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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJUST IN: Women staff of "Saturday Night Live" sign letter in support of Sen. Al Franken
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JUST IN: Women staff of "Saturday Night Live" sign letter in support of Sen. Al Franken
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Just out of curiosity.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)yardwork
(61,588 posts)I worked with Jane many years ago. She has a lot of credibility in my eyes.
Orrex
(63,203 posts)Also, here's the classic send-up of punditry that remains sadly relevant four decades later:
dflprincess
(28,075 posts)(I swear I read that somewhere.)
If that is true, the fact she'd stand up for Al means even more.
yardwork
(61,588 posts)When I worked with her in the early 1980s, she was a quiet, highly professional person. I don't believe that she would have signed this letter now if Al Franken had bothered her back then. That doesn't prove anything, but it's certainly a big point in his favor.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)those sorts of personal experiences do add to the credibility of the story.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)A big thanks to all these women!
Hugin
(33,120 posts)That they would take time out of their lives in support of Sen. Franken says much about him.
brush
(53,764 posts)Demsrule86
(68,552 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,670 posts)spanone
(135,823 posts)mucifer
(23,530 posts)They tried to drag Arianna Huffington into this because she did a series of skits with her and Franken in bed together on Comedy Central back in 1996. I remember it was pretty funny. She said he never did any of this kind of behavior.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)it was so ridiculous.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029869811
a kennedy
(29,647 posts)Timmygoat
(779 posts)With everyone on TV agreeing that all of these cases should be heard, why is no one saying that the women Trump abused should have their say?
Cicada
(4,533 posts)I worry about the absence of Tina Fey
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)This is signed by women who worked with Al Franken when he was at SNL.
Cicada
(4,533 posts)mnhtnbb
(31,382 posts)from its inception in 1975 until 1980 and returned from 1985-1995.
Tina Fey was born in 1970.
Farmer-Rick
(10,154 posts)He only harassed RepubliCON, Trump supporters.
spooky3
(34,438 posts)Nevernose
(13,081 posts)He didnt harass anyone.
He did pretend to grope a womans bosom.
There is a video of him performing his USO skit in which the female lead says, I think you wrote this script so that you could kiss me, so one can safely assume that it was performed again.
He did, indeed, put his hands on a womans waist during a state fair meet-and-greet.
questionseverything
(9,651 posts)and it clearly is not a pattern
<<bangs gavel
Farmer-Rick
(10,154 posts)I was kind of being sarcastic. I have some serious doubts about his accusers but to minimize their feelings is the go to response of serial abusers. So I'm walking a fine line.
I want to believe these 2 conservative Trump loving women but I feel they are not telling the truth.
Dopers_Greed
(2,640 posts)My guess is "no"
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Comedians do over reach sometimes, reaching for the "gag." It's a personal thing with me that I give comedians a wide berth. The way a successful comedian works, and his mind works, is they go for the gag, push the envelope, and say and do things on the spur of the moment...which sometimes falls flat or is more offensive than they intended. Much of comedy is intended to be offensive about something. If they are too careful, they lose that edge that makes for a successful comedian or political satirist. Think of George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Mahrer, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart. It doesn't mean they aren't unnecessarily offensive or don't cross the line and it's wrong. But I give them room to make that mistake because of the nature of what they do. For someone else in another line of work, it would definitely be wrong, and I would blame them.
I think things should be judged, also, for the era those things occurred in. This routine is pretty offensive and I doubt would fly these days.
robbob
(3,527 posts)Not a very politically correct routine. As I was watching it I was thinking if there are any rape survivors in the audience, or women who have been sexually assaulted or harassed, I bet they are not finding this bit funny at all.
robbob
(3,527 posts)Aka Kramer, who destroyed his career with an attempt at edgy, words you cant say out loud humour yelling the N word at some comedy club patrons. Totally unfunny, really bad comedy instincts, and he will be forever remembered as a racist idiot. All because he was trying to spontaneously push the envelope in a poorly thought out attempt at comedy.
wolfie001
(2,227 posts)Shivers!
Gothmog
(145,130 posts)womanofthehills
(8,698 posts)She said no women ever complained about Al all the yrs she worked there.
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)Some sanity is being restored.
wryter2000
(46,037 posts)Why Gilda Radner didnt sign.
BannonsLiver
(16,369 posts)Especially the poster who has attempted to shout down and shame anyone who DARES to ask questions about Tweeden.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)eissa
(4,238 posts)I proudly stand with Al, and a big "fuck you" to anyone who lumps him in the same category as pedophile Moore, or a predator like Weinstein.
apnu
(8,755 posts)I'm sure my comment is going to fall flat with most because I am not taking part in the binary nature of the Internet's desire to distill everything down to black and white choices.
1) it is harassment.
No matter how we look at it, Franken was party to toxic sexuality towards women. It doesn't matter if Tweeden is in on a hit job or being used as a prop for a hit job or none of that and she's sincere or that she's a liar and all this is a set up. None of that matters.
Al Franken was party to juvenile toilet humor objectifying women's bodies. That he's a comedian doesn't matter. That the culture approves of it doesn't matter. That the target audience (soldiers) supposedly want that kind of entertainment doesn't matter.
Al Franken is a grown man with decades of experience and judgement and he let his judgment fail him. He took part in objectifying women, and today he knows it and he's apologized for it and I hope he'll work to stop it in the future.
2) it is a hit job.
The fact that Roger Stone tweeted about this a full day in advance is all the evidence I need to know this is a hit job. I don't know what Tweeden's involvement in it, and I don't care. She didn't come out with this on her own, this was planned and premeditated to injure Al Franken. Maybe Tweeden is willing in this, maybe she's been manipulated, the end result is some people in the Republican party ARE trying to co-opt #MeToo for their political gain. It fits a story they've long told that all Hollywood liberals are amoral jerks so they're running with it.
This is not to sway independents or rile liberals, though both of those things are fringe benefits. This is about feeding red meat to the base who was flagging thanks to that pedophile asshole Roy Moore.
There's a long list of creepy Republican sexual adventures and anything that lets them say "everybody does it" takes the pressure off them.
So they're trying to turn Al Franken into another Bill Clinton, a ghoul to be trotted out every time they need to change the subject.
Because they don't want to talk about Donald Trump's pussy grabbing. They don't want to talk about Larry Craig's bathroom games, they don't want to talk about David Vitter's Diapers and they don't want to talk about Mark Foley's pages. And they absolutely don't want to talk about Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill.
wolfie001
(2,227 posts)Poster must be a plant or deranged! Spineless "dem". Sickening
zentrum
(9,865 posts)Hassin Bin Sober
(26,325 posts)After seeing how sexually charged those skits were I think maybe that photo was just an extension of the atmosphere on those tours.
He didn't grope her in the photo. There was probably a lot of silliness going on during the tour. That photo was silly. No more no less.
LisaM
(27,801 posts)who were there. See what they have to say about these shows and whether they appreciate Al Franken having been there.
renegade000
(2,301 posts)But the problem is that now some people think he's apologizing for actually groping her.
moondust
(19,972 posts)may end up being the final arbiters in a he-said-she-said situation like this that could lead to a flood of political smears and plain old revenge among the legitimate complaints.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)These character witnesses demonstrate that Franken as integrity.
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)Andy Borowitz on Facebook:
Trumps support of a child molester makes me nostalgic for the days when he just supported Nazis.
ProudProgressiveNow
(6,129 posts)IronLionZion
(45,427 posts)sure he did something stupid and wrong, but some people like to spin it into something very different as a way to bring down people in our party. Some DUers are the fifth column
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column
CincyDem
(6,351 posts)...from on-camera stars (Curtin, Neuman) to women holding much less positional power in the organization relative to Franken. A predator won't go after an equal, they'll hunt out weaker prey, someone who might be susceptible to the implication that "I can have you fired".
So, seeing that list of women that spans the production team across a lot of levels, that's a good thing.
I didn't need convincing on Al but this is good reassurance.