Nir Rosen tries to frantically backtrack from his vicious remarks about Lara Logan’s attack:
The plan going forward is to redeem myself and show that my statements were not representative of my beliefs and that i am in fact committed radically to the rights of women…My career was dedicated to defending victims from oppressors and instead I now look like I mock victims and justify their oppressors.
Earth to Nir: the reason you look like you mock victims and justify their oppressors is that you did mock a victim.
Rosen has not even offered an explanation for his remarks other than that they are not representative of his beliefs. But do people usually make remarks—and repeated remarks at that—that are not representative of their beliefs?
Rosen doesn’t even seem to have Mel Gibson’s lame excuse, that he was drunk. One can only conclude that Rosen meant exactly what he said, and for some unknown reason forgot that Twitter was a public forum when he let slip his mask.
This is the first politically incorrect post I’ve seen you make.
Yes, it’s a very sad and regretable thing that Lara Logan fell into a mob sexual frenzy– as protesters let off steam like in all intense combat situaltions. Yet, when we/she put herself in the lions’ den only the entitled and cloistered among us are shocked by the consequences.
In other words, is anyone really shocked by this? Yes the commentary in the aftermath is shocked. Still, there’s a ring of truth as far as I’m concerned. I wish Lara the best in her recovery. Somehow we journalists think when we put ourselves in a snake pit of mass hysteria, somehow we should come out unscathed. But why? We’re Americans? Journalists? That is not the reality of the world at the juncture.
Surely Lara is not so naive that she didn’t know the possible consequences of being in the middle of a mass, emotional uprising, not knowing the possible consequences. Though we all wish her a Godspeed in her recovery.
Does Nir not harsly articulate what we’re all more softly thinking. We live in an entitled society and we’re above all this. Still nothing is further from the truth.
Nir believed she “got what she deserved” because she had once or twice reported facts that go against the lefty narrative. He was thrilled to see someone who defied the hive get beaten.
His point wasn’t “that was not a smart thing to go into that crowd”. It was “this is what you deserve for not toeing the line”.
Keep that in mind the next time he pops up as an activist. He’s all for violence — when it’s directed towards those he disagrees with.
so webutante i guess you think if a woman dresses sexually and goes into a bar with rowdy drunk men then she deservers whatever happens to her? cause we all know if women would just dress modest and not put themselves in harms way then they wouldn’t be hurt. that is why women are forced to wear burqas and not allowed to leave their house without a male relative with her…it is not subjugation, it is for her protection
For pity’s sake, webutante! You charge that this is a politically incorrect post, as though that’s a bad thing – and then you fail to support your allegation of “politically incorrect”!
Is Rosen unmoved by the sexual assault on Logan because, had he been among the crowd, he would have been one of the assaulters, acting out a belief that a female in public, unaccompanied by husband or a male relative and not swathed in fabric from head to toe, should be punished? Just asking.
Did rosen make the leftist radical mistake that all fellow travelers share his world view relating to violent sexual assault or was he punished for exposing that shared world view? Just asking.
I think way much too much has been made of Rosen’s statement. And no I certainly don’t mean to imply the extremely absure conclusion that women should not go out without the protection of their husbands or should stay in burques for heavens sakes. Ever heard of a gray area?
I do mean to imply that anyone—male or female—with even a modicum of street-smarts—knows that going into a worked up, frenzied mob that’s been gaining momentum for days should know the dangers inherent in such an undertaking. And to expect to be treated with any kind of immunity, imho, is a bit out of touch with reality.
As I said, at least to me, I am saddened by Lara’s horrific misfortune, though not greatly surprised. I wish her well in her recovery both physically and emotionally.
Perhaps, a large number of American journalists – male or female – naively, expect a global reverence for their journalistic credentials. Whatever, the reason, Egypt sent the message that press passes are irrelevant.
Rosen outed himself. Let him take what follows.
As a former newspaper reporter who put myself in harms way a number of times, I constantly grapped with this issue of safety with my editors: Once as an undercover agent in a gold/silver sting in which off-duty police officers were implicated and breaking the law, and also in a rowdy crowd of Ku Klux Klan crazies in northern Alabama. I’ll tell you, they gave me parameters of safety which I gladly abided by and got out when I deemed the situation getting out of control. I personally don’t think I would have been in Tahrir square at the point Lara got assaulted. It makes her look like she’s missing some important piece of judgment that pertains to human nature, especially in big, unruly crowds.
Doubtless, Logan is second guessing herself, at this juncture.
I’m not sure I would use the phrase ‘second guessing’ so much as doing a fearless and moral inventory as to what motivated her to be in that unruly crowd at that moment. Only by mulling that over, and taking some responsibility for her some small part in this unfortunate event, can she come away less of a victim. Who knows, maybe she did indeed have an a underlying ambition to beat out her fellow reporters. Nothing particularly wrong with that….
But finding our part in an incident like this takes a willingness to take some reponsibility that she may or may not have at this point.