It was an eruption. The e-mails poured in like non-stop, molten lava over last week's "The Damned Don't Apologize (Ava and C.I.)" about the verbal attacks on Lara Logan by Nir Rosen (to the left) after it was learned she had been sexually assaulted in Egypt. Along with the verbal attacks, there were the silences which were also telling. Carolyn LP called the article "a passionate primer I'm sharing with my students" and urged us to do a survey piece noting the ones who had the sense to weigh in.
Leonard Pitts Jr. (Miami Herald) observed, "The woman is a reporter and she was doing what reporters do: going places, sometimes dicey, difficult or dangerous places, in order to originate the information that allows the rest of us to opine from the comfort of our chairs.
The suggestion that in doing her job, Logan somehow "deserved" what happened to her is appalling. As is Hoff's political spin, Rosen's mockery and Schlussel's frothing bigotry."
Maureen Dowd (New York Times) weighed in, "He apologized in a whiny way, explaining that he 'resented' Logan because she 'defended American imperial adventures,' and that she got so much attention for the assault because she's white and famous. He explained in Salon that 'Twitter is no place for nuance,' as though there's any nuance in his suggestion that Logan wanted to be sexually assaulted for ratings."
Kirsten Meeder (National Organization for Women's Say It, Sister!), "Strangely enough, this type of vulgar dialogue was not present when ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff almost died from wounds he received in Iraq in 2006. No one dared suggest that Woodruff's injuries didn't count since he was a young, white and (some might say) attractive civilian who had been reporting in a chaotic region."
Phil Bronstein (San Francisco Chronicle) observed, "But that started yet another debate about whether Rosen himself was a scurrilous troll or the victime of anti-free speech forces. I vote the former. An Esquire writer actually claimed both Rosen and Logan were 'attacked by the same thing . . . mob mentality.' That's a big stretch."
Ann (Ann's Mega Dub) explained, ". . . I was raped. I was lucky in that I saw justice. My rapist got convicted and sentenced. Many women don't get that closure or justice. So I really don't think we need excuses for Nir Rosen who has argued that Anderson Cooper should have been sexually assaulted and that his being sexually assaulted would be 'funny' and that Lara Logan deserved to be sexually assaulted. Guess what, Nir Rosen, you might think I'm the biggest bitch in the world. That still doesn't give you or anyone else the right to sexually assault and/or rape me."
Julie Gerstein (New York magazine) pointed out of Nir Rosen's many alleged apologies, "And yet, in all the tweets, essays and interviews, Rosen has yet to come across and truly contrite and apologetic. Maybe he should use some of his new-found free time to work on that."
Also refer to Cedric's "Nir Rosen continues his non-apology tour" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! THE NON-APOLOGY APOLOGY!" (joint-post).
Last week Rosen won the not highly sought after "Dick of the Week" award: "Amazingly though, Rosen was only getting warmed up. It's his apologies that really set the standard. Rosen made several attempts at an 'apology' that range from whining and petulant to flippant and dismissive. It becomes very clear very quickly that Rosen feels absolutely no remorse whatsoever for his inappropriate, insulting tweets."
Many refused to call Rosen out and preferred to stay silent. Betty (Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man) tackled them, "And they think as long as the remain silent, the story dies. Here's what really happens, their silence encourages the rapist mentality Nir Rosen felt comfortable voicing in public -- that a woman has it coming. There is no honor, there are no ethics. They are whores. They will show up to decry a Republican saying this but they will ignore it from their own. And women will suffer for it. It's disgusting and it's why I can't stand these whores anymore. They're liars and they're disgusting and their willing to put women's safety at risk just to protect yet another man. It's disgusting. Don't be part of the silence, fight back and call it out."
Laura Flanders (Grit TV) argued, "Lara Logan deserves commendation for going public with her story, and anyone who tries to twist into anything other than a tale of what happens to women everywhere, all the time, still, is simply making apologies for rape. And for that there's no apology."
Musa Mukhtar (Sayyidfulaan) wrote, "God this guy is arrogant. To explain why such a sophisticated mind such as Rosen would make such an idiotic series of comments on Twitter, Nir Rosen would like to remind you that he is pretty special. He has been to places you haven't been. So you don't really understand. Unfortunately this attitude is very common among Middle East specialists."
Mary Elizabeth Williams (Salon) advised, "Here's what you do say when something like this happens. Like countless women around the world, Lara Logan was attacked in the line of duty. She was assaulted doing her job. It was a crime of unspeakable violence. And your opinion of how she does that job, the religion her assailants share with a few million other people, or the color of her hair has nothing to do with it."
Elaine (Like Maria Said Paz) asked, "Does anyone else find it stranger (or "telling") that CJR online has not weighed in on Nir Rosen's attack of Lara Logan and Anderson Cooper. He ridiculed her being sexually assaulted, said she deserved it and said it would have been great if it had happened to Anderson Cooper as well. That's a media story for their little blog. But their blog stayed quiet all day. The better to ignore the offensive behavior of their friend Nir Rosen."
Rebecca (Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude) provided context, "what he said was outrageous. and why he said it? it's the culture that he and his friends have created. we saw it in the no-holds-barred attacks on hillary clinton (and we continue to see it in the attacks on her for the actions of the white house). we saw it in the sexist attacks on sarah palin. we saw it over and over and saw it build and build. nir's words were only the latest chapter."
Mike (Mikey Likes It) cheered on Anderson Cooper, "Okay, good for Anderson Cooper. On CNN, he cut through the crap and refused to allow Nir Rosen to spin. The link goes to a Politics Daily where the writer is an apologist for Nir minimizing his actions. By contrast, Anderson didn't let him off. When Nir started lying, Anderson called him on it. And of Nir's claims? Anderson said, 'The facts seem to indicate otherwise'."
At The Widdershins, madamab noted, ". . . but I must say that I think that it is ludicrous to talk about the violence as though Ms. Logan's being in Egypt had nothing to do with it. Why are Egyptians so politically protected when it comes to their heinous policies towards women? If what happened to Logan had happened anywhere else -- say, in America -- we would surely be discussing how shameful it is that our country still permits this type of gender-based violence. For example, when Gabrielle Giffords was shot and the other victims killed or wounded, America's gun-lovin’ culture was dissected to the nth degree. Why can't we do the same to Egypt?"
At SkyDancing, BostonBoomer noted, "Nir Rosen, the 'journalist' who sent out horribly offensive tweets attacking both Logan and Anderson Cooper was forced to resign from his fellowship at NYU today. He gave an interview to Fishbowl DC in which he tried to explain the unexplainable."
Valerie Strauss (Washington Post) declared, "Rosen's tweets on Logan more than crossed a line. They were more than cruel and insensitive. They revealed a perverted view of the world that has no place at any university, much less a prestigious one. Differences of opinion -- even extreme ones -- are one thing, welcome at an educational institution. Misogyny and distortions of reality are quite another."
We're sure we missed some but those are the ones we caught. Our e-mail address is thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com.