December 23, 2017

"'Morning Joe' co-host Mika Brzezinski upset women who accused Mark Halperin of sexual harassment..."

"... when she reported on air Friday that she had tried to arrange a meeting so the now-disgraced political analyst could apologize," Fox News reports.
Brzezinski said Halperin, who was fired in October after being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, was "more than willing to meet with his accusers and apologize with them face-to-face." The MSNBC star said she “actually tried to offer him to them” but the women “don't want to talk to him.”

[A] letter [from] 10 of Halperin’s accusers... states that Brzezinski was “inappropriate” for suggesting such a meeting and that she has a conflict of interest because of her “personal friendship” with Halperin.... “Sexual harassment and assault is illegal in the workplace, and represents a violation of the policies and standards of NBC News," the letter said. "It is an unethical and harmful request to ask that sexual assault victims confront their accusers in person and, in particular, on live TV.”...

Brzezinski issued a statement late Friday... "In the case of Mark... I realize that it is not my place.... As a victim of sexual assault, I understand that each individual's case is different. This is up to the victims, some of whom I've been in contact with.... ”
Brzezinski was promoting what in a criminal case is a right of the accused: the right to confront the witnesses against you. It tends to be an ordeal for the accuser, and it's certainly not a ritual of healing. Victims of sexual assault have sought protection from that ordeal, such as by using one-way closed circuit television. See Maryland v. Craig, a case with a famous Scalia dissent:
The Court makes the impossible plausible by recharacterizing the Confrontation Clause, so that confrontation (redesignated "face-to-face confrontation") becomes only one of many "elements of confrontation." The reasoning is as follows: The Confrontation Clause guarantees not only what it explicitly provides for -- "face-to-face" confrontation -- but also implied and collateral rights such as cross-examination, oath, and observation of demeanor (TRUE); the purpose of this entire cluster of rights is to ensure the reliability of evidence (TRUE); the Maryland procedure preserves the implied and collateral rights (TRUE), which adequately ensure the reliability of evidence (perhaps TRUE); therefore the Confrontation Clause is not violated by denying what it explicitly provides for -- "face-to-face" confrontation (unquestionably FALSE). This reasoning abstracts from the right to its purposes, and then eliminates the right.

37 comments:

Jeff Brokaw said...

Well she is pretty obviously an idiot, so not too surprising.

wendybar said...

So if Mika like you.......you can't believe the victims. If Mika doesn't like you, or if you are in a different political party....you MUST believe the victims (even if they are 40 year old charges...) Got it....

Bill Crawford said...

I checked Wikipedia to find out about her being sexually assaulted (see, I believe her) and found nothing. Anyone know about this incident? (See, I didn't say "alleged incident".)

Kevin said...

She can tell Trump is unfit for office by looking into his eyes through her television monitor.

And she can't tell Halpern is an abuser of women, while sitting next to him on set day after day.

She also would have scored greater than 15 on Scott Adams' test.

Vet66 said...

In flyover country, we deplorables refer to that as an ambush or, in the desert-a dry gulch. Nice try Mika, we are on to you and your tactics. All about ratings and shame on you for trying to upstage Jerry Springer and his antics.

Rob said...

So Brzezinski is a victim of sexual assault. I'm not surprised. Joe Scarborough looks like the type.

Wince said...

An apology doesn't require confrontation in the way adjudication of guilt does.

Nonapod said...

From what I can gather it seems very likely that in the TV news industry just about all female on air personalities have been victims of sexual assault of some sort.

rhhardin said...

Women are the audience so that's how it goes.

Guys just deduce that women are idiots.

rhhardin said...

Telling his accusers to fuck off would get him guy ratings.

Michael K said...

This is the era of "The Victim."

Your Victim credentials will be checked before you are allowed to speak.

rhhardin said...

The important thing about Victim is that women like that story. They're idiots.

Levi Starks said...

Not talking to him is exactly the passive aggressive mindset that resulted in them becoming victims in the first place.
If women want to be treated like men by men then they will have learn to act like men. But that really isn’t what they want. They want men to start acting like women. Because men are bad and women are good.

rhhardin said...

Do not do as these shameless--in their eyes, magnificent-- explorers of melancholy, who discover things unknown within their minds and bodies!

Melancholy and sadness are the start of doubt, as it is; doubt is the beginning of despair; despair is the cruel beginning of the differing degrees of wickedness. To convince yourself of this, read the _Confessions of a child of the century_. The slope downhill is fatal once one is committed to it. It is certain to lead to wickedness. Beware of the slope. Rip out evil by the root. Do not indulge the cult of adjectives such as indescribable, inenarrable, rutilant, incomparable, colossal, which shamelessly lie to the nouns they distort: they are pursued by lewdness.

- Lautreamont

cubanbob said...

Mika is ahead of her masters. She hasn't received the OK to start with the rehabilitation.

On another note, apparently Joe did the Hot/Crazy Matrix on Mika and that he' appears to be an adrenaline junkie and is fine with The Danger Zone.

rhhardin said...

When a feminist looks at a man, she wants to see herself.

gspencer said...

wendybar,

Yep, you got it. The hypocrisy of the left is a sight to behold.

Christy said...

Him following some perceived protocol to get his job back provides no healing for the women he harmed, and can be seen as rubbing their noses in his privilege.

rhhardin said...

Women in harm's way.

Men.

William said...

Glen Thrush seems to be the first to reach reinstatement.. His offenses were arguably greater than those of Halperin. Not his sexual transgressions. He had inverse beer goggles. After a few drinks, he thought he was far more attractive to women than he was in reality. His real offense was in lying afterwards about the women's response to his behavior. Mendacity is especially bothersome in a reporter. Halperin hit on women, some of whom were his subordinates. Absent walking around naked or locking them in the office, this behavior seems more disreputable than actionable. I was betting that he would be the first to get reinstated, but there seems to be some caprice in who survives and who falls. Maybe Mika can try again next year. Or maybe her career is now ruined. This is so much fun to watch.

Humperdink said...

Now that the sexual harassment net is being filled by commie-pinko libs, it's time to stop the fishing expedition (ha). Mourning Rino and his current/temporary squeeze, Meeker, accuse Trump daily of crimes against humanity - without hesitation or proof. Funny how that works.

MacMacConnell said...

Aren't we all victims of sexual assault by this floating definition?

Earnest Prole said...

Brzezinski was promoting what in a criminal case is a right of the accused

There are many things appropriate for a criminal trial that are utterly inappropriate in any other setting.

David Smith said...

So, another thing I missed as I grew old was when we stopped apologizing *to* those we had harmed and began apologizing *with* them. Shared culpability?

Drago said...

Rob: "So Brzezinski is a victim of sexual assault. I'm not surprised. Joe Scarborough looks like the type."

She's lucky she didn't end up face down in a congressional office.

Lucien said...

The idea of the confrontation clause is that if your testimony is going to be used by the state to take away a human's liberty, then you had better have the guts to face the person whose liberty is at stake.

It makes the courtroom a very "unsafe space" for someone who is falsely accusing another. It works especially well in conjunction with vigorous cross-examination and rigorous adherence to the hearsay rule. (And the presumption of innocence.)

These are all things you will love, if you are ever falsely accused of something.

(Didn't there used to be some religious rule against bearing false witness, too?)

rehajm said...

Joe and Mika were in a suite with me at a Sox game. Her on air personna is genuine. She is that flaky.

Humperdink said...

"Didn't there used to be some religious rule against bearing false witness, too?"

As they say, "used to be, not no Moore".

That would be Judge Moore, from some obscure southern state. It's pretty vague to me, but as I recall, there were ten (10) such rules. However, the good judge was forced to remove them from public display.

Jupiter said...

"rutilant". Nice.

Jupiter said...

"It's pretty vague to me, but as I recall, there were ten (10) such rules."

My recollection was that you weren't supposed to covet your neighbor's wife, nor your neighbor's ass. But nothing was said about your neighbor's wife's ass.

Humperdink said...

Yep, those ten (10) rules are no longer "operative". We've got new rules today.

The best part about today's rules is they are changeable. Don't like 'em? Just make new ones. Kinda/sorta how the US constitution is viewed.

virgil xenophon said...

@Humperdink/

Or to paraphrase Groucho Marks: "Those are my principles and if you don't like them, well, I have others..."

Unknown said...

The women don't want to meet with him because they already have and it didn't go well.

Largo said...

"It is an unethical and harmful request to ask that sexual assault victims confront their accusers in person and, in particular, on live TV.”...

A request is a request.

An invitation is an invitation.

Literacy is literacy.

richlb said...

I hate being "that guy", but i call bullshit on Mika being a real victim. She's either a target of "soft harassment", like "you're hot", or experienced none at all. Saying you are a victim is how you defend being called out for being an insensitive bitch.

Martin said...

Another liberal misogynist, and the fact that she is female has nothing to do with it.

So many women, when push comes to shove, throw their "sisters" overboard.

When conservatives do it, it may be distasteful depending on the circumstances, but it isn't hypocritcal. When liberals do it, for Edward Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Mark Halperin, Roman Polanski, Harvey Weinstein, on and on--the hypocrisy just reeks.

Bad Lieutenant said...

She's either a target of "soft harassment", like "you're hot"

Wait wait wait. That's harassment? Once working desktop support in a gaggle of HR belles I told a VP (soon to make Director) that in the old days, ladies with skin like hers used to bathe in milk...We dated for years.