MeToo Jumping the Shark? (Updated!)
The New York Times — “all the news that’s fit to print” — has published an article about a third accuser of Brett Kavanaugh, once again from his school days. This one makes the others — which lack any evidence or a single corroborating witness — look like an open and shut case by comparison.
The allegation came from Julie Swetnick, 55, who like Judge Kavanaugh, 53, grew up in the Washington suburbs. In a statement posted on Twitter by her lawyer, Ms. Swetnick said she observed the future Supreme Court nominee at parties where women were verbally abused, inappropriately touched, made “disoriented” with alcohol or drugs and “gang raped.”
She said she witnessed Judge Kavanaugh participating in some of the misconduct, including lining up outside a bedroom where “numerous boys” were “waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside the room.” Ms. Swetnick said she was raped at one of the parties, and she believed she had been drugged.
Really? She was raped and witnessed numerous boys lining up to participate in gang rape on multiple occasions — and she never reported this to the police, her parents, her friends, anybody? She personally saw girls being gang-raped on a recurring basis and did nothing whatsoever to draw attention to this practice? She attended more than one party at which gang rape was occurring — in other words, she went back to join these people again on multiple occasions?
Michael Avenatti (looking more and more like the Democratic establishment’s very own Donald Trump), in his zeal for fame and attention, has destroyed not only his own credibility (such as it was), but the credibility (such as it was) of the Democratic senators’ efforts to undermine Kavanaugh, and the credibility (such as it was) of the New York Times. Sorry, NYT, a disclaimer paragraph in each of these stories about how you couldn’t find any supporting witnesses doesn’t cut it. This is a classic case of a story that no old-time journalist would have had the gall to run with.
From the front page of next Wednesday’s Times: “Mysterious Disk Seen Hovering Above Kavanaugh’s High School During Senior Year.”
Butt-covering doesn’t cut it when the logic of the story is this outrageous. If a disclaimer paragraph is all it takes, then they could literally print anything as long as they say halfway through, “The Times couldn’t find any evidence to support the content of this article.”
Then why print it?
URGENT UPDATE:
Once, maybe thirty years ago, a man bumped into me on the street and stepped on my toe. The perpetrator was a white male. My toe hurt for hours.
I had totally forgotten about that incident, but now, looking back on it in the light of recent revelations, I think I suddenly remember that it was Brett Kavanaugh!
Of course, you’ll say Kavanaugh lived hundreds of miles away in a different city at that time. But can you prove it wasn’t Brett Kavanaugh?
In fact, if I strain really hard, hire a lawyer, drink three shots of bourbon, and wish on a star, I’m pretty sure I can remember a voice saying at that very moment, “Hey, be careful Brett Kavanaugh, you just stepped on that guy’s toe — what is it with you Brett Kavanaugh, why do you keep hurting people all the time, Brett Kavanaugh?”
Will I testify to that under oath? Well, no, because I don’t want to get involved.
