NBC News: Is There a Disturbing Pattern?
You may not have known of domestic abuse advocate Sil Lai Abrams up until this time, but I believe she has something important to tell us about sexual abuse in this country and how the media may handle it.
What’s Going on at NBC News?
There are two related incidents about sexual abuse. One is well-known, the other isn’t. The first story is about Harvey Weinstein, and how “Hollywood’s” accusations against Weinstein were largely ignored by NBC News. These accusations were detailed in Ronan Farrow’s book “Catch and Kill.” It was as though NBC News was protecting the rich and powerful Weinstein.
Sil Lai Abrams is also an author, and she contends NBC News intentionally buried her allegations of rape against Russell Simmons (the music producer and multi-millionaire) and her accusations of sexual misconduct against A.J. Calloway, the Extra TV host.
Abrams’ accusations begin in November 2017 when she reached out to MSNBC (NBC News) and Joy Ann Reid, one of the on-air hosts. I need to take an aside here, which is in no way political. MSNBC, of the major news networks, is arguably the most progressive of the major cable news channels. They should be interested when a high-profile author levels charges against high-profile television hosts.
As we might predict, Reid and MSNBC agreed to tape an interview on January 7, 2018. They slotted the airing of the interview for January 13, 2018. It was never aired. In April 2018, Reid contacted Abrams and told her to take her interview somewhere else other than NBC News.
The interview was slated to run six days later, but a day prior to its scheduled airing, the interview was pulled. It wasn’t until April that MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid would tell Abrams to take her story elsewhere.
The Vetting Process
As another aside, Joy Ann Reid’s “house” was not completely clean with the MSNBC bosses. She made several on-air gaffes, using homophobic slurs. We’ll return to that point in a minute.
Between January and April 2018, the staff at MSNBC put Abrams through yet another vetting process. According to Abrams, she “provided [NBC News with] legal documentation, hospital bills, and more than a dozen corroborating witnesses.”
Whatever transpired, whether it was NBC News killing the story in exchange for fears over Reid’s homophobic slurs or fears over law suits from A.J. Calloway’s lawyers, it was buried.
Here’s the rub, as they say, is that Calloway’s program appeared on several NBC-owned and operated networks (NBC News). He is “part of the family.”
During the vetting process, Abrams also claims that most of the questions she was asked had nothing to do with the allegations. In fact, the questions went back as far as 20 years earlier to previous employers. The questions got weirder as they could find nothing improper or unrealistic about her accusations. Despite all of the documentation she provided, the cable news network wanted more. It was clearly a no-win situation and ultimately NBC News claimed they lacked enough information.
Yes, this is a case about the rich and powerful being accused by someone who is a celebrity, activist, author and powerful in her own right, but it is much more and that is what is alarming.
The MeToo Movement may have been initiated by celebrities against the rich and powerful, but it speaks to a much more serious problem: when is a woman to be believed? Or indeed, when is any survivor of a sexual abuse or harassment to be believed?
We know that what Ms. Abrams is going through is not all that strange of an ordeal. It happens, virtually daily, in organizations across North America where the powerful prey on the weak, and others of power cover for them. MSNBC (NBC News) claims a lack of information; I claim it is also a major lack of ethics in an unethical situation.
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