Everyone’s Mad At Mika. And Now She’s All ‘I’m Sorry!’ And ‘#Metoo!’ GAWD.

According to this,  the accusers of Mark Halperin are super pissed at Mika Brzezinski right now, because she apparently had the audacity to encourage them to meet with Mark so that he could apologize to them.

On Friday morning’s Morning Joe show, Mika talked about this on the air, saying, “Mark Halperin is more than willing to meet with his accusers and apologize with them face-to-face. I’ve actually tried to offer him to them. They don’t want to talk to him.  There are some hypocrisies here, when things happen and men actually want to validate the truth, that’s important that we actually allow that.”

His accusers were having none of it.  In fact, they got together to write a big fat letter to the WaPo, and the letter also made the rounds at NBC.   Here it is:

ACCUSERS’ LETTER

As journalists and victims of sexual assault, we vehemently disagree with Mika Brzezinski’s inappropriate comments on Morning Joe on December 23.

She suggested that women who were assaulted by Mark Halperin owe him an opportunity to meet with him in person so that he can ‘apologize face-to-face’.

Sexual harassment and assault is illegal in the workplace, and represents a violation of the policies and standards of NBC News. It is an unethical and harmful request to ask that sexual assault victims confront their accusers in person and, in particular, on live tv.

Ms. Brzezinski pointed out that Mark Halperin should have a chance to ‘validate the truth’.

If Mr. Halperin feels genuine remorse and wants to apologize, or otherwise try to repair the substantial damage he has done, he can do so in the public domain, through the full acknowledgement of his wrongdoing and an honest account of his departure from ABC news.

To unveil Mr. Halperin’s transgressions over three decades required the hard work and professionalism of the same press that holds politicians and world leaders to account.

Each one of the cases that have surfaced in the press has been fact-checked and backed up by contemporaneous sources.

We would ask Ms. Brezinski for higher standards of editorial judgement, compassion and human decency.

Ms Brezinski and her co-host Joe Scarborough have a long-standing personal friendship with Mark Halperin which appears to be shaping their position on his case.
MSNBC’s air time should not be used as a platform for the one-sided rehabilitation of Mr. Halperin’s reputation or career.

Through his well-documented actions, Mr. Halperin has demonstrated that he is unfit for the senior roles he held in our profession and in the public discourse.
We applaud NBC’s decision to terminate its professional relationship with him as a result.

Signed,
Ten Victims of Mark Halperin

Friday night, Mika backtracked and apologized.  And of course, added her own #metoo story.

MIKA’S APOLOGY

‘In our discussion about sexual harassment this morning, I said some things that hurt people. In the case of Mark, my goal today was to start a conversation about hearing from the men whenever we can but I realize it is not my place.

We have been trying our best on Morning Joe to have an honest conversation about sexual harassment and sexual assault.

The issue has hit close to home given that Mark Halperin was on our show. I have spent a lot of time talking to some of his accusers and to Mark himself.
Often I bring up the issue on our show because I think it would be less than genuine to talk about the growing number of cases without recognizing that a former member of our team acted very badly.

In our discussion about sexual harassment this morning, I said some things that hurt people.

In the case of Mark, my goal today was to start a conversation about hearing from the men whenever we can but I realize it is not my place.
It isn’t my call to make, and for that I am truly sorry. As a victim of sexual assault, I understand that each individual’s case is different.
This is up to the victims, some of whom I’ve been in contact with. My hope is for all of us to come together and support the brave women who speak out and help make workplaces safer as we continue this difficult conversation in the months and years ahead.

Mika also made people angry earlier in the week because she suggested, RIGHTLY I MIGHT ADD, that maybe it’s not OK for accusers to serve as the judge, jury and cops.

She said, “Are we the judge and the jury and the cops? Are women the judge, the jury and the cops? Is that where we want to go? Because I don’t see us getting hired, if that’s the case. So we need to figure out a better way to get rid of harassers, real harassers. We need to think of a better way to deal with people who need to be educated. The rules are changing, that’s great. Let’s be fair in this process.”

People apparently hate it now, if you suggest fairness and due process.  That’s basically sexual harassment in and of itself.

I hate to say it, but Mika was right on that point.

She was wrong to tell Halperin’s accusers on air that they should meet with him, but she’s right on the fairness thing.