Backlash as author McEwan says: Harvey Weinstein may be victim of mob mentality

AUTHOR Ian McEwan was criticised yesterday for suggesting Harvey Weinstein could be the victim of a mob mentality and media circus.

While the disgraced film mogul seemed a ‘moral monster’, McEwan said he was withholding judgment about him until the case is heard in court. Explaining his decision, the author of Atonement and On Chesil Beach said the public ‘don’t know what actually happened’ between the Hollywood producer and the women who have accused him of sexual assault and rape.

Weinstein, 66, has been charged with rape and sexual assault. He was released on £750,000 bail after a New York court heard that he tried to ‘lure young women into situations where he could violate them sexually’. More than 80 women have gone public with claims of harassment or assault, including actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman.

Weinstein denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, McEwan, 69, said: ‘It seems a kind of circus to me. There is the media stuff, which we have to penetrate.

‘We don’t know what actually happened; it seems he is a moral monster who has had his comeuppance, but I always like to encourage in myself just a degree of scepticism once the whole mob is in full cry, so I am going to withhold judgments until I have heard the arguments in court.’ Several listeners criticised McEwan’s viewpoint, one describing it as ‘seriously disturbing’.

Author Catherine Mayer, co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party, tweeted: ‘Yes you did hear that. Ian McEwan just told @Marthakearney @BBCr4today that he’s withholding judgment on Harvey Weinstein.

‘Oh the vanity of these men who think their every thought important And even by the low standards of this discussion, a defence of Weinstein is particularly egregious.’

Another wrote on Twitter: ‘Seriously disturbing to hear McEwan equating women citing Weinstein as an abuser with “mob mentality”.’ A third added: ‘An author of Ian McEwan’s stature knows exactly what “mob” connotes: A mass of wild, hysterical, uncivilized creatures with no good reason to be angry, pitchforks out and goodbye to reason and justice. That’s what we are, for stopping a serial rapist?’

However, other listeners defended McEwan, with one man writing: ‘Even Weinstein is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, it’s disturbing that anybody who reminds people of this fact is attacked. The witch-hunt that is trial by media seems to be taking over the rule of law.’