Foundation cancels RBG award ceremony that would have honored Musk, Murdoch after family's outcry
Source: CNN Politics
Published 5:41 PM EDT, Mon March 18, 2024
CNN The foundation that selected SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch and other honorees as recipients of an award named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg announced Monday it is canceling its award ceremony after receiving pushback from the late justices family.
Julie Opperman, chair of the Opperman Foundation, said in a statement that the last thing we intended was to offend the family and friends of RBG. Our purpose was only to remember her and to honor her leadership. And, while we believe each of the honorees is worthy of our respect for their leadership and their notable contributions, the Foundation has decided that the planned ceremony in April 2024 will be canceled, Opperman said.
The slate of this years honorees for the foundations RBG Leadership award, formerly the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Women in Leadership award, was announced last week and also included lifestyle icon Martha Stewart, actor Sylvester Stallone and financier Michael Milken.
Members of the Ginsburg family and a former clerk for the justice called on the foundation to pull her name off the award, with her son Jim Ginsburg telling CNNs Paula Reid on Sunday that the choices of Musk and Murdoch were a desecration of my mothers memory. When you think of trying to create a more just society, which of course was Moms ultimate goal, those are probably about the last names that would come to mind, he said.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/18/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-award-ceremony-cancelled-elon-musk-rupert-murdoch/index.html
Blue Owl
(50,391 posts)What the hell were those foundation fucksticks thinking in the first place???
elleng
(130,933 posts)BComplex
(8,053 posts)Someone needs to put actual HUMANS in charge.
intheflow
(28,476 posts)rsdsharp
(9,182 posts)The Foundation is named for Dwight D. Opperman. Opperman grew up poor in Perry, Iowa, later went to Drake Law School, and for many years was the CEO of West Publishing. West publishes, among other things, state and federal reporters of legal decisions. If you want to read your state supreme courts published decisions, you go to the appropriate volume of the appropriate regional reporter. In the case of my state, that would be the Northwestern Reporter.
West also developed a keynote system, so that opinions are broken down by key numbers on specific topics to aid research. West also publishes regional and state digests which allows attorneys to efficiently research the law. Westlaw, the computer legal research program is an offshoot of the keynote system.
When Westlaw first came out in the mid 1980s, he gave Drake one of the first (actually I think THE first) Westlaw lab. He also endowed multiple annual scholarships at Drake law, which were full tuition, plus a fairly generous cash stipend. (No, I didnt receive one).
I dont know what the hell is going on with this award, or his surviving family (Opperman died in 2013), but he was a pretty good guy.
SharonClark
(10,014 posts)And a longtime GOP contributor.
rsdsharp
(9,182 posts)I have no idea what his politics were, although he was on the Forbes 400 list. He died nearly eleven years ago, so he never gave a dime to Trump.
yonder
(9,666 posts)moniss
(4,247 posts)because they only said they are "canceling the ceremony" which does not say they are not still giving the awards to that group of scum. Only statement I see is "no ceremony".
BumRushDaShow
(129,053 posts)Opperman said the foundation will reconsider its mission and make a judgment about how or whether to proceed in the future. The award previously had honored only women but had been expanded to include men for this years ceremony, which was scheduled to take place at the Library of Congress on April 13.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2024/03/18/rbg-award-opperman-musk-murdoch-canceled/
The suggestion from Jim Ginsburg that there would be no awards. But it's possible they may just "wait" until it blows over and then maybe do the awards in a "private ceremony"... although the best of options is to cancel the whole thing this year and re-do something for next year (WITHOUT the RW loons).
ShazzieB
(16,412 posts)Last edited Mon Mar 18, 2024, 11:52 PM - Edit history (1)
Nothing against men (I'm married to a fine one, and we have some great ones here at DU), but taking ANY award that was created to honor members of a particular group and expanding it to include anybody is NEVER a good look.
It was as if the NAACP Image awards were suddenly opened to white people. Not quite THAT bad, but in the same vein. It was just plain stupid to think no one would mind.
Choosing that particular group of men as recipients was just the 🍒 on top of the 💩 sundae!
BumRushDaShow
(129,053 posts)the more I realized they hijacked the thing and completely made a RW loon awards foundation out of it - essentially using the money from it and ditching the namesake for it.
cstanleytech
(26,293 posts)creating a more just society "for" women.
ShazzieB
(16,412 posts)ToxMarz
(2,168 posts)Just looking at the selected Award Recipients, this is NOT an "award" ceremony, this is a back scratching, networking, money grifting scheme.
Shermanator
(31 posts)The award to something else. Leave RBG's name out of it.
mopinko
(70,112 posts)happen to know jim, and glad he spoke out. i was waiting. i suspect he was getting his ducks in a row before he did. needless to say, he knows a LOT of lawyers. iirc, hes sued before.
havent spoken to him in dog yrs, but were fb friends. he hasnt posted about it yet.
eta if any of these men had a shred of decency, theyd refuse it.
Comfortably_Numb
(3,809 posts)Hell cry for affirmation from the Eloon-lets and theyll oblige.
getagrip_already
(14,757 posts)It doesn't sound like it?
Why would you give a women in service award to mysogynists?
How can they just use her name?
BlueKota
(1,741 posts)Biophilic
(3,665 posts)niyad
(113,323 posts)Biophilic
(3,665 posts)Jean Genie
(273 posts)And are Elon and Murdoch women now?
4lbs
(6,858 posts)(paraphrasing)
"Hey, you helped put RBG into the ground, Musky and Murdoch, so the least we can do is give you an award named for her."
Umm..... tone deaf much?
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,348 posts)tanyev
(42,559 posts)except maybe Martha Stewart. I dont know where she stands on issues these days.
Had to be deliberate.
ificandream
(9,373 posts)https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/martha-stewart-wont-endorse-a-presidential-candidate.html
LisaM
(27,813 posts)Years ago she told Letterman "I'm going for Al!" during the 2000 election. Not a huge surprise but she may well have gotten the kind of payback we know Bush and his ilk were capable of.
canuckledragger
(1,641 posts)I lost all respect for him when I learned that he stole someone else's life story to launch his career...the rocky films are Chuck Weiner's story, whom eventually had to sue Stallone over rights and profits.
https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/news/gonzo-stallone-stole-wepners-rocky-story/288706/
SergeStorms
(19,201 posts)I don't think he'd be on top of anyone's list. There are so many infinitely better actors than Sly Stallone. 🙄
Why not Jodie Foster, Glenn Close, Tom Hanks, Helen Mirran, Judy Dench etc. etc. etc.. Each one head and shoulders above Stallone in acting ability.
keopeli
(3,522 posts)rpannier
(24,329 posts)Cobra and the 'Junk Bond Man'?!!!
Those four were the best they could do for the first year of including men?
Because I can think of a lot better men than those four who meet the criterion they set out
Makes me wonder who the judges are
muriel_volestrangler
(101,320 posts)https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2024/03/15/ruth-bader-ginsburg-award-backlash/
brer cat
(24,568 posts)honorees for an award in RBG's name. They just love slapping her in the face.
Hikerchick57
(118 posts)50 Shades Of Blue
(10,004 posts)https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/03/justice-ginsburgs-family-decries-bestowing-rbg-award-on-elon-musk-and-rupert-murdoch/
rubbersole
(6,691 posts)He speaks for justice and women. Yes, sarcasm.
barbtries
(28,798 posts)to cancel it. why the fuck they would choose these people for awards in the first place is a whole other thing.
BlueKota
(1,741 posts)and they're overwhelmed with hate e-mails.
I don't know that RBG's family could do anymore than they did to protest the decision. Maybe Musk or Murdoch will sue.
Farmer-Rick
(10,175 posts)Is so disengenuine.
"Julie Opperman, chair of the Opperman Foundation, said in a statement that the last thing we intended was to offend the family and friends of RBG."
Yeah right. It was the main thing she intended to do, and she did it. What a piece of work.
BlueKota
(1,741 posts)PlutosHeart
(1,280 posts)They were using RBG's image to justify their monsters. So sad.
I am glad the family spoke out.
mwb970
(11,360 posts)And they always do.
intheflow
(28,476 posts)First, take away an award for womens excellence, because woman have equal rights now and its discriminatory to single out just one gender. Just as all Black people are equal to whites because Obama was president, women are completely equal to men because FIVE women have sat on the SCOTUS. This is their mentality!
Next, make sure you show how non-discriminatory you are by having a 4:1 male/female awardee split. Thatll really start to even the playing field again for all the men who were shunned by this award in the past.
Finally, make sure you find the most antisemitic, misogynistic, ethics-free and empathy-challenged men you can think of to give an award to thats named after a feminist Jewish woman who worked for real justice for the least of us.
Any one of those things, maybe I could give them the benefit of the doubt. But this trifecta is too specific to be random. I mean. They didnt have any other people they considered for the award they could have brought forth this year? Ill bet their idea was to scuttle the award all along.
LisaM
(27,813 posts)I don't know if you spend time drafting talking points but you should!
ZonkerHarris
(24,228 posts)The Grand Illuminist
(1,332 posts)Which is a weakness on our side that needs to be conversed to make sure that don't happen.
BaronChocula
(1,559 posts)Why would the family of RBG allow a foundation named for a venture capitalist and run by republicons allow them to bestow awards under RBG's name???
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,330 posts)LiberalFighter
(50,942 posts)BigMin28
(1,177 posts)The chair of the committee for RBG Award is Brendan Sullivan, Oliver North's attorney.
Fla Dem
(23,677 posts)All I can think is the foundation members who made the decision to honor Musk and Murdoch must have had their heads in a shopping bag.
Blue Idaho
(5,049 posts)Time for a shake-up at the Opperman Fund.
mainer
(12,022 posts)From the Washington Post:
Ginsburg was longtime friends with Dwight Opperman, who served as president of West Publishing Co., which created the online research service Westlaw. He and Julie Opperman married in 2008. He died in 2013.
Neither of his two sons nor any other biological relative is involved with the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation, Vance Opperman, the son of Dwight Opperman and his first wife Jeanice, told The Post. He added that none of his biological family is in touch with Julie Opperman and that they were unhappy to have their names associated with this.
SharonClark
(10,014 posts)japple
(9,828 posts)against the injustice of honoring such unworthy people. Like TFG giving Rush Limp the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
ToxMarz
(2,168 posts)What a miserable pack of fellow recipients.
LeftInTX
(25,361 posts)And of course pick: AOC, Kamala Harris etc.
louis-t
(23,295 posts)What the hell were you thinking?
Nictuku
(3,614 posts)The Grand Illuminist
(1,332 posts)Just not publicly. Still a massive shame.
lakercub
(659 posts)Stallone is nothing like a good actor in 95 percent of his stuff, Musk is a petulant man-child making billions off his family's blood mining money, Murdoch poisoned everything, and Milken was a great example of the wretched excess of the Reagan years and is walking filth. Milken was also pardoned by Trump late in his "presidency." This list is meant to be disrespectful to RBG or to try and fool the credulous into thinking these were her type of people. I had not heard of Julie Opperman, but she seems to be an especially loathsome individual.
Quakerfriend
(5,450 posts)RBG must be turning in her grave!
SharonClark
(10,014 posts)I see it locally, the same people are honored by multiple organizations because their little clique of the rich and powerful rotate thru the boards of corporations and non-profits and take turns giving awards to each other.
BumRushDaShow
(129,053 posts)but another excerpt had a WaPo take that I think hits the nail on the head in answer to your question -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2024/03/18/rbg-award-opperman-musk-murdoch-canceled/
mwb970
(11,360 posts)I don't get it.
wolfie001
(2,240 posts)So glad this was this outcome!!!
riversedge
(70,239 posts)Initech
(100,079 posts)Glad they axed that one! Fuck Elon.
mathematic
(1,439 posts)This is pretty ridiculous. Obviously the awarding organization was hijacked by a right winger that thinks this is funny.
BumRushDaShow
(129,053 posts)And 2 of the 3 that you list , have had this honor -
But yeah, according to several articles on them, they made a big change to the original criteria last year and vomited forth this nonsense.
SergeStorms
(19,201 posts)that chose those two soulless assholes in the first place?
I smell some right-wing rat fucking going on here!