CSotD: … and when did they know it?
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(We'll start with a juxtaposition over the US Gymnastics scandal, in which the team doctor has been revealed to be a long-term sexual predator who abused the little girls entrusted to him.
I was going to say "in case you hadn't heard," but you've heard or perhaps you don't want to hear or perhaps you need to curate your list of friends more thoughtfully.
I saw one of those "Why is the media talking about this instead of that?" complaints on Facebook about two weeks ago, which alleged that nobody was covering the abuse scandal. My response was that I'd heard of it.
Facebook is tinkering with its algorithms, but what won't change is that what appears on your page is not determined by what "the media" covers but by what people — especially your "friends" — pay attention to.
That applies to Google News as well, but Google News casts a wider net, if only because it has categories that must be filled, such that you will always have X-number of health stories, even if the vast bulk of people are fixated on the Oscar nominations.
In any case, it was covered but was humming along below the surface until the victim statements began.
I'm not much on victim statements in general but in this case they vaulted — no pun intended — the story into prominence, in part because they were so unrelentingly, horrifyingly similar, in part because so many came from famous names.
Signe Wilkinson is running to keep ahead of the story because, while she is absolutely right, the executive board of US Gymnastics has resigned, so whatever they may have done to deny things has fallen apart.
Or is just beginning to, because sponsors are running away and so whatever moral guilt the team feels is compounded by the kind of damage that can't be denied.
Except maybe by Michigan State, which is deeply involved and has begun their own floor routine, based on the protest that this isn't at all like the Penn State scandal.
Which it's not, because a lot more MSU administrators knew about it, and a Penn State assistant coach blew a whistle nobody at MSU was apparently able to find.
The Detroit News quotes a former MSU gymnast:
“A monster was stopped last year, after decades of being allowed to prey on women and little girls, and he wasn’t stopped by a single person who could have, and should have stopped him at least 20 years ago,” Denhollander told The News last week. “He was stopped by the victims, who had to fight through being silenced, being threatened, being mocked, by the officials at MSU who they appealed to for help."
Which is the kind of thing that will put Scott Stantis on the case, because he was an abused child and has no patience, and plenty of fury, for those who make excuses and deny and will not see.
There are all sorts of places this story could go: I haven't been a fan of the Olympics since they went pro in the 80s, and I also have a problem with the sexualization of little girls in our overall society, but the algorithms are changing my news feed and now I'm reading about the Pope's visit to South America, where he apologized for the sexual assaults on altar boys by clergy.
And then apologized for defending one of their most prominent abusers.
Keep those pens out, gang. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, this is not the end of the story. It is not even the beginning of the end of the story. But it might be the end of the beginning of the story.
Meanwhile, in International News
Canadian cartoonist Graeme MacKay notes the finalization of the Trans Pacific Partnership despite our withdrawal from it. It's only fair to note that Hillary Clinton flip-flopped famously on the pact, but generally opposed both it and NAFTA, though she might have bitten the bullet and gone along on pragmatic grounds.
Pragmatism has its place: One observation I've heard is that our withdrawal from TPP allowed China to buttress its position as a major player in the world economy.
China has also taken up some of the slack in Africa, as Kal Kallaugher notes.
I don't know if this is good or bad for Africa. My grandfather visited there in the 1950s, evaluating chromium mines for Bethlehem Steel, and the exploitation of Third World countries bothered him. Several decades later, he remarked that "one of these days all those little brown people are going to ask 'Where's mine?'"
Well, nobody listened then and nobody's listening now, and so I guess we should let China have the bad karma.
And the rare earth elements and the economic advantages.
Hey, I'm all about good karma. But I didn't vote for the guy who promised to resuscitate our manufacturing economy.
Meanwhile, back on the topic of abusive relationships, Andy Marlette notes the cancellation of FLOTUS's plans to go to the Davos conference with her hubby.
He's too flip about it for my taste, and I think he's flat wrong in suggesting that Trump is anxious to make amends, but then, as the song says, nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors.
A lot of people who hate Trump throw barbs at Melania, too, but I'm inclined to back off, because I haven't read their pre-nup and have no idea what she's dealing with.
I'm also inclined, whatever the flaws of Michael Wolff's book, to believe the part about Melania not wanting any of this.
I respect that she refused to jerk her son out of his school mid-year, and my guess is that, given how little she courts the limelight and however she feels about her marriage, she's not enjoying the hoopla over this betrayal.
And, no, there isn't enough money in the world to compensate.
Never was.
(There's a verse in this, the original, you might have never heard before)
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