SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Is Twitter or Facebook the best court to provide justice?

Oct 30, 2017, 12:09 PM | Updated: 12:55 pm

Twitter...

(File, Associated Press)

(File, Associated Press)

Well, it appears as if the modern court of public opinion will be happening on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Ever since the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse story broke, there have been a string of accusations flying around social media. The details are salacious, and make for tantalizing clickbait. Should we also be the online judge, jury, and executioner?

RELATED: Parenting in the age of the internet

The latest bomb to drop today is about actor Kevin Spacey. He was accused of an awkward sexual encounter and outed as a gay man for a drunken night that happened 30 years ago. “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp recently told his story to Buzzfeed. Rapp claims that in 1986, Spacey made a pass at him while drunk at a party. Spacey was 26 and Rapp was 14 at the time.

Spacey has now apologized in a Twitter post and has taken this opportunity to come out as a gay man.

Last week, it was political author of consequence Mark Halperin. The details of his story are much more lurid. I can’t even recount them on the radio. At least 14 women have said the “Game Change” author sexually harassed them. He was fired by MSNBC.

Is this how we are going to do this now? Give an interview with a website or tweet about that creepy encounter with a famous person from years ago?

Here’s the thing that I’m confused about. What does justice look like?

Harvey Weinstein was fired from his post, and summarily banished from the Motion Picture Academy. But Bill Cosby and Woody Allen are are still members of the Academy. What about Roman Polanski? Should he be in or out? Who draws the line, and how is it drawn?

Are there any statutes of limitation? What if it was 30 years ago, like Kevin Spacey? Is that different from a prolonged pattern like Weinstein or Cosby? Is it possible for a person to evolve over the years, or is sexual aggression one of those characteristics that is fixed in stone? Is it the creep factor, the number of victims, or the size and frequency of the settlements that gets you the scarlet letter?

Please don’t get me wrong, I have no desire to defend sexual predators. I applaud the bravery of victims that have been inspired to come forward and shed light on the dark secrets they have carried with them for all these years.

But what happens to the ordinary people being harassed by non-famous abusers? Where is their vindication? Should they go beyond #MeToo and begin to tweet the names and details like we are beginning to see in Hollywood and politics?

I’m all-in for changing the culture around men in power abusing their station. I wonder if we are doing it the right way.

Please follow our Community Guidelines

weather labor day...

Robert Van Winkle, KIRO 7 Pinpoint Meteorologist

A look at your Labor Day forecast

Labor Day Monday starts with a few showers and cloudy skies around Puget Sound.

21 minutes ago

2 belltown shooting...

MyNorthwest Staff

17-year-old killed, 21-year-old injured in third Belltown shooting Sunday

A 17-year-old boy was killed, and a 21-year-old man was seriously injured in Belltown Sunday night.

28 minutes ago

FILE - Two women embrace each other as they watch the World Trade Center burn following a terrorist...

Associated Press

One attack, many Americas: Why 9/11 and its many griefs land differently 25 years later

NEW YORK (AP) — When the planes crashed and the buildings fell on that sunny September morning 25 years ago, the shock waves of dismay and grief went far past downtown New York City, rural western Pennsylvania and just outside Washington, D.C. They radiated through every part of the United States in communities large and […]

1 hour ago

This Justice Department grand jury superseding indictment against Malone Lam and his co-defendants ...

Associated Press

Party’s over for crypto scammers who went on a spending spree after a $240 million bitcoin theft

WASHINGTON (AP) — They pulled off one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history, duping a stranger out of bitcoin worth over $240 million. They tried to hide their digital fingerprints, carrying out a sophisticated scheme to launder the proceeds. And then the party started. The scammers — a network of young men in […]

2 hours ago

FILE - A person sweeps outside during the grand opening of the Rose on Colfax, a new affordable hou...

Associated Press

The poorest in the US can’t find housing even as low-income units sit empty

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Mathew Davis, who lives in a homeless shelter in Austin, Texas, would love an apartment of his own. But with the little money he makes donating blood plasma, even a $450-a-month tiny home with no running water and a communal bathroom would be a stretch. Meanwhile, over 4,500 units the city […]

2 hours ago

Haitian costumes for Lespri Ayiti Mas Camp are displayed ahead of the West Indian Day Parade, Thurs...

Associated Press

For New York’s Haitian community, annual West Indian Day Parade means more in trying times

NEW YORK (AP) — Steel drums, flag-draped floats, and the smell of jerk chicken will fill Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway on Monday, as hundreds of thousands turn out for the West Indian Day Parade, one of the largest celebrations of Caribbean culture in the country. This year, Haitians are marching under more solemn circumstances than in […]

10 hours ago

Is Twitter or Facebook the best court to provide justice?