Female Journalist Suspended After Tweeting Kobe Bryant Rape Article

he was so loyal not to his wife he wasn't.

His statement he made regarding the rape, only just fell short of him saying 'i did it'.

its astounding really

I wish that was true. Sadly it is par for the course where comparing women's reputations and men's reputations are concerned.

Something that really astounded me recently was on I'm a Celebrity. They had to guess the percentage of men who when polled felt that women were not 'equal ' to men (area of inequality not specified) the contestants, being woke and on tv chose the lower of the two percentages. They guessed wrong, it was the higher. 40%. It seems that getting on for half the male population secretly, or not so secretly, thinks that women are not equal human beings.

If she had retweeted an article saying he was great would that have been trolling ? It certainly would have been a lie in the eyes of many.
Its astounding really, a man commits a hideous act, no effect on his job, status, etc etc, a woman tweets something and look at the consequences. Her situation has demonstrated the concerns women have worldwide.

How on earth is tweeting a link to a well written and pretty balanced article ‘trolling’? Why should she rewrite it if she thinks it expresses her own opinion?

She foolishly violated many of the rules of misogyny. She knows it; her colleagues know it.

And just to be clear, death and rape threats are not okay but she should have taken those to the police not posted on Twitter to keep up the dogfight

Do we know she hasn't reported to the police? And would the police have done anything about these threats? When so few actual rapes are actually taken to court (which is kind of the point).

A friend of mine was raped. She went to the police, they collected physical evidence. A few months later he was still walking around the town she lived in. They. did. nothing. Her story is far from unusual. She was unbelievably distressed about it all and kept going back to the police and got nowhere. The stress of trying to deal with them compounded the PTSD she had from the rape.

I actually think publicising on Twitter or elsewhere in the media can sometimes be a woman's only real recourse - sunlight. Maybe it being public might actually prompt the police to do something.

The Washington Post suspending her has just led to that becoming a story and leading to threads like this so people like me who never saw her tweet hear about the alleged rape. If the paper wanted to stop discussion of this they should have just asked her to delete the tweet for now and kept her employed. Stupid behaviour on their behalf. I dislike the tendency to deify people once they are dead.

Sorry terrible typos.

Are those who write articles not mentioning the eape 'trolling' too, because thsts what it feels like to many women.

So what you call 'callously trolling' seems to be ok now

Okay in the eyes of whom? I certainly don’t think she should have lost her job over it but she displayed a stunning lack of judgement. WaPo shouldn’t apologise for the actions they took and reinstated her. That’s their right. And just to be clear, death and rape threats are not okay but she should have taken those to the police not posted on Twitter to keep up the dogfight.

AntiSocial WaPo are walking it back now with a lot of waffle but no apology or contrition.

You're moving the goalposts. I'm not talking about being 'challenged', I'm talking about threats of rape and murder which forced her to leave her home in fear for her safety, simply for posting - without comment - a link to an article.
She was suspended and 300 of her colleagues were troubled enough by the action to speak up, but she has now been reinstated because oops it turns out she didn't violate the WP sm policy. So what you call 'callously trolling' seems to be ok now.
I wonder how many people who publicly threatened her on Twitter have been suspended from their jobs... or even from Twitter.

When a woman says something unvarnished which fails to acknowledge her place relative to the recently dead hero and his admirers, this is disrespectful and shocking. Men can do it; they're providing context and being a 'me too' ally

You are implying that women are only challenged and men are free to explore his background. No.

This reporter was challenged because she was callously trolling on Twitter hours after his death was announced. She was not assigned to this story nor wrote any piece on it. She could have pitched and wrote this story for her editors (or self-published if they wouldn’t do it), but nah, she wanted the hot take.

You are assuming that only men are writing these articles. This is not true. Am I? I think you misunderstand.

AntiSocialInjusticePacifist

"Whenever a rapist is celebrated and feted as some kind of hero the moral imperative is to push back on that narrative. If people find the push back distasteful because the person is now deceased well then don't lionize rapists in the first place!"

Exactly, my feelings entirely. My wife said to me "why is this all over our news, he is just an American basketball player".
When I told her what he had done, she was shocked.
Just because they are "celebrities" they get a free pass - Chuck Berry, Elvis, Bowie, Bill Wyman, Epstein, Prince Andrew.

Men can do it; they're providing context and being a 'me too' ally

You are assuming that only men are writing these articles. This is not true.

Whenever a rapist is celebrated and feted as some kind of hero the moral imperative is to push back on that narrative. If people find the push back distasteful because the person is now deceased well then don't lionize rapists in the first place! When a woman says something unvarnished which fails to acknowledge her place relative to the recently dead hero and his admirers, this is disrespectful and shocking. Men can do it; they're providing context and being a 'me too' ally.

Also, you can discuss him in any way you wish.

But do keep the facts clear: this was being written about (you claimed otherwise) and she wasn’t doing journalism for the WaPo at that moment. It wasn’t like she was assigned to the story or published anything on her own. Unless you consider bad takes on Twitter a form of journalism...

Whenever a rapist is celebrated and feted as some kind of hero the moral imperative is to push back on that narrative. If people find the push back distasteful because the person is now deceased well then don't lionize rapists in the first place!

I think the journalist should have her suspension lifted immediately.

Yes, I have. But my point is that the US outlets have been quite even-handed in discussing his legacy.

This is distinct from his fans who see things differently. It’s not fair to conflate the two.

Also not fair to claim she was doing journalism when she tweeted an article from another publication from a few years ago just hours after he died. She didn’t write anything.

She’s no better than a Twitter troll.

Have you read the case. How can what happened be put in context. I dont think there is any context for rape. I think we are allowed to talk about it in any way we wish. For many people the only reason we know this man is through this case. It is fine for women to prioritise that over basketball etc.

Any other crime and it wouldn't be considered 'bad form' to mention it. If he'd been jailed for burglary or gun crime, it would have been mentioned as part of his life

No serious American publication is shying away from this. Check out ESPN’s obit FFS. There are plenty of articles published on this.

If his fans don’t accept it, this is not the media’s fault. Most outlets have done their due diligence here.

In context? Dear god

What do you mean by this? It paints the whole picture of this guy, who is a legendary basketball player ... and a rapist. As well as a good father (from all accounts) and a famously terrible husband.

That’s good journalism. Trolling on twitter is not

In context? Dear god.