MeToo lacks due process, Rolling Stone boss says
NEW YORK — Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner says the MeToo movement shows a “real absence of due process.”
In an interview, Wenner said he feels that mere accusations of sexual impropriety are threatening careers, many times without corroboration, with people losing their jobs over “some of the most harmless things.
“Honestly, I do believe it’s a bit of witch hunt,” Wenner said at his office in New York. “It’s difficult to get due process because there’s no real place to adjudicate it except in court, which takes forever.”
Wenner, 72, speaks from experience, after a former Rolling Stone employee came forward last year, claiming the media mogul sexually assaulted him in 1983. Wenner doesn’t deny something happened between him and his accuser.
“There’s some truth to it, but it does not fit any illegal, immoral, or unethical, or go in any way that direction,” Wenner said. “All you can say is no, not me too, and wait.”
He sees violent sexual assault happening on college campuses as being a bigger problem.
“This is student-to-student rape. It’s different than being harassed on the job or having your butt pinched or whatever you’re complaining about. This is a physical violence,” Wenner said.
Wenner made the comments while promoting the documentary by award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, Rolling Stone: Stories From the Edge.
The four-hour, six-part documentary — which aired last year on HBO — makes its way to iTunes and other online services on Tuesday. It showcases the magazine’s 50-year history, and its news coverage, including the 1972 presidential election covered by Hunter S. Thompson and the Michael Hastings article that took down Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The documentary also highlights a dark time for the publication, the 2014 story of a gang rape at the University of Virginia, which the magazine had to retract because of “discrepancies” in the victim’s account. The magazine settled at least one suit over the story for $1.65 million US.
Wenner considers that time one of the most regrettable moments in Rolling Stone’s history, but “nothing I feel guilty about. Looking back, there’s a few mistakes — had we not made a few mistakes, it would have turned out differently,” he said.
“In terms of regrettable things that have happened to us after 50 years, we finally had our turn with our feet on the fire. If you’re in this business, sooner or later you’re going to make mistakes — that mistake happens.”
Wenner’s life has been in the news over the past year with the sexual misconduct allegation, and Sticky Fingers, the salacious biography by Joe Hagan.
Yet, Wenner said he’s unaffected by it all, especially now that the tables have turned, making him the focus of the story.
“I’m in the business of journalism myself, and I’m not really ashamed of anything I did, so it doesn’t matter to me if you tell some stories of my sex life,” he said.
“It’s just that it’s not well-done, it’s out of context, and it overwhelms the real story, which is what great work we did, what fun we had, instead of saying I had sex with somebody that nobody has ever heard of before, will ever hear of again. It doesn’t affect anything.”