October 11, 2017

At what point does the dam burst? And why does it take so damn long when it comes to powerful men and sexual attacks?

Rachel Maddow look a long segment last night about the "hiding in plain sight" element of sexual harassment and worse from powerful men.

She covered Bill Cosby.

Roger Ailes. Who got forty million dollars to leave.

Then Bill O'Reilly.

The "collapse of these icons, who were previously untouchable," is happening in what historians will call The Trump Era.

And the Access Hollywood tape.

And after that tape's release about one year ago, more than a dozen women came forward to accuse Trump of doing what he bragged about on that tape. Trump threatened to sue all of them (he never did) and said some were "not attractive enough" to "deserve" that attention.

Which brings us to Harvey Weinstein.

And Rachel (and her interns and producers) found multiple examples of Harvey Weinstein's behavior as a real open joke in the entertainment industry. It was a running joke on NBC's 30 Rock. And a joke, a real laugh line, at the Academy Awards nomination announcements.

"This behavior was widely known, and widely discussed, in the entertainment industry."

And Weinstein's power to keep that silent in the larger world, either by buying silence from his victims, or threatening lawsuits against those who might out him, even reached NBC. This is worth a click, because Rachel is not afraid to ask about the suits upstairs at NBC, and how they, her bosses, decided against running this story out of fear of lawsuit from Weinstein.

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