Friday, October 13, 2017

Taking a Hachette to Harvey

On Friday the 13th, no less!

After all the weining the tapestry of the agenda begins to be filled. 

Let's belly up to the bar for a front row stool to start:

"At Barstool, a one-woman revolt against ‘I won’t be offended’ clause" by Stephanie Ebbert Globe Staff  October 12, 2017

Say you interview for a job at an edgy media company. You take a closer look at the contract and see exactly what to expect at your new workplace: Exposure to material involving nudity, sexual scenarios, racial epithets, suggestive gestures, profanity, and stereotyping. Sign here if you’re still on board and can commit to not being offended.

Do you sign?

Elika Sadeghi did not. The sports personality turned down a two-year contract with the provocative bro website Barstool Sports this summer after balking at the language embedded in her contract.

On Thursday, she revealed that language on Twitter, without disclosing the name of the company. And the boss she’d turned down immediately outed himself and claimed victimhood, excoriating his accuser as an opportunist trying to get attention.

Sound familiar?

The quickening drumbeat of sexual harassment allegations, from last year’s presidential election to Fox News to Hollywood, has prompted women everywhere to speak out about their own stories of workplace harassment from the harrowing to the annoying. (One writer’s prompt — “When did you meet YOUR Harvey Weinstein?” — elicited more than 5,000 responses on Twitter in the days after claims were published about the Hollywood producer.)

However emboldened, though, individual women often find their revelations dismissed by those who question their motives for coming forward, their veracity, and their participation in industries in which they can be objectified. 

Sadly, you need to judge each case on its own merits. What the newspaper appears to be pushing is a blanket belief. 

Btw, this is the same pre$$ that covered for the scum and laughed in 2013.

“Elika knew what kind of company #Barstool was, contract should’ve been no surprise,” one woman wrote on Twitter.

Another woman called Sadeghi’s announcement “5 steps back for the female gender,” while using the hashtags #triggered and #snowflake. The latter is an epithet often aimed at liberals who melt easily at provocation.

Not the antifa thugs.

Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy fumed about the revelation in a videotaped announcement on the website, saying the company does not tolerate sexual harassment. He said Sadeghi was capitalizing on the Hollywood scandal to edge her way into the spotlight.

“She’s trying to make herself part of this story,” Portnoy said on the video.

Barstool Sports is an online sports and comedy site with the disparaging tone of talk radio and a page devoted to photos of scantily clad women. The Boston-founded company, which moved to Manhattan last year, has long had a reputation for unsubtle misogyny: Portnoy, who calls himself “El Presidente,” has previously offended rape victims with off-color jokes.

It's okay when advertisers use it to sell products, though. Then it is empowering women.

Once again, an actual issue and crisis is veering way off course and out of control and being driven to ridiculous extremes by the agenda-pushing pre$$.

In an interview before hanging up on a Globe reporter, he said he had offered to withdraw or rewrite the contract clause to persuade Sadeghi to work there. (Sadeghi would not comment.) 

That never wins them over.

The language that Sadeghi posted Thursday, which Portnoy described as “pretty boilerplate stuff” for the entertainment industry, had asked her to acknowledge that her work could expose her to offensive language — but that she wouldn’t be offended.

“I understand and acknowledge that as part of my job I may be exposed to speech and conduct that explicitly relates to sex, sexual orientation, gender, national origin, religion, disability and age,” the language stated.

“I expressly agree and represent that I do not object to being exposed to such speech and conduct and do not find it otherwise offensive or objectionable and that I am willing to work in such an environment.”

Sadeghi said on Twitter that she would have turned down the job, even if the language were eliminated.

“How could I work for them, knowing it exists?” she wrote. “But would I have walked, if I needed the money?”

She has since been named a cohost of pre- and post-NFL game shows for NextVR, which broadcasts live sports events in virtual reality.

????????????

Portnoy said that Barstool Sports began using such legal clauses after being bought last year by the Chernin Group, founded by former News Corp. president Peter Chernin.

A Los Angeles entertainment attorney said he has been advising his entertainment clients to adopt such language — in forms, if not in employment contracts — since he successfully defended Warner Brothers in a groundbreaking 2006 case involving alleged sexual harassment among writers on the TV comedy series “Friends.”

WHAT?

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all,” said the attorney, Adam Levin. “If you have bank tellers, you’re not going to have them sign this form. Because as a bank teller, being exposed to sexual speech is not a natural part of the job. But when you take a job in the motion picture industry or the advertising industry, then it’s a whole different matter.”

In the “Friends” case, the California Supreme Court ruled that vulgar comments reflected the “creative workplace” and were not directed at the woman who sued them, but several attorneys who handle sexual harassment cases said such language seems aimed at inoculating a company against future claims — essentially, blaming the victim for not having raised objections when she was hired.

“In a typical sexual harassment case, the individual who’s claiming to be harassed needs to actually feel that they’ve been exposed to harassment, and it needs to have impacted them in some way. If they’re not offended by it, that takes away that aspect of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment,” said Monica Shah a partner in the Boston law firm of Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein.

She questioned whether a clause like the one proposed by Barstool Sports could be legally enforceable.

“What they’re trying to do is to say a raunchy environment is part of our business model,” said Steven Rubin, a plaintiff’s employment attorney in Los Angeles. “I find that very, very questionable.”

The CEO of Barstool is a woman, Erika K. Nardini, who vigorously defended the company’s culture in her own tweets on Thursday. Nardini did not respond to requests for comment.....

How ironic.

I'm glad I don't drink.

--more--"

So where is the dart board?

"NYC, London police taking fresh look at Weinstein claims" by Colleen Long Associated Press  October 12, 2017

NEW YORK — Police detectives in New York City and London are taking a fresh look into sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein now that some 30 women have accused the Hollywood film producer of inappropriate conduct.

So far, no filed complaints have been found, but authorities are encouraging anyone with information on Weinstein to contact the department.

London police were also looking into a claim it had received from the Merseyside force in northwest England, British media reported Thursday. Merseyside police said the allegation was made a day earlier and concerned ‘‘an alleged sexual assault in the London area in the 1980s.’’

Some 30 women — including actresses Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, and Gwyneth Paltrow — have spoken out recently to say Weinstein had sexually harassed or sexually assaulted them. Weinstein was fired Sunday by The Weinstein Co., a studio he cofounded with his brother.

Some of the allegations involved conduct at hotels in Beverly Hills, but police there didn’t return calls on whether they were investigating any possible crimes. The Los Angeles Police Department has no open investigations.

Meanwhile, Rose McGowan said in a tweet Thursday that ‘‘HW raped me.’’

In a series of tweets Thursday, McGowan addresses Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and says that she repeatedly told an Amazon Studios executive that ‘‘HW raped me.’’ McGowan says the executive told her it wasn’t proven and she said, ‘‘I am the proof.’’

In response Amazon donated $1m to Dorchester nonprofit and got her account shut down.

McGowan last year said that she had been raped by a ‘‘studio head.’’ The New Yorker expose that ran Tuesday reported that Weinstein had allegedly sexually assaulted three women. The New York Times earlier reported that Weinstein paid a financial settlement to McGowan in 1997.

Representatives for Amazon did not immediately comment.

Also Thursday, Hachette Book Group said that it is shutting down the Weinstein Co.’s publishing imprint, Weinstein Books. Books that are under contract will be published by the company’s Hachette Books imprint, and people working at Weinstein Books will join the Hachette imprint, according to Michael Pietsch, chief executive of Hachette Book Group.

The imprint, which was originally called Miramax Books, was founded in 2001 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein. It relaunched in 2009 as part of Perseus Books, an independent publishing company that Hachette bought in 2016. The imprint typically publishes around 10 new titles a year.

Despite the Weinstein’s cachet in the entertainment industry, Weinstein Books never made much of a mark in the literary world. Most of its titles tend to be celebrity-driven memoirs and diet and wellness books. 

Harvey obviously doesn't read those kind of books.

In The New Yorker expose, at least one other unnamed woman said she was raped by Weinstein, but the article did not disclose when or where it happened.

New York detectives already investigated Weinstein once, the 2015 probe when an Italian model said the studio executive grabbed her breasts and groped her. Detectives set up a sting where they recorded a conversation between the woman and Weinstein while he tried to persuade her to come into his hotel room. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said prosecutors decided there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute the case. The statute of limitations has since expired.

The political contributions flowed soon after.

On Thursday, actress Kate Beckinsale recounted that she was 17 when Weinstein greeted her in his bathrobe. Years later, Beckinsale said, she met Weinstein again and he asked if he had tried anything at their first meeting. She said she realized ‘‘he couldn’t remember if he had assaulted me or not.’’

The actress said she rejected several offers over the years to work with Weinstein, and he would often respond with anger, profanity, and threats. She called for industry changes to be made to ‘‘stop allowing our young women to be sexual cannon fodder.’’

--more--"

It's still a joke to the Boston Globe, and it's not the only industry with a problem:

"Fidelity said to fire star fund manager after sexual harassment allegation" Globe Staff  October 12, 2017

Fidelity Investments fired one of its top fund managers after he was accused of sexual harassment by a female employee, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.

The decision to dismiss 41-year-old Gavin Baker was made by Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson after a 26-year-old equity research analyst filed a complaint against Baker with the human resources department, the person said. His firing was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Not the Globe?

Baker managed the $14.6 billion Fidelity OTC Portfolio and was known as a savvy investor in technology stocks. He also bought stakes in privately held companies such as Uber.

Not to worry.

“Gavin left Fidelity amicably a few weeks before planning to become engaged to his longtime girlfriend who is an analyst and fund manager there, as he believes his new fiancee and he should not work at the same firm,” a spokeswoman for Baker said in a statement. “After a great 18 years at Fidelity that he’s very grateful to have experienced he’s excited to begin a new job later this month.”

A Fidelity spokesman declined to comment on Baker. “However, speaking generally, when allegations of these sorts arise, we investigate them immediately and take prompt and appropriate action,” he said.....

--more--"

Related:

"The owner of the nation’s last Howard Johnson restaurant has been charged with sexually abusing or harassing more than a dozen female employees of his upstate New York business. The Warren County Sheriff’s Deputy announced Wednesday that 65-year-old Jonathan LaRock was arrested on charges of sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child. Deputies say the investigation started last week after a 17-year-old girl told police she had been sexually harassed by LaRock while working at his eatery in Lake George, a popular Adirondack tourist destination 55 miles north of Albany. Police say he sexually harassed about 15 female employees ranging in age from 14 to 43 over a one-year period. LaRock is being held pending arraignment Thursday. It couldn’t be determined if he has a lawyer."

All he did was ask them to go to lunch?

Also see
:

"What’s more worrying is that our president is intentionally misleading the public to discredit media....."

As opposed to misleading us to war?

Trump gives them a thumbs down and all of a sudden the already-discredited media care.

What do the people say?

NESN Suspends Anchor For Unleashing Stream Of Insults At Woman Who Told Him No

He needs an etiquette boot camp.

At least BU is still a sanctuary, and the Russians are the worst harassers of all.

"MBTA to convene task force after surge of deaths on rail tracks" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff  October 12, 2017

State officials have convened a special working group and are asking for help from the federal government to counter a sharp and sudden increase in the number of people killed by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority trains in recent months.

Since July 1, 11 people have been struck and killed on MBTA rail tracks — including two this week alone. The agency reported 22 deaths in its most recent fiscal year, which ended June 30, double the number from the previous year.

Though MBTA officials would not say what the cause of each of the recent accidents was, the agency in the past has said most train deaths were suicides. The recent increase comes despite years of efforts by the federal government to curtail railway suicides and other deaths on the tracks.

MBTA general manager Luis Ramirez said he has formed a working group that could include health professionals to study solutions to the problem.

And Governor Charlie Baker said Thursday that the state would “find out if there’s a conversation we can have” with the federal government and other rail systems to learn strategies to prevent people from accessing the rails.

“This is something that’s obviously a concern for us and I know it’s a concern for folks in other parts of the country as well,” Baker said.

The number of suicides overall has been increasing in recent years in Massachusetts, and nationally as well. Those by train still remain a small percentage of total suicides.....

And yet there it is on the top of the front page.

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Breaking: Harvey Weinstein emigrating to India

Can't help but wonder if this is another well-timed piece of psyop s**tLooks like Pakistan a friend now and Trump a champion of women.

******************

On more important matters, you have Kerry over at HUBweek touting the latest slop by Enima (he's now a Sith like the one he used to rant against). RIP, Slim

For more insight you will have to go here. For $ome rea$on they never got back around to the "talk about artificial intelligence and the automation of jobs, as well as the ethics involved in giving more decision-making authority to machines." Too busy passing out money I guess. 

As for the other things, I didn't have time to read the droning on and onWhen's lunch?

As for Iran, now it is also the Israeli prerogative to approve what unity amongst Palestinians will be acceptable. I'm told the only reason there is "progress" on the issue is because "Israel has interests in easing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza." 

Since when, WaPo? They could have done something anytime. No one was holding them back from relenting on the siege. Instead they cut off power the last few months. I mean, it is pretty clear who is pulling whose strings.

The WaPo narrative is Trump is leaving the Puerto Ricans to die, with the Globe hinting that he is insane (every thing will be all right here, though). Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Can't even count on the weatherman anymore.

Related

"Fewer people sought unemployment benefits last week as the impact of last month’s hurricanes on the US economy fades....."

Only the amount of ink they get is fading.

Btw, have you seen what casinos do to good people? 

How interesting that Vegas has been bumped from my paper. It's back to the show!

"US stock indexes retreated from record highs Thursday as retailers and media companies declined and investors shrugged at quarterly reports from a few big banks. Clothing companies and other retailers fell after the women’s clothing company J. Jill slashed its third-quarter forecast. The stock lost more than half its value. JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup did better than analysts expected in the third quarter, but their stocks fell, and so did shares of other banks. They’ve made big gains over the last month, though....." 

Then all is right with the world.

Time to take a knee.