So. A few days ago a fellow film critic I'd been casually associated with on social media was accused of sexual assault and stepped down from his post. Subsequently, I posted a chained string of entries to Twitter (you can read them here) in which I stated that, one year ago, I was told disturbing things second-hand about this person from someone I love whom I should have believed... and did not. I went on to apologize for this, and referred to my actions as having made me "complicit in a status-quo of abuse and silence." To be additionally clear about this (which I did not initially want to do because it feels vaguely like minimizing and centering myself): The information that I had been told about was not the sexual assault accusation.
I subsequently was informed that OneAngryGamer.net - a website affiliated with the so-called "GamerGate" movement (which has been celebrating the critic in question's fall from grace because he had been a vocal critic of said movement, as have I) - had posted a "news" item about what I'd said which refers what I said in part as "MovieBob Chipman Admits Complicit Cover-Up..." The full article can be viewed HERE. Below is a screengrab, wherein the highlighted portion is shown to be a mischaracterization of the actual quotes they post below:
Now, as should be obvious to anyone who can actually read, "complicit in a status-quo of abuse and silence" (i.e. not believing makes me part of the bigger problem that people don't listen in these cases - both this one specifically and more broadly) is in no way that same thing as "admitting" to complicity in a "cover-up;" as that implies not only direct knowledge (which I didn't have) and direct action (which I did not take.)
So, suffice it to say, the piece is a grotesque mischaracterization of what I said that (at least from my perspective) could indeed be seen as rising to the level of libel. While I don't expect that anyone whose opinion I'd care about will put any stock in a random GG-affiliated site, for posterity I've asked that it be taken down and I wanted to have this post up clarifying everything.
Now, can we please place the focus of this very serious matter back where it should be (on abuse-survivors and the need to treat them and their claims properly), rather than co-opting it to score cheap points against tangentially-related people and entities? Because that'd be great.
