If we have learned anything in the past year or so it is that alleged victims of sexual assault and harassment need to be encouraged to come forward with their accusations sooner. Women should feel that they will be believed if they accuse someone of illegal or inappropriate contact before it’s just a couple of weeks prior to an election. There is no reason why these victims should feel like they have to wait until after the primaries are done and a party is stuck with its nominee before they come forward.
In fact, we should be encouraging these women to make their allegations as soon as a candidate announces for a political office. Given that those announcements come more than a year before any elections are held, the accusations could be fully investigated and litigated before anyone heads to the polls. Really, the victims of alleged sexual assault and harassment should expect Gloria Allred (who is apparently licensed to represent people as an attorney in all 50-states where there are television cameras) to be by their side as they level accusations against candidates for smaller races like Judge or District Attorney–decades before they become national news fodder.
And we here in the media should not feel like we have to wait in any way to report information available to us. Rumors of inappropriate conduct should be investigated long before anyone even thinks about running for public office. Court records, divorce filings and bankruptcy cases should all be scrutinized on the way back from covering a campaign kickoff announcement.
Even national news sources like Access Hollywood shouldn’t feel like they need to keep audio tapes of lewd conversations hidden away for eleven years because they hold no news value until two months before an election. The people have a right to know this stuff as soon as possible–especially before committing a party to that alleged offender as their only candidate.
So let us learn our lesson from recent times and create a culture where alleged victims of sexual assault and harassment can in no way be seen as just political pawns.
