Resistance Journalism

[Jerry-atric]

Joe Biden & Tara Reade -- Biased Journalism Is Gutting the #MeToo Movement | National Review

Consider the New Yorker article by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer, telling the story of Deborah Ramirez, who claimed that Kavanaugh had exposed himself to her at a party when he was a freshman at Yale University. The reporters were unable to find a single eyewitness to confirm that Kavanaugh had been at the party Ramirez described or anyone who had ever heard Ramirez recount this accusation.

One friend of Ramirez’s told The New Yorker, “This is a woman I was best friends with. We shared intimate details of our lives. And I was never told this story by her, or by anyone else. It never came up. I didn’t see it; I never heard of it happening.”

Farrow and Mayer noted, too, that “in her initial conversations with The New Yorker, [Ramirez] was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty.” In fact, she was willing to go on the record only “after six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney,” at which point “she felt confident enough of her recollections.” Inexplicably, the article was published anyway.

Even worse, media outlets lent credibility to the outlandish tale of Julie Swetnick, who, again without corroboration, alleged that Kavanaugh had “spiked” drinks at parties in high school to facilitate gang rape.

I hesitate to admit this, but I had some doubts regarding Ms. Swetnick’s interview, even at that moment.

 

[Songbird]

... in which the world was led to believe high school drunk Bart O'Kavanaugh spiked the booze to help run a train.

To quote HST, that was the high water mark, that place where the American wave finally broke and rolled back.

 

[Jerry-atric]

Ms. Swetnick did not testify under oath. Some forget that. I call her Ms. “Sweathog,” after the 1970s comedy “Welcome Back Mr. Kotter.”