EXCOMMUNICATING THE ABUSERS:

Jill Filipovic isn’t the first to make this argument, but she’s the first to present it cogently in the pages of the New York Times. She wrote that men like Matt Lauer, Mark Halperin, and Charlie Rose—prominent journalists who helped set the national political narrative—contributed materially to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss. When they were not patronizing toward Clinton, Filipovic’s argument goes, they were nakedly hostile. Even the New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush, suspended temporarily amid an investigation into claims of impropriety, received an unfriendly mention. “These recent harassment allegations suggest that perhaps the problem wasn’t that Mrs. Clinton was untruthful or inherently hard to connect with,” she wrote, “but that these particular men hold deep biases against women who seek power instead of sticking to acquiescent sex-object status.”

* * * * * * * *

Filipovic’s targets deserve all the recrimination she heaps upon them and more. By their own admissions, they’ve abused and disrespected their colleagues, to say nothing of their audiences. But her contention amounts to a conspiracy theory. The behaviors in which Clinton engaged don’t sound any better when they’re summarized by a female journalist. And yet, in a way, this is all immaterial. Filipovic was not trying to save Hillary Clinton from the consequences of her own actions. This was an excommunication.

Geez, considering he cheerfully dubbed Hillary’s illegal home server “badass,” and according to Wikileaks, forwarded his emails to her campaign chairman for vetting, what more does a guy like Thrush have to do to prove he’s a loyal DNC foot soldier with a byline?