I have an idea on how to react: we don’t value women as a society and so there is no consensus around “sexual assault is bad.” There are literally reporters who not only say “cancer is bad” but also actively fundraise to end cancer and are therefore actual activists.
Don’t get me wrong, cancer *is* bad. But it’s wild reporters will put on hats to symbolize their belief that cancer is bad to fundraise for cancer research but we can’t agree sexual assault is bad. Likely because for years, men in power exerted their power by ignoring consent.
Reporters should be allowed to fundraise to end cancer because cancer is bad! They also should be able to disclose that they are sexual assault survivors (or even fundraise for RAINN) because sexual assault is bad and there are no “both sides” to that issue.
Tl;dr imagine a major nat’l news outlet telling a cancer survivor they couldn’t cover all of science or medicine. Because that’s what the @washingtonpost effectively did to @feliciasonmez. There would be universal outrage! Ask yourself what it says about us that there isn’t here.
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In @newrepublic, I ask, if an attempted mass execution at the Capitol—where reporters could have died and Republicans were both accomplices to the crime and rejected for history that their lives mattered—doesn’t end both sides journalism, what will? newrepublic.com/article/161361…
Editors and outlets have an obligation to protect their reporters. This used to mean from bullying sources who were unhappy with stories. We are now asking Capitol Hill journalists to divorce their humanity from their reporting, which is dangerous both for them and for the public
Watching the impeachment and professionals who were both survivors and chroniclers of the crime contort themselves into treating both sides as equivalent when one side clearly tried to get them killed was deeply painful for me.
The rarest, most beautiful thing in journalism is finding an editor you love, and let me tell you, there was no one I loved working with more than @jerryadler. He was based in NYC when I was in DC, and though we talked every day, it was months before we first met IRL.
On the day we finally met, I remember walking into the @YahooNews news room and just yelling around, "Where's Jerry?!" (Because I am truly insane). As it was the #beforetimes, when I found him, I gave him the biggest hug. @jerryadler is smart, witty and a writer's editor.
Typical Brooklyn, @jerryadler uses his top-notch snark to mask his softness of heart. This dichotomy inspired me to start calling him "JerBear," at first as a kind of joke. But then it stuck because I meant it. Every time I gave Jerry a story, it came back better—and quickly!
A picture posted by @careyseuthe of her and Miss Rose, a gregarious cashier in the small carryout restaurant on the Senate side of the Capitol, has made me sad anew over just how devastating it was to see the confederate flag in the building, with a primarily Black support staff.
In 2013, the sandwich maker in that small Capitol restaurant died during Ted Cruz’s ill-fated shutdown of the government. For a few days I thought maybe he was furloughed but when I realized he wasn’t, I wrote a eulogy for him in @rollcall. rollcall.com/2013/11/05/cap…
These maintenance and food service jobs at the Capitol do not pay enough but I will say that in a complex that often can feel like a high school, you get to know the people who keep the lights on and senators fed. They take great pride in this work.
I’m so grateful for this picture of @AndyKimNJ taken by @andyharnik. I think a lot about how I will explain difficult things to our son and this picture is a shining light: The people we send to Washington to represent us are caretakers of the most precious thing, our republic /1
I will tell him that just as we are caretakers for him on hard days and easy days, bad days and good days—and it is our highest responsibility to protect him with the pride and love commensurate with his preciousness—so, too, are our congresspeople for our government. /2
In this photo, after one of the darkest if not the darkest day in the history of the Capitol building, @AndyKimNJ took his caretaking responsibility literally, telling CBS he felt compelled to pick up the pieces because some things are bigger than us. That’s so important /3