These Prominent Left-Wing Journalists Were Accused of Sexual Harassment, Why Are They Still Working?

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It’s been more than two years since Moira Donegan’s “Shitty Media Men” list began circulating, effectively bringing the MeToo movement to the world of media.

The Google spreadsheet was part of a whisper network of women making claims of rape, assault and sexual harassment at the hands of male colleagues in various newsrooms, particularly “woke” ones like Buzzfeed.

While the list notes that these are allegations, most of the men involved were “canceled” in the wake of the publication. One man, Stephen Elliot, lost all of his book contracts and was ostracized from his social circle after appearing on it. He is involved in a lawsuit against Donegan, but it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.  

National Justice has obtained a copy of the list through Open Source Intelligence gathering. 

While it is important to note these are only allegations, a large number of figures named have lost their jobs or resigned into obscurity. There are two vital exceptions that appear to have skated by under the radar and continue to work as prominent left-wing commentators and journalists.

Joe Bernstein  

Joe Bernstein at Buzzfeed, who earned the nickname “Viewtiful Joe” from Sam Hyde, has made a name for himself in the world of opposition research. This political correcter has gotten quite a few scalps. He played an important role in destroying the career of Milo Yiannopoulos, his work got the popular comedy show Million Dollar Extreme canceled by Adult Swim, and thanks to his “request for comment” a teenage girl satirist “Soph” was driven off Youtube.  

What is interesting about Bernstein is that, unlike his Buzzfeed colleagues who were fired or resigned in the wake of MeToo, his career and reputation remain untouched in spite of serious accusations of work place harassment. 

According to allegations in the Shitty Media Men List, Bernstein created a hostile environment for women at Buzzfeed by making sexually inappropriate and unprofessional comments towards young interns, used his position to get women at the office to sleep with him, and even kept a “notch list” of female colleagues he had slept with that created a lot of discomfort and embarrassment.

Other figures hit by MeToo allegations have been dismissed for much less. 

Bernstein appears well-connected and resilient, however. Less than two weeks after the Shitty Media Men List had started making waves, the Columbia Journalism Review published a fawning article celebrating Bernstein as a 21st century Nazi-hunter. The timing begs the question: were they throwing him a life saver?   

Buzzfeed has never publicly addressed the allegations about Bernstein, who still works for them. When reached for comment, spokesman Matt Mittenthal referred National Justice to an article from 2018, claiming that Buzzfeed took the claims seriously and had conducted an internal investigation, where offenders were fired or quit.

Was Bernstein found innocent? Mittenthal refused to answer this specific question in our emails with him. Bernstein himself has also never commented on the accusations. 

In the fickle digital media environment where employees are fired for old tweets or friendships, one would assume that the mere association of your name with workplace sexual harassment is an automatic deal breaker. In the case of Bernstein, he appears to have survived the wave of MeToo without anyone asking questions. 

Doug Henwood 

Mr. Henwood, a rich white man in his 60s, is by far one of the most “woke” people on the American left. Henwood and his wife, Liza Featherstone, are staunch advocates of combining socialist ideas with “sex workers rights,” transgenderism, infantile sexuality, anarchist paramilitary violence, white privilege theory and open borders.

They have been important voices in pushing the Bernie Sanders campaign away from its bread and butter working class appeals that led to a populist insurrection in 2016 to the identity-politics Park Slope circus that will doom it to Corbyn’s fate in 2020. 

Henwood is also listed on the Shitty Media Men List with the non-descriptive accusation of “harassment.” 

Sources tell us that Henwood’s transformation from an “old school” socialist to a virulent liberal maximalist coincides with his appearance on this list, for which he has not suffered, unlike fellow Jacobin, The Nation and New Republic contributors and columnists. Like with Bernstein, the rules don’t seem to apply as long as you are furthering the “woke” libertarianization of the left. 
  
Interviews with individuals familiar with Henwood conducted by National Justice turned up claims of sending BDSM pictures to young women the fabulously wealthy couple have employed at their home, wild swinger parties featuring wife-sharing and cuckoldry, heavy use of prostitutes and other anti-social behaviors. It must be stressed that not all of these claims have been independently verified. 

It is rich irony that two men who have made names for themselves calling everyone racist and misogynist have faced serious accusations themselves. The fact that they have floated by under the radar shows that the leftists who have turned sexual harassment into the big crusade of 2017-18 are not very principled at all.  
 

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