The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff, Wire Reports

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 07:25 PM

OPED: Kurtz: Dems Turning On John Conyers And TV Having Plenty To Do With It

Suddenly, John Conyers is in deep trouble. And the power of television news has plenty to do with it.

A tipping point for Conyers may have taken place on the "Today" show — that's right, the very same program that is reeling from the firing of Matt Lauer over mounting allegations of sexual misconduct and serious questions about whether any NBC executives knew about it.

But it was on "Today" that Lauer's former co-host Savannah Guthrie interviewed one of Conyers' accusers—and it was a powerful moment.

So powerful that hours later, Nancy Pelosi, who had been hemming and hawing about her Democratic colleague, went before the cameras and said he should resign.

Until then, very few Democrats or liberal commentators were willing to say that the 88-year-old dean of the House should go.

And that was the case even though several women had accused Conyers of sexual harassment, including a former staffer whose wrongful termination suit the congressman settled for $27,000 in taxpayer money. But she remained anonymous.

Not so with Marion Brown, his former deputy chief of staff. She said on "Today" that Conyers had engaged in "sexual harassment," had been "violating my body," had "propositioned me" for sex at hotels.

"He touched me in different ways. It was very uncomfortable and very unprofessional," she said.

In one hotel, Brown said, Conyers got undressed down to his underwear, and "asked me to, you know, touch it." She said she was "frozen" and "shocked."

Brown reported Conyers to the chief of staff. But why didn't she quit? Brown said she enjoyed her job and, as the single mother of four kids, needed the money.

Conyers has denied all wrongdoing, and his lawyer said yesterday that "Nancy Pelosi did not elect the congressman and she sure as hell won’t be the one to tell the congressman to leave." That is true. Except in rare cases of expulsion, only the voters can throw him out. But Pelosi can sure as hell ratchet up the pressure against him.

It was Brown's "Today" interview that changed the conversation. The same thing happened when the Washington Post first quoted four women, on the record, as saying that Roy Moore made unwanted advances toward them when they were teenagers. But they were abstractions. It wasn’t until a fifth woman, and one of the original four, went on television that their words packed more punch. (Moore has denied such allegations by nine women.)

People like to be able to look at an accuser being questioned and judge their credibility and motivation.

Conyers, who has already stepped down from the Judiciary Committee, is now in a hospital, suffering from stress. Unfortunately for him, the NBC interview added a great deal to his political stress.

Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.