Barely a week seems to go by without another powerful man accused of sexual harassment and indecent assault. Today, The Age has reported fresh allegations against Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, who’s currently embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal being investigated by the Melbourne City Council. It’s become a familiar story, a well-established pattern, following the revelations last year about Fox News’ Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly, producer Harvey Weinstein and others. But one thing that doesn’t always follow the same pattern is how the accused men react.
Robert Doyle — the spinner
Doyle has denied all the allegations, and gone into full reputation-protection mode. Currently facing an investigation by his council (where a report is due within days), the Lord Mayor has employed a public relations firm. The Age reports today that the firm released text messages between one of the alleged victims and Doyle, while the Herald Sun appears to have published some of those messages in its coverage today.
Craig McLachlan — the all-caps defence
Explosive revelations from Fairfax and the ABC about the long-time darling of Australian TV and theatre this week have been roundly rejected by McLachlan. He declined interview requests for the reports yesterday, but responded to allegations by denying all. Excerpts of his statement published by Fairfax included his denial of the allegations made, saying that they were “baseless” and “they seem to be simple inventions, perhaps made for financial reasons, perhaps to gain notoriety … These allegations are ALL made up.” He also said he hadn’t made any unwanted sexual advances: “I am, and have been at all relevant times, in a stable relationship with my long-term partner.”
Don Burke — the tell-all interview
The same reporting team behind the McLachlan story reported on allegations of bullying and indecent behaviour against former Nine Network gardening star Don Burke. Burke chose to respond to the story by appearing on A Current Affair on Nine for an interview with Tracy Grimshaw — someone he may have thought would go easy on him, but didn’t. Burke apologised in the interview for being too hard on staff, and suggested some of his behaviour was due to suffering self-diagnosed Asperger’s syndrome. He denied any allegations of sexual or indecent harassment or behaviour.
Geoffrey Rush — the lawyer
The Daily Telegraph controversially reported on a report made to Sydney Theatre Company about actor Geoffrey Rush’s behaviour while performing in King Lear. Rush had not been told of the allegations and promptly lodged a defamation lawsuit against the News Corp publication, which is yet to be heard.
Harvey Weinstein — the full gamut
The name that prompted the biggest global reaction and movement, Harvey Weinstein has responded to many allegations against him in various ways: he’s denied some, sued over others, said sorry, and has gone to therapy.
Kevin Spacey — the coming-out
Actor Kevin Spacey was accused of inappropriate sexual advances to an underage boy shortly after the Weinstein revelations last year, and responded by releasing a statement saying he had no memory of the incident, apologising and also, most controversially, coming out as gay in what appeared to be a deflection from the accusations.
Louis CK — the unqualified admission
When allegations of sexual misconduct against Louis CK were published in November, he also responded with a statement. In it he admitted all the allegations in a statement saying, “these stories are true”. His apology was unqualified, and his statement ended by saying he was taking a step back to “listen”.
No, not Kevin Spacey. One of my most favourite movies is “American Beauty” and I absolutely love Kevin Spacey in this movie. How can I look at this man the same way after the allegations of underage sexual assault? In American Beauty he has a relationship with his teenage daughter’s friend. I hope movie hasn’t become reality.
Are there any honourable men left?
Man Oh Man!
WTF is going on in the world lately? The aliens who are running this experiment on planet earth, must be putting something in the water or atmosphere.
Zeke I believe there are an abundance of “honorable Men” out there. This current fad for shaming and blaming “Old White Men” for everything since the beginning of time, is starting to really infuriate me. Yes a number of people (any colour you like) in positions of power have used that power to gain privilege and control over things and people. Most notably Yank Presidents and other political leaders, but lots of others of the “Elite”.
Now with the Media looking to fill the 24 Hr cycle any old crap gets a megga beatup.
The ” Perpetually Enraged Mob ” can get enraged if anyone says anything to do with race or origin for non whites but slag off white MEN to your hearts content.
I do not believe that female persons should have to put up with harassment at work, or play but I have a suspicion that there would be very few out there who haven’t told a joke because it was funny or clever which someone with a grudge could construe as offensive or sexist and thus harassment. Or made some quip or remark the same effect.
I have also had many occasions when a female person has made similar jokes and remarks. Also there have been many occasions where both parties had a tete-a-tete and enjoyed the interaction. But now, if one of them had a grudge, I would be in deep for harassment, should they so desire.
I also suspect that if I was wealthy some might see an opportunity to screw me over for a large amount of money, with a claim of harassment.
Further enraging me are adverts on TV showing men to be dolts and female persons as all-wise. Like that one for garden watering stuff. Where are the “Perpetually Enraged “when they’re needed?
I agree with a lot of what you write but I’m worried about censorship after hearing about them cancelling the latest Doctor Blake Mysteries because of the media attention on Craig McLachlan. Are they also going to ban the showing of American Beauty on TV or ban any film by Weinstein?
I don’t understand this censorship. The actor in the movie is not the person, although Spacey mentioned that his character in American Beauty to be close to his own nature.
The Doctor Blake stuff is a bit OTT. I can understand suspending current production but why can old episodes? There are plenty of actual (not just accused) criminals still circulating in the media. “Rosemary’s Baby” anyone?
God forbid, it’s clear the entertainment industry is the hiding place of those who are either weak or fear being exposed of their true nature. I’m sorry to rain on your parade but the more removed from reality the more likely your “heroes will wear feet of clay”. It’s so disappointing but if it’s any consolation any movie with Rock Hudson has the same effect.
And not one of these approaches has worked in the slightest. With the possible exception of Rush, for whom the circumstances arent remotely clear, they all look just as guilty after going into damage control.
Yes Phen I couldn’t agree with you more, the fact that Weinstein had a history for this behaviour as long as your arm & his “meetings” were an “open secret” in the business doesn’t help either, also the experiences these women have are so similar. (he operates in a certain way) He has also been sued by quite a few women prior to his outing, so he can’t stick with his current defences. It’s one thing to defend your position, but when you find yourself constantly altering course as he does there are most likely to be real credibility issues later on down the line. The fact that they have apart from Rush gone head on (I feel there are definitely problems around this particular claim as well as Newscrap were in too much of a hurry to put out/make a story out of something that probably never existed in the first place. Rush has done the sensible thing as whatever story that may or may not have existed can’t be examined until the closure on the defamation case occurs, which could take months. I would suggest that by wheeling in the lawyers & the bean counters this could play against all of them as it will make them look far more guilty than some of them may have been in the first place. The fact that Louis CK man’s up and admits fault, is the best approach so far.
As illustrated by the Spacey allegations, this is not about sex, it is about power, hierarchy & obedience of underlings, biding their time & holding their tongues in the expectation that they too will, someday, be able to be just as abusive and ugly.
A concise encapsulation of the ‘Star’ system.
Well said AR…right on the money!
This is the problem when a system that was in common use, the casting couch has changed it’s dynamic or its MO, to move with the times, but like AR notes it’s a hierarchy that uses power & money to keep it’s pawns under control & sleeping with the pawns is an unsubtle way of reminding them of whose running the show.
It seems to me that a lot of ‘Old White Men’ are now reaping what they’ve sown. All that they once eagerly abused and disempowered others to gain is now being returned to them as attention they richly earn and deserve!
Unfortunately, the rest of us old white men who never did those things are also reaping what these clowns have sown. I for one am totally over hearing elderly aggressive feminists trying to make men uncomfortable just because they’re men. And really, to be able to ruin a man’s career by naming and shaming without evidence ever having to be presented is bordering on criminal behaviour. Let’s get these cases into court.
If you are referring to me as an elderly, aggressive feminist trying to make men uncomfortable and ruin their careers, you’re quite wrong.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to ‘get these cases into court’? Perhaps you need to be an elderly, aggressive feminist facing off against the tidal wave of ‘old white men’ in the judiciary to know anything about it!
Trouble is Karen, it doesn’t have to go to Court to ruin someone’s life or career.
An accusation is usually enough these days, especially if the “media ” get onto it.
A schoolteacher reprimands a teenage girl for some misdemeanor. She out of spite claims he assaulted her. He’s out of a job. (true story) Similar story in a work situation, the Boss panics and sacks the bloke. And so on.
BTW do you like the irony of the ABC interview with three girls at the Summernats. They claim to have been harassed by the some blokes, then go on to say that one of them had “got her tits out”previously.
Is it not written – “as ye sow so shall you reap”?
Roam around undressed and someone is bound to comment, BUT, harassment – I wonder.
I said before NO female person or bloke or LGBTI person should be subjected to sexual harassment or intimidation anywhere.
However the definition of that is getting very convoluted with no clear boundaries.
Only ‘convoluted’ is how you see it? It’s perfectly plain to me. Any persistent unwanted attention, physical or verbal, is harassment. Whether there is a sexual content in that is applicable to each situation. However, it appears that it is a large part of the whole.
Chris Gayle is a young black man. Does he count?
That is the problem with rich ‘Old White Men,’ adding in usually decrepit & ugly as well in this observation, as Weinstein seemed to think that he could get away with it.
It’s turned into a Twitter Lynch mob of all things white & male. If it’s taking on people abusing power, as a man, I’m on your side. If it’s purely about feeling good and making it a gender issue I have nothing to say. Conflating the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ hurts the victims. Going after every allegation as an unthinking mob risks an innocent victim – with possibly Geoffrey Rush being the first.
And what was the frigging point of this article? You forgot to mention Louie CK admitted and owned his actions (different) and point out the Kevin spaceys response was different to the others!
I agree with you Craig, but coming from a feminist point of view, your always going to get those that are determined to make something out of it, to fit with their agenda, it is the way things are these days.