When the mainstream media is forced to admit that a large reason behind a sexual predator’s ability to escape scrutiny is in fact… the mainstream media itself, it is ironic that we view this revelation as a one-off event and continue to believe the claims made by these media machines without a heaped spoonful of salt.
Surely any outlet that is honest enough to admit (with no less than a 0.5 calibre revolver to its head) that it and its fellows had ignored evidence of evil doing it was only because the evil-doer was oh so powerful.
The New York Times recently published a piece that went through nearly 200 interviews, records and newly disclosed emails. It noted that Harvey Weinstein once held the title of “Friend of Pecker”, a title which afforded quite a bit of protection to the close friend of David Pecker, Chief Executive of American Media Inc.
The brand is responsible for a number of publications including The National Enquirer, National Examiner and The Star among numerous tabloids. Tabloids weren’t the only papers that avoided covering Weinstein’s shady dealings.
“Some journalists negotiated book and movie deals with him even as they were assigned to cover him. The studio chief once paid a gossip writer to collect juicy celebrity tidbits that Mr Weinstein could use to barter if other reporters stumbled onto an affair he was trying to keep quiet”.
“The producer often held out business opportunities to those who covered him. He had book and movie deals with writers and editors at Fox News, The New York Post, Premiere magazine, Vanity Fair, Variety and elsewhere.” Interestingly the New York Times does not incriminate itself here.
Weinstein also had ties to prominent politicians, which he leveraged to threaten others.
“I know the president of the United States. Who do you know?” Mr Weinstein, a Democratic fund-raiser, would say during the years Barack Obama was in the White House”
“In late September, emails show, he was discussing a documentary television show he was working on with Hillary Clinton. He had long raised campaign cash for her, and her feminist credentials helped burnish his image”
Even as the New York Times publishes article after article proving that it is wholeheartedly against sexual predators, one should not forget that it was the very mainstream media outlet which had the chance to reveal Weinstein’s shady practices way back in 2004 – at least according to one reporter who worked for the journal at the time – and chose to ignore it.
