Et tu, John Hockenberry?

Public radio is not immune. The Cut has an extensive article about how John Hockenberry sexually harassed and bullied his female producers and co-hosts.

It’s *kills* me that these completely unsexy dudes, like Bill O’Reilly, Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer, seem to think women want to sleep with them or kiss them or take orders from them. I heard someone refer to it as a Droit du Seigneur. It doesn’t matter what his intended thinks. It’s his right.

Anyway, this article is interesting because Hockenberry also engaged in some Operation Bambi tactics on his African American co-hosts of The Takeaway. He went through three such female co-hosts. I don’t think this aspect has been emphasized enough.

Many of us can recall the instances when a co-worker put his hands on us inappropriately. (It didn’t happen to me more than once.) But I’m sure that ALL of us have been the targets of implicit bias. Bullying, public ridicule in presentations, gaslighting, behind the scenes gossip, innuendo and critiques (hello Jill Abramson). We are seeing how widespread sexual harassment is but the other shit that makes the workplace a place to endure and not thrive is bigger. Because once sexual harassment policies are enforced, the hostility and degradation and elimination of competition takes a different form with the boys network ganging up to take us out.

Yeah, I have MANY stories to tell about that including complaining to HR about what I witnessed happening to my female supervisor who was routinely publicly humiliated. Well, she was the natural successor to the manager who was leaving and some guy wanted that job. So he got his underlings, including one I’ll call “The Rottweiler” to take her out.

I complained. I was made to look whiney. The lady was pushed out, the dude got the job and when the site was closed and only a few of us were allowed to transfer to Cambridge, it was his retainers, including The Rottweiler who got the jobs. All the women were laid off.

So, we are only looking at the tip of the iceberg here. We know what has been going on. We know how they do it. And there’s a tsunami of stories yet to come.

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A bit nippy Today. I have my favorite Scottish wool scarf to keep me warm. 😊

Walking to work music:

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