Word: broadderick
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...even as ABC hyped the interview of the year on one frequency, NBC quietly trumped its rival last week by broadcasting Lisa Myers' long delayed interview with Juanita Broadderick, the woman who says Bill Clinton raped her 21 years ago. Many felt that her story had been plausible, including apparently David Gergen, a former Clinton advisor. He said on "Larry King Live" the day after the interview, "It's not just this woman. It's a pattern...the nausea level on this is such that you really begin to feel...It's one thing if it were consensual. But this...
Despite these strong words, I was still stunned to see on that same episode of "Larry King" the real story of this past week: Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), sympathizing with Broadderick. After all, hadn't she and NOW been largely silent when analogous (though not quite as serious) charges had been made by Paula Jones? Hadn't NOW been conspicuously reticent on the issue of whether Lewinsky's relationship with the president, conducted between consenting adults, nevertheless had had some hint of sexual harassment because of the workplace imbalance of power...
...anymore. By essentially looking the other way when it came to Bill Clinton, NOW has weakened its larger mission to be an advocacy group for women. Even Ireland's passionate defense of Broadderick's right not to be slandered by Clinton backers had a curious element of political timing. Due to NBC's delaying the story until after the impeachment trial had ended, Ireland was able to make a bold rebuke to Clinton without fear that her comments would influence the outcome of the trial. Alas, there's no way to know if she would have responded the same...
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