Dahlia Lithwick's take on #MeToo-era due process for Andrew Cuomo 'is the most outrageous partisan hackery I have ever seen' [screenshots]

There’s actually a pretty decent chance that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will never have to answer — at least politically — for his role in the deaths of thousands of elderly New Yorkers from COVID19. So it’s tempting to see the sexual harassment allegations against him and want him to lose his job over them, just so he’s held accountable for something.

But, like all Americans, Andrew Cuomo is entitled to due process. Fortunately, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick recognizes that:

Even after facing several accusations of harassment, the governor deserves due process. https://t.co/NO6xsfppan

— Slate (@Slate) March 3, 2021

Lithwick writes:

I am a journalist myself, and I am wholly in favor of a sober and serious probe into Cuomo’s alleged conduct. It’s not a terrible thing to allow an independent investigator to gather all the facts and arrive at a formal conclusion before calling for his immediate ouster. To allow a formal fact-finding process to play out is neither a disparagement of his accusers—whose accounts should be taken absolutely seriously—nor a get-out-of-jail-free card for the governor. It is merely an acknowledgment of something that should have been clear from the vitally important beginnings of the #MeToo era: There is a difference between having the media surface and report predation, and having something akin to a formal process investigate and determine what occurred and what should be done about it. The press has never pretended to be experts at that latter function.

This isn’t a knock on the crucial role played by journalism, which has been invaluable in smoking out abuses that are all too often obscured by confidentiality agreements, acute power imbalances, and victim shaming. It’s simply a recognition that journalism should launch the process of due process, as opposed to finishing it.

…

To refuse to come to immediate irrevocable conclusions isn’t a repudiation of #MeToo so much as an acknowledgment that serious problems demand sober due process. That isn’t a failure of the left or a double standard. It’s an acknowledgment that facts matter, that they are discernable [sic], and that doing so takes more patience than the blink of a news cycle allows.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA https://t.co/mOcFZOtC8v

— I got your #Unity right here (@jtLOL) March 4, 2021

Don’t laugh at Slate! And definitely don’t laugh at Dahlia Lithwick! It takes guts to be a journalist who’s willing to shine a light on the journalistic profession’s flaws.

You know what’s even gutsier than that, though? Pretending that you’re above it all when you were right down there in the gutter the entire time.

Here’s another line from Lithwick’s piece on Cuomo:

As I have tried to argue throughout the #MeToo era, journalism when it is not followed up by fact-finding and due process was never going to be the answer to the power and information imbalances that lead to sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood, in government, and in the judiciary.

Ladies and gentlemen, that right there is some textbook gaslighting.

Behold:

pic.twitter.com/zrHRVAuwrj

— Biden Voters Posting Their L's Online (@BidenLs) March 4, 2021

Dahlia Lithwick has decided that apparently due process is actually good now. Interesting timing (and target).https://t.co/GvEQeSfbvK https://t.co/5Cohmoi5NO pic.twitter.com/z55oZ7EXyZ

— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) March 4, 2021

Same author. https://t.co/MGoU2Idfon pic.twitter.com/b6aaBdPLTB

— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) March 3, 2021

Same author.https://t.co/ewHHZoBw6D pic.twitter.com/nTgd3teo25

— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) March 3, 2021

Same author.https://t.co/hKPzebzHv3 pic.twitter.com/WPKeRfCCAQ

— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) March 3, 2021

Same author.https://t.co/U8pJolFyx0 pic.twitter.com/H7tte1vkXR

— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) March 3, 2021

Same author. pic.twitter.com/0o3erX5tM2

— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) March 3, 2021

Almost like there’s a pattern.

Lithwick on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation: "It is surely not my job to, in the parlance of Justice Antonin Scalia, America’s favorite grief counselor, 'get over it.'" https://t.co/oHTEQMUewe

— I got your #Unity right here (@jtLOL) March 4, 2021

“That’s different…”

— Kendall Cameron (@kn_cameron) March 3, 2021

Gee, wonder what the (D)ifference could be!

Allegations vs. R // Allegations vs. Dem pic.twitter.com/rdF0X3f8ET

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 4, 2021

Never fails.

This is the most outrageous partisan hackery I have ever seen. These people made it their life's goal to destroy Kavanaugh's reputation and career over flimsy, decades-old evidence, and now when there are recent photos and multiple witnesses they suddenly want due process? https://t.co/alvH9hMUQ1

— Alec Sears (@alec_sears) March 4, 2021