Al Franken and the Media Double Standard

As of late there have been two major politicians accused of sexual misconduct. One is a powerful Republican and the other a powerful Democrat. Al Franken (D) and Roy Moore (R) are in similar, inexcusable circumstances, but are experiencing drastically different treatment.

Roy Moore of Alabama has been accused by eight women of sexual misconduct, spanning the course of decades. Many powerful Republican leaders have pulled their support for Moore. They include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Colorado Senator Cory Gardner. However, Moore is running for the US Senate in Alabama in two weeks against Democrat Doug Jones. If Doug Jones were to win, he would be the first Democratic Senator from Alabama in over 20 years.

 

Despite the allegations, many in the Republican party will still vote for Moore in an effort to block a Democratic win. Donald Trump is playing into the classic “he said, she said” dilemma that occurs in these cases. He will support Moore just to win. For Trump, it is imperative that he maintain a healthy majority in the Senate so his tax bill has a better chance of passing.

The media and Democrats are painting Roy Moore as the most villainous cretin ever to exist in American politics. His behavior is disgusting, granted, but to politicize sexual assault and condemn one side but not the other is extremely disturbing.

Al Franken, who is also facing allegations of sexual misconduct, is enjoying silence from the media scorn. In fact, Saturday Night Live women have just come out in his defense. There is literally a photo of him groping a woman and still people are silent. Huffington Post released an article discussing how the Democrats might lose a “progressive warrior”, and Elizabeth Warren is avoiding the issue. Franken, who claims to be a “a champion of women”, is now being exposed like several others for sexual assault. However, it appears he’s getting a pass. This cannot and should not be accepted.

Roy Moore should not be able to run for the Senate and Al Franken should be forced to resign. Every other man who’s faced these allegations, save for Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, have faced serious repercussions. The powerful Charlie Rose was just fired by CBS, Bill O’Reilly was canned and even the most dominant, such as Roger Ailes and Harvey Weinstein have been destroyed.

This concept of sexual assault has been turned into a game of political soccer. Democrats accuse Donald Trump of sexual misconduct and Republicans accuse Bill Clinton. This is dangerous because it mitigates and trivializes the true victims of these assaults. Women come out of the woodwork to wantonly accuse powerful men of sexual misconduct with no evidence. Vultures like Gloria Allred profit from real and false accusations. Men attack the women who legitimately accuse them of sexual assault. And the public ravages everybody involved.

It is both a real issue and a witch hunt. Eventually, people are going to get so fed up with accusations that we will regress back to the 1950’s, when nobody believed the women involved. This mob justice, primarily fueled by twitter armchair warriors, needs to end. It is up to the courts to decide whether a man is guilty and if necessary, we need to change statute of limitation laws. People must not be destroyed over simple accusations; that is not fair to anyone involved. Men will continue to get away with assault and women’s voices will be suppressed.

If a powerful figure is accused of sexual assault, the media needs to treat the cases equally, not based on partisan alignment. It fuels accusation of media cronyism and damages the claim made by the victim. In fact, it might be best that the media not report allegations until they are found to be true or at least hold merit. The modern media is largely responsible for the curating of chaos in our society and this issue is no different.

Jacob Young
Pollitical Staff Writer
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