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Was Zeldin 'Keychain Assault' Incident A Republican Set-Up?

Was Zeldin 'Keychain Assault' Incident A Republican Set-Up?

Mainstream media outlets have largely followed conservative media’s framing after a man allegedly attempted to injure Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) with a small self-defense-style keychain tool at a July 21 speech. Right-wing media, often quoting Zeldin or people associated with his campaign, have used the event to attack New York state’s modest bail reform laws. Several mainstream outlets adopted this basic template, further spreading the incorrect idea that the reforms were to blame for the alleged assailant’s release from custody.

There are two key pieces of information that have been almost entirely ignored in the mainstream national press but were reported in local media. First, the initial prosecutor in the case, Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley, was listed publicly as Zeldin’s campaign co-chair as recently as July 25. The Albany Times Unionreported Doorley’s connection with the campaign in its coverage, but was given conflicting responses by the various parties as to whether Doorley was in fact an active campaign co-chair. (Doorley has recused herself from the case.)

Second, as the Times Union also reported, Doorley’s office charged the alleged perpetrator, David G. Jakubonis, with second degree attempted assault on Friday, July 22. That nonviolent charge – which was not eligible for bail – was a surprise to many, the Times Union reported, because “law enforcement in Monroe County is known for pressing heavier charges than prosecutors in many other counties.” The previous year, Monroe prosecutors had only brought that charge one time, instead usually pursuing far harsher penalties that would include bail. (Jakubonis was separately arrested and charged in federal court, and is in custody pending a hearing scheduled for July 27.)

Initial reporting from The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Politico, and CNN all failed to mention Doorley’s close ties to the Zeldin campaign. However, each one similarly mentioned New York’s bail reform laws, either implicitly or explicitly in a negative light. The AP, for example, twice referenced calls to “toughen” the laws. None of those stories included direct quotes from any proponents of bail reform.

Additionally, Politico included an absurd quote from GOP congressional candidate and New York state Assembly member Mike Lawler, who said the bail reforms had an “Attempted Assassination Loophole.” The piece’s headline adopted conservative talking points wholesale.

A follow-up story from CNN had only one subheading, capturing the tenor of almost all the mainstream coverage:

The New York Timesdidn’t mention Doorley’s links to Zeldin until the 24th paragraph of its story. Instead, the paper foregrounded Zeldin’s position in the second paragraph, paraphrasing his argument “that the episode viscerally drove home the need to increase policing and tighten New York’s bail laws to make it easier for judges to hold people charged with certain crimes.”

The unusually lenient charge from an office known for pursuing harsher penalties led some bail reform advocates to speculate whether Doorley’s office’s decision virtually to ensure that Jakubonis would be released quickly was deliberate.

New York lawmakers passed a bill in 2019 eliminating cash bail “for most misdemeanors and some nonviolent felony charges,” according to the NYCLU, which argued the change was “an overdue recognition that a person’s wealth should not determine their liberty.”

Then, in 2020, police, prosecutors, and reactionary politicians from both parties used misleading data and deliberate misinformation campaigns to blame the reforms for the increase in some – but not all – categories of crime. There is in fact no evidence linking these issues. Nonetheless, the reforms were rolled back and “two dozen crimes [were added] to the list of serious charges for which a judge could impose cash bail,” according to the New York Times. “They included sex trafficking, grand larceny, second-degree burglary, vehicular assault and any crime that results in a death.”

Conservative media outlets are pushing to weaken the reforms even further. Mainstream media shouldn’t adopt their misleading framing to help them in that campaign.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

‘Rolling Stone’ Casts Doubt On University Of Virginia Gang Rape Story

‘Rolling Stone’ Casts Doubt On University Of Virginia Gang Rape Story

By Christine Mai-Duc, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Rolling Stone says it no longer trusts the account of a brutal gang rape described in an explosive story it published last month about sexual assaults at the University of Virginia.

The story, written by contributing editor Sabrina Rubin Erdely, opens with a grisly account from a woman identified only as Jackie, who described being attacked by several members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, sexually assaulted for hours and raped with a beer bottle at their fraternity house.

The article sparked anger and protests, and prompted the University of Virginia to suspend all fraternity activities until next year. The university also pledged to re-examine the way it handles sexual assault allegations and asked police to investigate the alleged assault, which Jackie said in the article occurred in 2012 when she was a freshman.

In a statement issued on the Rolling Stone website and appended to the top of the article, managing editor Will Dana says “there now appear to be discrepancies” in the woman’s account, and that editors have “come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced.”

While reporting the story, the magazine did not contact the men Jackie alleged raped her and it has been criticized for that in recent days. Rolling Stone says the fraternity and its national leadership would not confirm or deny the claims, and that Jackie “neither said nor did” anything that made the reporter question her credibility.

Dana said the magazine now regrets the decision not to contact her alleged rapists or the man she claimed orchestrated the attack. “We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault,” Dana wrote. “We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story.”

In a statement released shortly after the apology, the university’s Phi Kappa Psi chapter said it had no knowledge of the alleged attacks.

“Our initial doubts as to the accuracy of the article have only been strengthened as alumni and undergraduate members have delved deeper,” the statement said.

The chapter pointed to several inconsistencies in the story, the result of what it called “internal fact-finding” over the past two weeks.

The chapter did not hold a date function or social event during the weekend of Sept. 28, 2012, the night Jackie claimed she was raped, it said. The fraternity also said no member was employed at the campus pool in 2012, a detail the woman recalled about the man she claimed orchestrated the attack.

“No ritualized sexual assault is part of our pledging or initiation process,” the fraternity’s statement continued. “This notion is vile, and we vehemently refute this claim.”

In interviews with The Washington Post, several of Jackie’s close friends expressed doubts about her story, the newspaper reported. Alex Pinkleton, a close friend of the woman and rape survivor, told the Post that after speaking to Jackie in recent days, she now feels misled. “One of my biggest fears with these inconsistencies is that people will be unwilling to believe survivors in the future,” Pinkleton told the Post.

The Post also reported that in an interview with Jackie Thursday, the day before Rolling Stone issued its apology, the woman contradicted an earlier account by saying she did not know if the man she says organized the alleged attack was a member of Phi Kappa Psi.

“I don’t even know what I believe at this point,” another friend, Emily Renda, told the newspaper. Renda said she had introduced Jackie to Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the Rolling Stone writer.

A spokeswoman for the University of Virginia could not be immediately reached for comment.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Bill Cosby, Serial Rapist? That’s A Lot To Forgive

Bill Cosby, Serial Rapist? That’s A Lot To Forgive

Wow. Just … wow.

So what’s next?

Will it turn out Mother Teresa was a pornographer?

Or Mr. Rogers a meth head?

Is Billy Graham running a prostitution ring?

Why not? Such ridiculous scenarios seem far less so in the wake of recent news. Namely, renewed accusations that Bill Cosby is a serial rapist. Bill Cosby, the genial, avuncular comic who has made us laugh forever. Bill Cosby, the sleek secret agent who wisecracked with Robert Culp as they fought the Cold War on I Spy. Bill Cosby, the wise, warm, witty father on The Cosby Show, the ’80s sitcom that resurrected sitcoms, saved NBC and made him America’s Dad. Bill Cosby, the friendly pitchman for Jell-O, Coca Cola and old school values, the door-opening pioneer who helped make possible the likes of Chris Rock, Denzel Washington and Jamie Foxx.

How do you get from all that to … serial rapist? And make no mistake: These allegations do not “tarnish” his legacy. If true, they become his legacy, reducing to a distant second all his achievements, all those aspirational lectures about values, all those doors he opened and laughter he earned.

Granted, Americans are exceptionally forgiving of their celebrities. Having served time for obstruction of justice, Martha Stewart is back doing her cooking and crafts shtick. The accused racist Paula Deen is cooking again. The accused rapist Kobe Bryant is still playing basketball. The convicted rapist Mike Tyson has a new cartoon show.

But Cosby would likely find the road back to respectability more difficult than they, if not impossible. In the first place, the crime he is accused of — drugging and raping multiple women — is particularly heinous. In the second place, it is spectacularly at odds with the person we thought he was for 50 years. In the third place, it allegedly went on for so long. Half a dozen women have now come forward to accuse Cosby of sexual assault in incidents stretching from 1969 to 2004.

Yes, America is a forgiving nation. But that’s a lot to forgive.

Cosby, for what it is worth, has never been prosecuted, much less found guilty, of any of these alleged crimes, most of which were first revealed almost 10 years ago. He has long maintained his innocence, though he settled a civil suit brought by one accuser, Andrea Constand, in 2006. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

It should also be noted that the claims of another accuser — model Janice Dickinson — are contradicted by her own words. In her 2002 book, No Lifeguard on Duty, she describes her encounter with Cosby thusly: He slams a door in her face when she refuses to sleep with him. Not the height of class, but not rape, either.

On the other hand, it is difficult to ignore or explain away the fact that six women are all telling the same lurid tale.

One is left, then, with the dull, dispiriting irresolution that is so often the residue of a story you want to be untrue and fear is not. The moral of the tale, to the degree you can tease one out, is a lesson we are often taught but never seem to learn. It has to do with fame and its deceits and how readily we con ourselves into thinking we “know” some person because we saw a show or read an interview. We tend to forget that show business is, after all, the business of creating illusions.

Cosby’s fall reinforces that truism in a bruising and unforgiving fashion.

Have you ever learned something you wished you didn’t know? That’s how this story feels. You want to slam hands over ears and sing nonsense syllables until it goes away. But things don’t work like that. Ultimately, you can only struggle with your own sense of disappointment. And betrayal. And sheer, slack-jawed amazement.

Bill Cosby, serial rapist?

Wow. Just …. wow.

Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132. Readers may contact him via email at lpitts@miamiherald.com.

AFP Photo/Stan Honda

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Cliff Huxtable And Bill Cosby Are No Longer The Same Man

Cliff Huxtable And Bill Cosby Are No Longer The Same Man

Until last week, TV Land allowed me a pleasant half-hour escape to a heartwarming, 1980s-era comedy that featured an affluent black family living in Brooklyn, New York: the Huxtables. Anchored by well-educated, professional parents — the father an obstetrician, the mother an attorney — the family featured five children; four daughters and a son.

It was testimony to the show’s star and co-creator, Bill Cosby, that it was eponymous, The Cosby Show. He was one of the biggest stars in the entertainment world, beloved for a brand of comedy that was warm, witty and wise, family friendly and folksy.

It was no accident, either, that his off-screen persona was so often fused with his role as TV’s favorite dad. He drew inspiration for the show from his personal life, and he sought to cultivate an image as a dedicated family man, a father of five in a stable, long-term marriage to the former Camille Hanks. (His only son, Ennis, was tragically murdered in 1997.)

Perhaps, then, it is karmic that an uglier slice of real life has collided with his carefully tended image and smashed it into tiny shards. Several women have recently revived decades-old allegations that Cosby sexually abused them, a turn of events that has eclipsed his lifetime of work as actor, comedian and activist. TV Land, joining other entertainment companies that have distanced themselves, has yanked Cosby reruns off the air.

That’s a jarring development — but no more so than the allegations. The accusers, whose accounts date back to 1969 and forward to 2004, say that, under the guise of offering career counseling, Cosby lured them to his quarters, gave them drinks that were laced with a substance meant to render them pliable, and proceeded to rape them. That’s about as far from Cliff Huxtable as one can imagine.

At this point, it’s standard procedure to note that Cosby hasn’t been convicted of any crime, that he’s not even been arrested or charged. It’s also true that famous men have been the targets of vicious allegations that turned out to be false, that some have been victimized by con artists looking to extort a quick buck, or unhinged personalities seeking notoriety.

Yet these charges are deeply troubling as much for Cosby’s response as for the details of his alleged misdeeds. In 2006, a young woman named Andrea Constand filed a lawsuit claiming that the entertainer had drugged and molested her two years earlier. According to press accounts, 13 other women were prepared to testify to similar encounters. But Cosby settled the case for an undisclosed amount of money.

Where was Cliff Huxtable? Wouldn’t he have insisted on meeting his accuser in a court of law to protest his innocence? Wouldn’t the Bill Cosby who has gone around the country lecturing black Americans on their faltering values have done the same?

Having spent my adult life as a journalist covering high-profile men and women, I learned long ago to separate private and public lives. Sometimes one barely resembles the other. Still, there were always certain personalities who persuaded me to set aside skepticism and embrace the public figure, the icon, the role model. Cosby was one of those.

I was charmed not only by his uplifting vision of black Americans portrayed in the Huxtable family, but also by his dedication to academic achievement — a high-school dropout, he earned his doctorate in education after becoming a household name — and his emphasis on self-help. Over the last decade, he has delivered a series of lectures in black communities around the country — “shout-outs,” he labels them — calling on parents to instill morals, revere education and recommit to discipline.

After I met him at a New York fundraiser in 2003, he insisted that I organize a shout-out for him in Atlanta. So it was that he spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at Frederick Douglass High School in 2004, chastising parents for failing the young, and exhorting the young to live up to high expectations.

I’d still like to think those shout-outs may have reached a few listeners and inspired them, even if the messenger was deeply flawed. But I can no longer believe that Cosby is an exemplar of all that he preached. Cliff Huxtable had disappeared before TV Land pulled the plug.

Cynthia Tucker won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007. She can be reached at cynthia@cynthiatucker.com.

AFP Photo/Timothy A. Clary