By Elaine Carlson

For years years, many women have accused the American film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. In fact more than eighty women have made such accusations. But we must not forget that Weinstein was not an ordinary man. He was well known producer and had a lot of hits (Sex Lies and Videotape, Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love). And he had powerful allies that protected him from his accusers.

Two articles were what turned the tide --- one in The New York Times (October 5, 2017) by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey and one in The New Yorker (October 10, 2017) by Ronan Farrow. Both made the charges well known and eventually led to him becoming a defendant in a trial.

On February 24, 2020 after five hours of deliberation the jury convicted him of one count of criminal sexual assault in the first degree and one count of rape in the third degree. Now I am not sure of the difference between a criminal sexual assault and rape but I am glad we are no longer discussing two alleged activities.

I suspect a lot of satisfaction spread through the country on March 11 when he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. And I guess there was even more satisfaction when a District Attorney in Los Angeles announced plans to bring Weinstein to that city for a trail there on rape charges.

I just finished reading two books written by the authors of those articles. Both give a good account of their investigations and clearly explain the issues that are involved --- She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey and Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow.

The "catch and kill" in Farrow's title is the term for an industry practice of a publication commissioning an article but not running it (to kill is to bury in a filing cabinet). NBC essentially pulled a "catch and kill" on Farrow by deciding not to air a program they paid him to make. He then wrote his article for the New Yorker.

There are other reasons why a planned manuscript might not make it to the end. Many women were afraid to talk about their experiences with Weinstein. So how is there going to be a story if not enough people want to talk to reporters? Or if too many are willing to talk but not on the record?

Both books relate the experiences of Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, a Filipina-Italian model. She had been a finalist in the Miss Italy Pageant before she pursued her dreams by coming to America.

Gutierrez went to see Weinstein. As soon as she left his office she went to the police and filed a complaint saying Weinstein groped her. When she refused to retract her charge, stories began to appear in the tabloids saying she was a hooker and that she had associated with gangsters in Italy. And those papers said Weinstein didn't want to deal with her because she had demanded that he give her a certain part.

She always denied those charges. Ronan said, "Several tabloid editors later told me they regretted their coverage of Gutierrez and felt it laid uncomfortably bare Weinstein's transnational relationships in their industry."

In She Said Kantor and Twohey started out by wanting to find out if there was any substance to the many rumors swirling around Harvey Weinstein. At first, they had trouble finding the women who had made such accusations. Then after finding them many were afraid to speak to them. But as the two authors kept at it they ended up finding many who were willing to talk. They were very surprised that the stories they heard were all so similar. Women who had not known each other were relating essentially the same accounts.

During their research they found that out that Weinstein settled with many of his accusers. With those settlements they suggest he is paying them off. For a while they thought about making the whole article about those settlements, but they ended up making them a good portion of the article.

Non-disclosure clauses are a disturbing part of the settlements. In order to get the money, the women had to promise that they would never talk about their experiences. Initially a lot of women didn't want to talk with the three reporters because they had signed a non-disclosure. They were a big reason why Weinstein was able to get away with such bad conduct for so long. As soon as the public learned what had been happening Weinstein's world fell apart.

In California a group of people tried to introduce a bill that would outlaw non-disclosure agreements. The proposed bill was getting a lot of momentum when the famous attorney Gloria Alred spoke out against it. She said that such agreements give more incentive to people accused of bad conduct to enter into settlements.

Its sponsor withdrew the bill --- she was sure that it did not have any chance to make it into law with such a famous attorney against it. Ms. Alred's participation in the whole process raises troubling questions. Her daughter Lisa Bloom is also an attorney and was working for Harvey Weinstein. So, when a mother is negotiating a settlement the daughter is representing the party on the other side of the negotiations. How can that not be a conflict of interest?

But concerns about conflict of interest does not stop at family members who are on two sides in a legal dispute. One of the prosecutors in the DA's Office said they were not going to go forward with the case against Weinstein in the Ambra Battilana Gutierrez case because they thought the charges had no merit. It wasn't long before that attorney would change jobs. She went from having been a prosecutor to being an attorney working for Weinstein. She and Bloom were not the only attorneys there --- that fellow has a whole staff.

Reading about sexual assault does not provide a good experience. But I feel optimistic that society is changing, and that society won't let a problem fester for years. And I hope that society is moving in the direction of taking accusations of sexual abuse seriously.