#MeToo

High-profile sexual harassment. Just a few years ago, it caused barely a ripple in the media, with the mid-1990s claims against President Bill Clinton and the early-2010s accusations against Bill Cosby seeming the only notable high-profile celebrity cases.

But in the past 13 months, starting with President Donald Trump’s infamous “Grab them by the pussy” Access Hollywood tape, it seems as if virtually every notable male member of the media and United States political machine has been infected by the Sexual Harassment Plague. It’s a “who’s who” list - Harvey Weinstein, Roy Moore, Charlie Rose, Al Franken, Matt Lauer, Garrison Keillor, John Conyers, David Sweeney, Louis C.K., Richard Dreyfuss, Dustin Hoffman, Andrew Kreisberg, John Lasseter, Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Steven Seagal, Kevin Spacey, Jeffrey Tambor, George Takei, Mark Halperin, George H.W. Bush … and that’s just (some of) the names which have come out the past month!

What we are seeing today is a live-action broadcast of Howard Beale’s famous meltdown in Network: women today are mad as hell about being sexually harassed, and they’re not gonna take it anymore!

In large part, the extremely recent turn of events is a backlash against Trump, who has been accused at least 15 times since the 1980s of sexual assault and sexual harassment, and whose election on the heels of the previously-noted Access Hollywood tape revelation led to concerns of women being marginalized in the workplace and society.

And what a backlash it has been, starting with the Women's March - a worldwide protest on January 21, 2017 advocating legislation and policies regarding human rights, women's rights, immigration reform, healthcare reform, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, freedom of religion, and workers' rights. Far from being marginalized, women have found a rallying cry and a voice. And the proverbial dam burst with the graphic, detailed allegations by multiple women against Hollywood mogul Weinstein.

Which leads me to wonder, are men really that naive about sexual harassment?

It sure seems so. And that’s scary as hell.

But what is also scary to us is the real possibility that some of the already-accused and to-be-accused may very well be innocent of the allegations. Some of those listed previously deny the claims; others may be targeted by political opportunists. We’ve seen witch hunts before; just ask the good people of Salem, Mass. They aren’t for the feint of heart.

So, let’s keep our eye on the big picture. The only “good” Sexual Harassment in the Workplace is the smooth 1988 instrumental by Frank Zappa.

First of all, the punishment should fit the crime; there’s a world of difference between sexual harassment and an inappropriate relationship, and the last thing proponents of the charge need is to become this generation’s McCarthy Red Scare.

Secondly, as the Washington Post did with a failed sting operation recently - where the conservative watchdog group Project Veritas attempted to discredit the paper by planting a bogus story about Moore impregnating a 15-year-old - the media needs to do serious fact-checking on allegations before publishing stories. For those who have been accused, unjustly, they will be unable to fully clear their names with the public. And that’s just wrong.

Just as sexual harassment is wrong.