Harvey Weinstein Scandal?

A lot of those women were paraded in front of cameras by one Gloria Alred, the national L.A.-based attorney with a history of making grand appearances in front of cameras when these type things happen - especially when they involved conservatives.

For some strange reason I  have been waiting patiently for the past three days for Alred and her daughter Lisa Bloom to make a similar grand entrance appearance on television now that big time liberal Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been fired and exposed as a rapist and sexual predator. The revelations about Weinstein by scores of Hollywood women has rocked Tinseltown and sent liberals into hiding worse than a Donald Trump tweet storm.

Since Alred and her daughter Bloom both have a history of parading women in front of cameras to slander and accuse Republican candidates of wrong doing and sexual harassment, my question is where are they now in doing the same to one of their liberal heroes, clients and mentors?

While this editorial is not about Alred per say, her actions speak louder than her character.

Alred had no problem doing this with Herman Cain, Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes and even Meg Whitman, former California gubernatorial candidate, whose campaign bit the dust when Alred brought out Whitman's maid to claim Whitman had hired her illegally and mistreated her. She had put emails out seeking any woman who wanted to trash President Trump last year to "come forward" and she'd give them their audience and just due.

This isn't about Alred per say. This is about Harvey Weinstein and the hypocrisy Alred and her fellow left loons are exhibiting now one of their own has bit the dust.

The New York Times reported last week that eight women, including actress Ashley Judd, came forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct. Following the allegations, the Oscar-winning film producer was removed from his powerhouse film studio The Weinstein Company.

Scores of Hollywood women over the past few days have leveled explosive allegations against Weinstein including big name actresses such as Rose McGowan, Asia Argentino, Rosanna Arquette, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie just to name a few. Scores of other lesser known models, actresses, and other professionals have also come forward with sordid details of Weinstein's advances.

In the case of Argentino, she said Weinstein raped her, forcing her afterwards into a "consensual" sexual relationship that she said she felt she had no choice but to participate in because she was fearful of what Weinstein would do if she didn't. According to the NYT, Weinstein has reached at least eight settlements with women, including McGowan.

I could add more sordid details, but that gives you the idea this is a messy and ugly scandal that I believe is judgment and karma upon a segment of this nation's culture long overdue for exposure of their wickedness, intolerance for women, and plain out hypocrisy, in seeking to destroy our nation.

To be frank, it's downright hilarious that Alred and other big name Democrats with ties to Weinstein have been no where to be found. This includes Hillary Clinton and former President Obama and wife Michelle. Clinton came out yesterday saying she was "appalled" and "shocked" at the allegations. I laughed when I saw her statement.

It took her five minutes to accuse and blame the National Rifle Association for the Las Vegas massacre, but it took her five days to come out and say she was shocked by her big donor's apparent issue with raping and terrorizing women in Hollywood for decades. That's Hillary Clinton for you in a nutshell. The Obama's finally came out last night and said they too were "appalled" at the allegations. Appalled must be on the Democratic talking point sheet. Everyone in Hollywood is "appalled," this week. Eye roll here.

As I heard one commentator say this week, "If hypocrisy were a greenhouse gas, the ice caps would be gone by now."

The obvious question is what did all these "appalled" people in Hollywood know about Weinstein's actions and how long did they allow them to go on without him being confronted?

The Weinstein Co. board members probably didn’t know everything, but they surely knew enough.

The only relevant “new revelation” was the public outcry they didn't expect to explode in middle America.

The New York Times, which broke the story, knew what was going on long before the publication date.

Former Times reporter Sharon Waxman claims she had the goods on Weinstein in 2004 but the Times “gutted” the piece after Weinstein, who was not just a Hollywood player and political rainmaker, but also a major advertiser, visited the paper “to make his displeasure known,” Waxman said.

Now some at the paper are denouncing the media’s long silence about Weinstein, even though the media were part of the problem for years. As one commentator put it, "Still, they’re heroic in this story compared with everyone else. "

Actor Matt Damon has been accused of also pressuring the NYT to squash the story. Other high name actors knew about this and did everything they could to protect their money pot.

Consider Hollywood itself. Jonah Goldberg wrote, "If God punished hypocrisy with lightning bolts, that town would be in smoldering ruins."

Even as various insiders condemned Weinstein, they admitted that his alleged wrongdoing had long been an “open secret.” Why didn’t they speak up earlier? Perhaps because attacking Weinstein had downsides like their careers being whacked. Attacking President Trump on the other hand over an 11-year old lewd audio tape was vogue and reaped rewards among the liberal cesspool known as Hollywood. So much for that now.

At last month’s Emmys, the stars of “9 to 5” an old feminist, lite flick about sexual harassment in the workplace, reunited.

“Back in 1980, in that movie, we refused to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot,” communist supporting Jane Fonda glibly said.

“And in 2017, we still refuse to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot,” Lily Tomlin added. The crowd roared with approval. The crowd had their "take that Trump!" moment not realizing that weeks later it wasn't President Trump who would be revealed as a "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot." And you can add "rapist" to that description in describing Harvey Weinstein.

How many people in that same room who cheered the Trump bashing knew about Weinstein? How many refused to speak up — even after he was fired?

“Saturday Night Live” went silent when it came to Weinstein. “It’s a New York thing,” executive producer Lorne Michaels explained.

It was revealed further today that NBC News passed on the story that would have clearly exposed Weinstein's decades of preying on women seeking to break into the movie business. MSNBC host Ronan Farrow's expose on Weinstein never made it on the air, despite extensive, on-the-record interviews and a damning audiotape of Weinstein himself.

Even the  Huff Post reporter who brought NBC’s decision to light said that NBC News had audio of Weinstein admitting sexual assault. These allegations are not coming from a right wing news site. These are from former NBC, MSNBC and Huffington Post sources. 

“Who at NBC News passed on this story?" asked Mediaite columnist and Managing Editor Colby Hall. "Why would they choose not to cover such an enormous and important story? And was there some sort of mandate from above?”

That brings us to the bigger point of what has happened with this scandal.

When someone on the right does something like this they are guilty and crucified immediately. When people on the left do it, they are immediately given shelter by media liberals who think that because their public politics are right then they can rape and harass women with impunity.

Liberals like Weinstein, Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, and Bill Cosby all got passes from the same media who ripped and crucified the late Fox News founder Roger Ailes, Host Bill O'Reilly, and others on the right. Those on the right do not get a pass for their behavior, so please don't take it that we are condoning sexual harassment on ANY level. We are not. Anthony Weiner is serving 22 months in federal prison for showing himself to underage girls. In light of the allegations against Weinstein, Weiner deserves a pardon.

The main issue here is the response in the media to a hard left, Trump hating, liberal who finds himself in the same crosshairs as Ailes and O'Reilly did. 

Weinstein and all of Hollywood last year were salivating when the 11-year old Access Hollywood tape popped up revealing salacious comments from then Presidential candidate Donald Trump. Weinstein, Alred, the Obamas, Clinton and all the other liberal donkeys screamed to the high heavens how aghast they were at such language.

Again, how many of these same people knew Weinstein was raping women? The moral equivalency is not even close.

Weinstein's case is a bit more grievous because there are actual criminal allegations involved he physically raped three women. The statute of limitations may have run out in the criminal justice system to do anything about those rapes, but the statute of limitations is forever in the arena of public opinion. Weinstein's daughter said late Wednesday her dad was "suicidal and depressed." You think? We're not trying to make light of this. This is ugly on so many levels it beggars description.

The rule for the left however, is that you can be a personal and professional pig, as long as your public politics are correct. That's why Weinstein thought he could  buy off Hollywood when he promised to attack the National Rifle Association after the Las Vegas shootings. This in his mind would "atone" for all his sins in his liberal friend's mind. It did not. 

The one group that deserves no criticism for the most part are the victims. I don’t condemn their silence when they were young and powerless. However, I do have one small issue and take this for what it's worth. Many stayed silent for decades, happily pocketed money from people they were willing to denounce only after it was safe — or even profitable — to do so.

That hypocrisy may be the most dangerous, because it sends the signal to young women that such compromises pay off and you can buy indulgences after you’re successful. Is that the message we want to send our children? Turn the other way as long as it's expedient financially for you to do so? Courage is speaking out when its NOT  financially expediently to do so! Better late than never I guess these actresses have come forward. Things will not be the same in Hollywood for a long time to come!

Let me know if you see Gloria Alred on television the next few days. I'm patiently waiting for her to bring forth these eight women who have made these claims against Weinstein just as she did the so-called victims of Herman Cain, Meg Whitman, Donald Trump and others. Yea, I know. I wouldn't hold mine either.
 

Christopher McDonald, Publisher, Editor in Charge

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