CAIN: ain’t no more Herman Cain for political media to beat on

Lead

Herman Cain has suspended his campaign.

By devoting extensive coverage seeking to humiliate Cain and to derail his candidacy, mainstream political media lost its way. It utterly failed  its fundamental role in American presidential politics to stay focused, and to adequately inform the American people about the issues of national concern on the business and affairs of the country, the presidency, and the Presidential candidates in the GOP race for the Republican nomination.

Media (Quote):

After Herman Cain suspended his presidential campaign, other Republican presidential hopefuls praised him for energizing conservative voters and wished him well.

Source:  Danny Yadron, “Former Rivals Praise Herman Cain,” WSJ WASHINGTON WIRE BLOG

Query

Please take a moment and reflect.

If you wish to comment, that would be appreciated. But if not, please just take a moment and think.

Set aside the fact that Herman Cain is a Republican, that he is black and that he is conservative. Just reflect that up to now, he was a candidate in America for the GOP nomination to run for President in Election 2012.

Whether you agreed or disagreed with his philosophy, viewpoints and politics; whether you would have voted for him or not; Herman had every right as an American citizen to enter upon the playing field; to compete in the game of Presidential politics with Mitt, Rick, Newt, Jon, Michelle and Ron and whoever else seeking to run for President; and, to engage in conversations about the business and affairs of the nation.

This is still the United States of America.

Every qualified man and woman still has an unfettered right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, to enter the race; to say whatever he or she wants to say; and, to do of course within reason whatever he or she wants to do to run for office; get his or her message out to the voters and seek the wins needed in the upcoming primary elections for GOP candidates who want to secure the nomination of the Republican Party, and run against Barack Obama in Election 2012 for President of the United States of America.

Whether Herman had $10 in the bank, or $10 Million, that was his fundamental right. And, it was taken from him.

How?

Not by the well-informed decision-making of voters at the ballot box.

But, essentially by the personal decisions of reporters, analysts, commentators, contributors, writers, editors and others in political media hot to trot about generating a torrent of media coverage concerning sex stories from three unhappy and unimportant women in the business and affairs of the nation anxious to tell their alleged stories from years gone by, but could never adequately explain why they wanted to tell their stories in the first place.

Who really cares, and in reality what difference should it have made to the state of the union and the presidency, what happened 14 years ago to the former National Restaurant Association staff employee who settled her claim, got paid, got another job, made another sexual harassment complaint and at least until one month ago was moving on with her life and career?

Who really cares, and in reality what difference should it have made to the state of the union and the presidency, what happened to the former applicant for a job at the NRA who did nothing and said nothing for all these years about an alleged sexual assault which took place 13 years ago?

Who really cares, and in reality what difference should it have made to the state of the union and the presidency, what allegedly has happening for 13 years  with a consenting women who allegedly was involved a love affair?

Mainstream political media should have been disciplined and stayed focused on the issues affecting the state of the union by keeping Americans informed about those issues and the positions of the GOP candidates on those issues. Just about every media outlet in the nation, however, got off mission,  went rogue, and wasted tons of ink and air time on what amounted to tabloid trivia.

It was mainstream political media coverage in prime time, to use the words of Ron Paul from another context: “beneath the office of the presidency.”

That’s our take, what’s yours?

 

Woman in Cain sexual harassment episode wants release to talk about it 15 years later-who’s kidding who?

Herman Cain’s sexual harassment episode is now becoming something of a media circus.

The new twist in the narrative is that one of the accusers wants to tell her story. The lead news report in the media coverage comes from The Washington Post.

In “Herman Cain’s accuser wants to tell her side of story, lawyer says,” Sandhya Somoashekhar and James v. Grimaldi write: 

A woman who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the 1990s is ready for her story to come out, her lawyer said Tuesday, even as the Republican presidential hopeful spent a second day trying to quell the mounting controversy and explain his conflicting recollections of the matter.

Joel P. Bennett, the attorney for one of two women who made the claims against Cain, said Tuesday that his client is barred from publicly relating her side because of a nondisclosure agreement she signed upon leaving the National Restaurant Association, where Cain served as president from 1996 through 1999.

Source:  Read  WASHINGTON POST  STORY

Note two things.

First, the woman’s lawyer is talking, not her.  Second, he goes out of his way to emphasize that she is barred from talking because of a “nondisclosure agreement.”

Now ask yourself a simple question: if the nondisclosure agreement bars the employee from talking, why does it not also bar her lawyer from talking?

We now come to the icing on the cake. The lawyer apparently talked to POLITICO.

In his story, “Herman Cain accuser shouldn’t be kept silent, lawyer argues,” Jonathan Martin writes:

The attorney for one of the women who complained that she was sexually harassed by Herman Cain in the 1990′s will contact the National Restaurant Association’s general counsel Wednesday to request that the organization remove the non-disclosure language from the woman’s settlement.

“I’m going to ask him to send me something in writing which says that they’re waiving the relevant paragraphs of the 1999 settlement,” Joel Bennett, the attorney, told POLITICO in an interview Tuesday night.

Bennett said he no longer had possession of the settlement and that his client was to share her copy with him tomorrow. Once the longtime employment lawyer has the document, he said he’d contact Peter Kilgore, the general counsel for the restaurant association, and formally request that the confidentiality provision be changed.

Source:  Read  POLITICO STORY

Note three things.

First, the lawyer “will contact” the National Restaurant Association. The lawyer has talked to the media, but has not even contacted the NRA?

Second, the lawyer’s client, who claims to be a victim of sexual harassment, is asking her former employer to send “something in writing which says that they’re waiving” the nondisclosure agreement. Is he serious?

The lawyer wants the employer to send him a waiver of confidentiality so that the employee can talk and tell her story and, of course, keep the money she got for  signing that very confidentiality agreement 15 years ago. That’s absurd!

Third, and brace yourself, all this jawboning and the lawyer “no longer had possession of the agreement.” What!!! His client will bring him a copy of the agreement tomorrow? Get real!

No wonder Herman Cain and his campaign team seem to be cool under pressure.

This episode is evolving and becoming a joke.

 

Clarification of how Cain’s sexual harrasment accusations were resolved is needed

Herman Cain has been hit with sexual harassment accusations. From the media coverage  the incidents apparently happened about fifteen years ago. They allegedly involved two employees of the lobbying organization for which Cain served as CEO.

It’s remarkable the incidents have not come to light until now.

Cain was a candidate in 2004 for the U. S. Senate in Georgia. He was a radio talk host in Atlanta. He was very visible motivational speaker. And, for the last several  months he has been an outspoken and a somewhat controversial candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination.

Through all those very visible and high-profile activities there have been no leaks or insinuations about sexual harassment.

Cain has denied the accusations. Of course, there are sharp differences of opinion by the public whether Cain’s denial is true or false.

It will be a bumpy ride for Herman Cain this week. As this comment is being posted, his supporters are firmly behind him. Media commentators are split. The public is sharply divided.

What’s not clear is how the matters were resolved.

Were they resolved as part of routine severance agreements the employees entered when they severed their employment; or, were they resolved through settlements on liability claims?

Those are widely accepted human relations and perhaps legal distinctions. There is nothing sinister about severance agreements. But, settlements on liability claims are much different matters. 

For the media, such distinctions may not make much of a difference  in the coverage of a candidates Accusations of sexual harrasment by public officials and candidates for office go to one’s character and integrity. Such accusation usually generate a torrent of media coverage. And there has been a torrent of coverage on Cain. 

But, for the general public the distinctions may be quite significant.

Clarification of whether the matters were resolved by severance agreements or settlements could affect public opinion about Cain. Hopefully, the clarification will be reported in this news cycle while the controversy is still hot.

Related articles

• Wayne Besen: Herman Cain’s Implausible Spin (huffingtonpost.com)
• Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Accusations: GOP Presidential Candidate Denies Politico Report (laurieanichols.wordpress.com)
• Cain’s Former Secretary: This Is Not the Herman Cain I Know (curmilus.wordpress.com)
• Herman Cain now says he knew of cash settlement with one woman who accused him of sexual harassment – Source: The Washington Post (curmilus.wordpress.com)
• Did Herman Cain Just Contradict Himself On The Sexual Harrasment Story? (outsidethebeltway.com)