TMD: Ken, you have talked
about your experience with trying
to break the Weinstein story back
in 2002 and 2015. What about
the circumstances in 2017 were
different from 2002 and 2015 that
allowed the story to be released?
Ken Auletta: But I think you
know there’s a tendency to say,
well because of Cosby, because of
Roger Ailes, because of O’Reilly
and others have the culture
change and therefore continue
to meddle with ... I think that
minimizes the work that this guy
did and the reporters with The
New York Times did to make
women feel comfortable enough
to come out and be brave … My
hat’s off to the job this guy did.
TMD: What encouraged you to
stick with the story between 2002
and 2015?
KA: I thought this guy (Harvey
Weinstein) was a beast. I thought
he would do it again, and he did.
TMD: Ronan, do you think
there are any areas where the
#MeToo movement has failed?
There
have
been
criticisms
saying working class women and
women of color have not been
as highlighted. Is the #MeToo
movement just a reshuffling of
existing power dynamics?
RF: You know, I wish I could
take credit for any movement.
This activism and even the term
“me too” was around a long time
before these stories. Tarana Burke
had been using that term and doing
grassroots community organizing
around this for years and years.
So it’s important to hat tip to
those people who are really better
equipped to answer the kind of
question that you’re asking about
the movement dimension of it. I’m
watching from the sidelines as a
reporter. I have a much narrower
job which is just digging for the
facts. I think that by and large, the
reporting around that movement
has been really strong from some
of the major publications. We’re
seeing almost a renaissance of this
kind of tackling of sacred cows
and untouchable subjects through
investigative journalism. So I’m
really happy about that facet of it.
TMD: Ken, often, there is
competition between journalists
to “break a story” first, but in
the situation with Weinstein,
your cooperation with Ronan
helped expose years of abuse
and misconduct. When should
journalists consider themselves
brothers in arms, and when
should they see themselves as
competitors? Can that competition
be counterproductive?
KA: Well, I think competition
spurs us to be aggressive, to do
a better job, but I think one of
the things — Ronan and I were
talking about this earlier — one of
the things that I actually marvel
at is the generosity between
The New York Times reporters
… but they came out a week
before, they were both working
on it and he (Ronan) came out,
and they were different stories
and yet they both coagulated ...
Yet, they praised each other. It
wasn’t about sharp elbows, it was
about, ‘Good job, good job.’ That’s
really extraordinary, that kind of
feeling of joy for his success.
RF: Well, it was a perfect
storm where The Times broke
these
incredibly
important
stories about sexual harassment
and then it really did add a very
different dimension five days
later that there were assault
and rape allegations. I think if it
flipped either way, the individual
stories wouldn’t have had the
same impact. Also, the point of
breaking these stories requires
a tank-like mentality for any
news organization and I think
it put both The New Yorker and
The Times in a much stronger
position. They were both going
into battle on this quote facing
down with threats and lawsuits
and so forth.
TMD: For both of you, where
is the line between activism and
journalism? Because sometimes
it can be tricky to find the line.
KA: Our job is to be an umpire
and not a participant and to call
fouls and to expose what we
think, and if we’re activists, it’s
hard for us to be credible.
RF: I talked about this a
lot. You know, my job is not to
be an activist. I’m incredibly
inspired by good activism that
can be prompted by exposing the
right facts. But I really, I think
somewhere deep in my bones —
and I don’t say this as a, you know,
a self-advertisement — I don’t
necessarily think it’s a good trait,
but I just, I get very dispassionate
when I’m looking at the facts.
Actually I had a situation in a
reporting job recently where
someone who had really viciously,
a PR person, who had smeared
a lot of women, sexual assault
accusers and worked for people
that I had, you know, personal
negative history with and was
it looked like maybe going to
be a source who would back up
the account of my stories. And I
would have given that person a
hero’s treatment in a heartbeat
that never even occurred to me,
and my editor actually said to
me, “You’re okay with putting
this person in the story, given
the horrendous things they’ve
done?” … I don’t claim to be
perfect or a robot. I definitely
have opinions. But when it comes
to that particular process an art
form, the emotion does drain out.
TMD: Journalists at all levels
have exposed sexual misconduct
on the behalf of people who
hold a substantial degree of
power, in executive offices, on
university campuses and even
inside newsrooms. It’s something
we’ve been working to do here
at The Michigan Daily and the
University of Michigan. What’s
your advice to young journalists
who may be overwhelmed by
the magnitude of reporting on
situations like this?
RF:
There’s
a
couple
of
things. One is, I’ve now had this
incredible luxury of being able
to talk to student reporters all
around the world, speaking at
schools like this one, who are so
passionate about what they do
and who, in many cases, on many
campuses, are doing important
groundbreaking
reporting.
That’s one thread of what’s
gonna carry us through these
incredibly trying times. Local
journalism is important and very
much under threat, you know,
there’s a lot of questions about
the sustainability of the business
model.
Large
scale
media
organizations, you see a mix of
incredible, important work that
really defends our democracy and
holds the powerful accountable,
and also media organizations in
the tank for powerful people and
doing exactly the wrong thing,
and covering up wrongdoing.
So we’re going to need that next
generation to navigate all of that.
And so my advice to student
journalists is to keep going. I
hope that, you know if anything
I do ever plays a little part in
igniting people’s passion for this,
I am so happy because I can tell
you, when I was in the thick of
tough stories, it was people like
Ken, who were the example that
kept me going and particularly
when you stared down a lot of
those forces of suppression that
I just mentioned, you need all
the encouragement you can get.
If I can replicate that and be for
others what a lot of reporters I
respect were for me in my most
trying times, I hope I can be. And
I get a lot of emails from student
reporters, so feel free to reach
out if you’re dealing with a tough
story and I probably will have
absolutely nothing helpful to say
but I’m happy to try.
KA:
If
you’re
a
student
newspaper and you follow this
guy, you just look at his work, and
his work will inspire you. You
say, I gotta do something, or hey
I wrote about this professor at
the University. And that’s exactly
what happened here after this guy
broke stories in The New Yorker
and The Times broke their story.
You’re not going to put that genie
back in the box. And I think young
people learn that our job in part
is to challenge power. To be an
adversary.
TMD: Given the widespread
impact
of
#MeToo,
moving
forward, where do you see the
next cultural reckoning coming
from?
KA: I mean you know you
could just go anywhere …
clearly, in Washington we talk
about the conflicts of interest.
I don’t think we’ve cracked the
surface of sexual harassment
and sexual beastly behavior.
I mean, we can list ... look,
now the latest one last week
about admission to colleges.
And here we are we’re talking
about people paying off but
there, there are much deeper
problems. When I was on the
board of my daughter’s private
school, they said we have 39
openings for kindergarten and
28 of them for legacy. So, we
have 11 openings, that’s all you
have? When you talk about two
classes and unequal treatment,
boy oh boy, that’s just right
there.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, March 20, 2019 — 3A
Chang believes the main
takeaway of the summit is to
support
local
communities
through hiring practices.
“If I can only choose one,
I’d go with: look local, build
local, hire local,” Chang wrote.
“Invest in our community for
long term economic viability
and sustainability.”
Whitmer spoke about the
state budget and prioritizing
infrastructure issues such as
the roads, education and clean
water. Whitmer also addressed
her proposal for an increase
of the gas tax and remedial
measures in the plan that seek
to compensate the working
poor and senior citizens.
“No one wants to raise the
gas tax,” Whitmer said. “I
don’t enjoy putting the solution
on the table, but it is about
time that we have serious
conversation about where we
are headed as a state and what
it’s going to take to fix these
problems. Fifteen cent gas tax
increase this fall, going up
another 15 cents six months
later, and 15 cents after that,
actually puts us in a position to
solve all of the problems that I
just went over.”
Mautone
spoke
about
his
personal
journey
from
graduating
from
college
at
Eastern Michigan University,
to working as a waiter in
Austin, Texas, to getting hired
and trained by Dell. According
to Mautone, Dell recruited
young
people
who
worked
in the service industry that
developed good communication
and problem-solving skills and
fit well into the company’s
culture.
Mautone said his experience
taught him local companies
should reconsider what they
look for when hiring employees.
He cautioned this mindset must
also apply to management.
“I want you to take a chance
and change jobs,” Mautone
said. “That is what we did at
Duo, that is why Rich asked me
to be here. We started looking
through a different lens, and
with that, we were able to find
local talent. So you might be
saying to yourself, Raffaele, I
believe in that. But does your
management
team?
Because
see that’s where I started
looking next. I was saying
to everyone, we’re going to
find interns, we’re going to
transform individuals that are
in the industry or not in this
industry, but want to be in tech,
want to be in IT, want to be in
cybersecurity, and let’s enable
them. But if you don’t have the
right infrastructure or mindset
within your organization, even
in the next layer within your
management team, it won’t
work. And I found that out
fairly quickly.”
Ida Abdalkhani, the founder
and president of Ability to
Engage,
a
marketing
and
consumer research company,
said one of the reasons she
attended the summit was to
learn how to best engage the
community and hire locally.
Abdalkhani said this has been
difficult to do.
“I wanted to learn more,
myself being an entrepreneur,
and needing to find hires —
it’s been incredibly difficult
to find people in Ann Arbor,
the majority of people that I
work with are actually outside
of Michigan, and so it’s a topic
that I’m interested in to learn
about,” Abdalkhani said. “How
can I, as someone who’s looking
for people in the state and in
Ann Arbor, think differently
about how to approach the
topic?”
LSA senior Zach Tingley
attended the summit with the
University’s Poverty Solutions
organization. Tingley said the
summit made him aware of
how managers’ hiring practices
affect
the
makeup
of
the
workforce.
“I never really think about
managerial practices and things
of that nature,” Tingley said. “I
thought it was really interesting
listening to these new hiring
practices that he was talking
about.
I
really
appreciated
being very conscious of the way
that company’s hiring practices
affect the workforce and affect
access to the workforce, and I
think I learned a lot from that
actually.”
Tingley said he appreciated
the speakers’ focus on skills
that
cannot
necessarily
be
found on a resume.
“I
really
appreciate
the
approach
they’re
taking
with
recognizing
people’s
disadvantages and recognize
their abilities in their purest
forms that aren’t necessarily
on their resume, but really
growing with people,” Tingley
said.
Q&A
From Page 1A
WHITMER
From Page 1A
FARROW
From Page 1A
CSG
From Page 1A
Farrow won a Pulitzer Prize
for his reporting on Weinstein, an
award he shared with Jodi Kantor
and Megan Twohey of The New
York Times.
Farrow said while he had seen a
shift in society and the way people
responded to reports of sexual
misconduct when he first wrote
about Weinstein in October 2017,
there were still power imbalances
obstructing accountability.
“I think we have a long way to
go,” Farrow said. “I don’t think
we’ve achieved accountability, I
don’t think we have in the media
fully come to grips with the extent
to which we were failing to the
hold the powerful accountable and
contributed to a cover-up culture.
I don’t think we’ve extended
the
tentative
steps
towards
accountability to all of the segments
of society that desperately need it.
It is still very much a set of stories
that has been dominated by affluent
people, white people, people with
a public profile. All of that needs to
change.”
Daily reporters Sammy Sussman,
Music, Theatre & Dance sophomore,
and Nisa Khan, Information senior,
introduced Farrow, discussing how
his work influenced their own.
Sussman documented 40 years
of misconduct allegations against
Music, Theatre & Dance professor
Stephen Shipps. Khan and LSA
junior Maya Goldman, The Daily’s
editor in chief, followed a University
student
through
the
difficult
process of reporting a sexual assault
to the administration.
Farrow began the conversation
by crediting the women willing to
go on the record for the success of
the story and the cultural reckoning
that followed.
“It’s important to point out what
the sources in those stories were
living through was exponentially
more difficult than anything I dealt
with as a reporter,” Farrow said. “I
wasn’t reliving the intense personal
trauma. I didn’t have to grapple
with the extra dimension of not only
might my career fall apart, but also
I’m going to be staring down this
very specific kind of stigma that
sexual violence carries.”
Auletta first tried to report on
allegations against Weinstein in
2002 but struggled to get sources to
go on the record. He was working on
a profile of Weinstein for The New
Yorker, and when he confronted
him with allegations of rape, Auletta
said Weinstein was enraged.
“I failed to get names,” Auletta
said. “When I confronted Harvey
Weinstein at the time, Harvey said
they were consensual affairs. We
had to decide at The New Yorker,
are we the National Inquirer, are
we going publish anonymous versus
him publicly saying it didn’t happen?
And we didn’t publish it.”
According to Auletta, Weinstein’s
behavior was an open secret in the
industry and for many years, rumors
about
him
circulated.
Auletta
congratulated Farrow on being able
to publish allegations against him.
Farrow said previous survivors
of sexual assault who had come
forward with allegations against
powerful men like Bill Cosby and
Roger Ailes made his reporting
possible and thanked the women
who spoke to him for his article.
“Although I couldn’t tell those
sources as they were doing this
incredibly brave thing that they
would be heard, that there would
be a version of the universe that we
would all live in a year later where
people would care about their
stories and the stories would matter
and there would be accountability
because of them,” Farrow said.
“But I could say for the first time in
recent history, hey, there are some
slivers of precedent here that are
promising.”
LSA
sophomore
Sophie
Underwood said Farrow’s lecture
interested
her
because
she
eventually wants to go into the film
and TV industry.
“Media plays a big role in society
and in uncovering these sorts
of events that would have just
remained hidden because of the
major power that certain people
have in the industry and how they
abuse that power, and I think that
journalism is one of those ways
to check that abuse of power,”
Underwood said.
During a Q&A session, American
Culture lecturer Emily Lawsin
asked Farrow about the University’s
track record on handling sexual
assault cases, citing a 2015 survey
which found prevalent instances
of misconduct among students.
Farrow said college campuses
were among the many segments of
society that needed to confront the
manner in which they responded to
claims of sexual violence.
“There are a lot of spaces that need
serious reforms to create a safe space
for people who should never have to
be survivors of sexual violence again
but too often are,” Farrow said. “In
terms of the specific intricacies of
Title IX offices on this campus and
others, those systems are broken. I
have not reported on the University
of Michigan specifically, but across
the country, they are broken. The
striking thing is that both accusers
and accused often walk away from
Title IX processes on campus
feeling that the process was unjust,
that there wasn’t a fair hearing of
facts.”
One of the audience members
criticized Farrow for encouraging
“McCarthyesque”
tactics
and
undermining due process. Farrow
began to address the comment,
but the audience member left
immediately
after
voicing
his
complaint.
“You should see my Twitter
mentions,” Farrow said. “That’s
tame.”
Farrow also touched on the
politicization of sexual misconduct
claims,
a
criticism
heavily
associated with allegations made
against Kavanaugh during his
Supreme
Court
confirmation
hearing before the U.S. Senate in
the fall. Professor Christine Blasey
Ford said Kavanaugh tried to rape
her when they were teenagers and
Deborah Ramirez, who attended
Yale University with Kavanaugh,
accused him of sexual misconduct.
Farrow and his colleague at The
New Yorker broke news of Ramirez’s
allegations in September.
Whether
or
not
someone
thought the allegations were true
depended largely on political
affiliation, with a majority of
Democrats believing Ford and a
majority of Republicans believing
Kavanaugh.
Farrow
said
he
approached allegations of sexual
assault based on the merits of
the claims, not who was making
them.
“Everything gets thrust into this
cauldron of partisan mistrust, and
what’s saddening about that is it’s
fundamentally antithetical to what
we do as investigative reporters,”
Farrow said. “If the evidence is
there, I’ll do a body of reporting
about anyone of any persuasion …
There is such a shrinking space for
that kind of approach and for any
kind of understanding that anyone
might genuinely have that approach.
There’s this assumption that you just
must be on our side or the other side
and this crushing disappointment
when it proves out that you’re not on
anyone’s side.”
Farrow said he hoped the
assumption of politically motivated
journalism would abate.
“I hate partisanship, and I hope
fact-based reporting is the antidote
for it,” Farrow said.
He began his presentation by
reading from Saturday’s official
University statement on the
situation, as well as an excerpt
from DPSS Executive Director
Eddie
Washington’s
official
statement on March 17.
“The news of a shooter
on campus was a terrifying
and traumatic experience for
members of our community —
both for people near Mason Hall
when the reports were coming in
as well as anyone who received
the alert from afar,” Washington
wrote in the statement. “After a
thorough search of Angell and
Mason Halls, officers were able
to confirm the reports were
related to balloons popping in
the area, which sounded like
shots being fired. Even though
this was a false alarm, we are
grateful for members of our
community who made the call to
police to report it.”
Baker
shared
DPSS’
and
Counseling and Psychological
Services’ contact information
and explained how students,
parents
and
community
members can register their
cell phone numbers through
Wolverine Access to receive
emergency alerts. Alerts are
offered through a text message,
phone call or both, and the
person registering their number
chooses the way they wish to be
notified.
“I read a few statements and
I heard things, students saying,
‘I didn’t get any type of alert,’”
Baker said. “That’s telling me
those students, if they haven’t
registered for emergency alerts,
need to make sure that they
are. We do know that there
were
some
communication
issues in terms of how the alerts
were sent out due to cell phone
towers and their capacities over
the weekend.”
Emergency alerts are also
available through the Michigan
app and the new version of
the DPSS app, Baker said. He
encouraged Assembly members to
sign up for both text message and
phone call notifications through
Wolverine Access in addition to
downloading both apps.
Baker
continued
his
presentation by addressing the
University’s protocol in the event
of an emergency. He emphasized
the need to use the “run, hide,
fight” protocol implemented by
DPSS in regards to situations
involving an active attacker.
“It’s
not
necessarily
hide
and then run and then fight,”
Baker said. “It is run or hide or
fight. Again, you have to make
that determination of what that
means … If there’s a threat that’s
immediately present to you, it’s
up to you to determine what your
response is going to be.”
Baker said investigation of
Saturday’s events remains ongoing
and the University and DPSS are
looking into the delay in alerts to
the campus community.
“The University and DPSS,
we’ve
already
transitioned
our gears into active action
and figuring out what exactly
happened, what happened with
communication, what happened
with
responses,”
Baker
said.
“We’re working on really getting
the best of that.”
After
Baker’s
presentation,
members
voiced
concerns
regarding how Saturday’s situation
was handled. LSA fifth year Cece
Huddleston asked Baker about
the delay of alerts from DPSS.
Although Huddleston was not
near Mason Hall at the time, she
said she was very disappointed in
the way the situation was notified
to students across campus.
“I wouldn’t be a good LSA rep
if I didn’t let you know that pretty
much everybody in my community
was
very
disappointed,”
Huddleston said. “We heard in
our group chat between 4:00 and
4:15 about an active shooter being
on campus, but I just looked up the
first tweet from DPSS was at 5:04
... Being so close to campus and not
knowing what’s going on is very
scary.”
Huddleston also questioned
whether the balloon popping that
caused reports of an active shooter
were a malicious act. She said
as a member of a marginalized
community, she along with others
in the community thought the
balloon popping occurring during
a vigil for the New Zealand victims
seemed almost too convenient.
Baker said he is not directly
involved in the investigation.
He answered Huddleston by
explaining that he has not heard of
any malicious intent.
“From what I understand, the
investigation is still ongoing,”
Baker said. “From what I’ve been
told, there was no malicious intent.
I know that might differ from the
perception of the community, but
that’s all I can share right now.”
In
addition
to
Baker’s
presentation,
CSG
President
Daniel Greene, Public Policy
senior, along with LSA senior
Rafik Issa and LSA senior Edward
Samir Haraka, presented a new
resolution
encouraging
the
implementation of a well-being
fee. If passed, the resolution would
add a $19.33 well-being fee to
student tuition to expand mental
health services and attempt to
improve overall well-being on
campus.