It's now inevitable that any issue will produce a spiraling doom cycle of bad responses to bad behaviors which will make even more of a mess. So the response to the very belated exposure of Harvey Weinstein's misdeeds by a lefty establishment that had known about them all along, was to start accusing all men of being products of rape culture. And passing around lists of the accused.
Some of the people on the lists might be guilty as hell. Others might have behaved inapproriately. Still others probably aren't.
But the rolling scandals have now hit Vox and SEIU.
Late on Thursday, it was announced that Vox Media had fired its editorial director Lockhart Steele over sexual misconduct.
In a message sent out to employees by Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff, he confirmed that Steele was terminated “effective immediately.”
Lockhart Steele had been the editorial director at Gawker. That, by definition, makes him a terrible human being and a media hero. But the troubles at Vox may not be over.
And the strategist for the $15 minimum wage campaign at radical labor union SEIU is also in trouble.
A top labor movement figure who led the Fight for $15 minimum wage campaign was suspended this week after complaints from staffers about his conduct toward women, BuzzFeed News has learned.
The Service Employees International Union suspended Executive Vice President Scott Courtney after “questions were raised ... relating to our union’s ethical code and anti-nepotism policy,” Sahar Wali, a spokesperson for the powerful union, said in a statement Tuesday.
The complaints about Courtney had been an open secret among women in the high-profile Fight for $15 campaign within the union, which is itself led by one of the most visible women in American labor. The SEIU lies at the heart of the US labor movement’s attempt to transform itself from a traditional trade union body into a broad force for social and progressive change for union members and nonunion members alike.
Seven people who have worked with Courtney, including current and former SEIU staffers, told BuzzFeed News the top official had a history of sexual relationships with young women staffers — who were subsequently promoted, they said.
The rolling scandal is likely to keep rolling and heads will roll along with it.