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March 27, 2018 09:59 AM UTC

Even More Outrageous Treatment of GOP Sexual Harassment Victims

  • 8 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Republican State Sen. Randy Baumgardner.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen increasingly audacious attempts by Republicans in the Colorado Senate and their surrogates in the media to discredit proven-credible claims of sexual harassment against two Republican Senators: Sens. Randy Baumgardner of Hot Sulphur Springs and Jack Tate of Centennial.

After the original allegations of widespread sexual harassment in the Colorado General Assembly broke last fall, there was a well-organized PR campaign quickly organized to defend Tate in particular–first by enlisting lobbyists to defend Tate, which backfired after their massive conflicts of interest were exposed, and more recently by a an extremely unethical attack via a “legitimate” news outlet, the Phil Anschutz-owned Colorado Springs Gazette, citing the “personal indiscretions” of the victim in Tate’s case by a Republican legislative aide. That aide was fired the next day after his own highly insensitive comments about sexual harassment were released to the media, but the damage was done.

This weekend, a blog associated with the right-wing Independence Institute released a new story seeking to undermine the credibility of one of the victims of Sen. Randy Baumgardner and the investigation that determined the allegation against Baumgardner is credible. That story was picked up by Marianne Goodland of the same Colorado Springs Gazette involved with the questionable defense of Tate, and run uncritically with the headline “Report on sexual harassment allegations against Baumgardner raises questions of credibility.”

You might notice that we aren’t linking to those stories directly in this blog post. There’s a reason: the Independence Institute is circulating a “redacted” copy of the investigative report that positively identifies the victim in Baumgardner’s case. Needless to say, or at least it should be, to out a victim of sexual harassment who wishes to remain anonymous under any circumstances is an enormous breach of journalist ethics. We’re not accusing anyone at the Independence Institute of journalism, of course, but Goodland and the Gazette is another matter.

Folks, we understand that the GOP-controlled Colorado Senate is in a very unpleasant predicament, and that they have chits they can call in in an emergency to get a surprising degree of deference–even assistance–from friends they’ve made in local media.

What is happening to these women who are only trying to get justice after this culture of sexual harassment has been allowed to fester for literally as long as women won the right to participate in government at any level above the secretarial, is totally unacceptable. It does appear to be increasingly centered on one conservative media outlet with limited accountability either to the marketplace or journalistic standards, but this is a terrible lesson in how hard women have really had it in the workplace. The General Assembly, and every other.

When this is over, there will be journalists like KUNC’s Bente Birkeland who can take pride in the historic work they’ve done, and the lasting good exposing and ending the culture of harassment in the Colorado legislature will do for generations of women to come.

And there will be a few who have to live with the knowledge that they helped the bad guys.

Comments

8 thoughts on “Even More Outrageous Treatment of GOP Sexual Harassment Victims

  1. I hate to say it, but this is par for the course for Anschutz media outlets. The Weekly Standard and the Washington Examiner would do the same thing. That means they are NOT legit news outlets, but thanks to Anschutz cash they get to pretend they are.

    Marianne Goodland occasionally comes here to take the Guvs to task. I can't wait to see if she has the courage to own up to outing a victim.

    If anyone at Colorado Politics ever considered themselves a journalist, you should resign immediately.

  2. To be fair, concerns about Randy's credibility abound. From the investigator's report:

    "…appeared somewhat patronizing… This sense of superiority hinders Mr. Baumgardner's credibility."

    "He cut off this investigator multiple times… His face appeared to become red…This apparent quick temper also hinders Mr. Baumgardner's credibility."

    "he appeared to pretend to know less than someone in his situation would reasonably know… This appears to make him either evasive of the allegation or ignorant of the news, either way this hinders his credibility."

    "It does not seem…to be a reasonable response to "not recall" when asked if you touched a private part of another person's body. This type of response hinders his credibility."

     

     

     

    1. It seems highly unlikely that ‘Stache would ever have to pretend to know less than he does . . . 

      . . . I mean, how could that even be possible???

  3. Goodland has pressured Pols to give Bente Birkeland the credit she is due. I read Goodland's article in the Gazette. It seems balanced and responsible. She doesn't post the redacted report, or identify the complainant in detail.

    The article does have a sensational clickbait headline. Headline writers make sensational headlines that will generate readers. In this case, the headline probably also makes the Gazette's Republican owner happy.

    I also read Complete Crap Colorado's article (no linkies from me, either) and Amy Oliver Cooke's standard "I'm a woman and I think that these women are"….. (too sensitive, lying, politicized, unattractive, man-hating, young, mistaken, just plain wrong, etc). That's an old tactic.

    And I did read the investigation. I now have no doubt that Baumgardner did exactly what he was accused of doing, was smug about it, and is now lying about it, and the GOP leadership is covering it up.

     

    1. The Gazette version doesn't link to the report that outs the victim, but the Colorado Politics version of Goodland's story does. I'm going to follow the Guvs lead and not post the link, but she definitely should have read it before she wrote her story.

  4. Good ‘ol II . . . 

    . . . the one place in Colorado where you can find a bigger sty of unconscionable Republican fuckheads than the Senate!

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