Mississippi State Rep. Robert Foster is running for Governor and is the wisest politician in the state.
A female reporter, Larrison Campbell, made the request to do a ride-along, where she would follow him around for a whole day and report on his campaign. He said sure, with the caveat that she bring along a male chaperone.
Foster has made it very clear that he wants to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
That, however, has launched Campbell into exalted victim status.
Campbell did a live interview on CNN, with Foster being allowed to call in to discuss this.
“What you're saying here is a woman is a sexual object first and a reporter second.”
Reporter Larrison Campbell responds in real time to Mississippi State Rep. Robert Foster, who denied her request to accompany him on a campaign trip unless she brought a male colleague. pic.twitter.com/jVqNZvIbsS
— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) July 11, 2019
There is an old expression I learned as a kid. It comes from the rules of ethics for Judges.
“The appearance of impropriety is as bad as impropriety itself.”
Foster may or may not trust Campbell. I don’t. Not because she is a woman but that she is a member of the Press and Foster is a Republican.
I have seen this floating around the internet for some time and it is 100% spot-on accurate:
Rules for dealing with the MSM:
1. Assume malice.
2. Do not talk to them.
3. Have one central point/quote if you do talk to them.
4. Your quote will be taken out of context.
5. Understand that they are not objective.
6. Record everything. Put it in writing. Take notes.
Nevertheless, even if Foster trusts Campbell, he clearly doesn’t trust anyone else.
He doesn’t want an opponent or another antagonistic member of the media to be able to say “I saw Foster riding around in a truck, going into a restaurant with a woman that wasn’t his wife, he’s having an affair.”
Again, it is smart of him not to put himself in that position.
As Prince Humperdinck so eloquently put it “I always think everything could be a trap, that is why I’m still alive.”
The Washington Examiner explained this point very well.
Foster’s campaign director, Colton Robison, declined the request because Campbell is a woman.
“Perception is everything. We are so close to the primary. If (trackers) were to get a picture and they put a mailer out, we wouldn’t have time to dispute it. And that’s why we have to be careful,” Robinson told her on Tuesday.
For not willfully putting himself in a compromising situation, Foster was excoriated on social media, including by other Left-Wing politicians and media personalities.
When the Taliban subjugates women we object. What really is the difference?
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) July 11, 2019
This is exactly like the Taliban. A man not wanting to give his political opponents ammunition against him by avoiding the appearance of impropriety is exactly why the Taliban forces women to wear burkas.
If your view of women is so backward in 2019 that you can’t be alone with a reporter doing her job, what the hell are you doing trying to be the governor of a whole state? https://t.co/sRFcYW5kp7
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) July 11, 2019
May I remind you that Senator Gillibrand brought Emma “Mattress Girl” Sulkowicz as her guest to the State of the Union speech and that Columbia University was forced to settle a lawsuit with the man she falsely accused of rape because the University punished him and took Sulkowicz’s side despite her accusation being thoroughly discredited.
When a Senator who rewarded a woman who made one of the most disgusting false rape accusations of the last decade with a trip to the Capitol calls you out for wanting to avoid the appearance of impropriety, take that with a grain of salt.
As if to prove Foster completely right for standing by his principle of not putting himself in a compromising position, the social media erupted with people stating that his refusal to be alone with a woman he is not married to is evidence that he is a rapist.
The reason doctors have female assistants in some clinical settings usually has to do with a patient having her pants off.
If this RWNJ fanatic can't keep his pants on unless there's another guy in the room, how exactly is that this reporter's problem to solve for him?
— Tom Says "Get Vaccinated or Fuck Off" (@realtmarsh) July 11, 2019
If Robert Foster is primarily afraid of being accused of sexual harassment, as he claims, then why does he allow other men to be alone with him? Men can and do accuse other men of harassment. Seems more likely that Foster can’t trust himself to behave appropriately with women. ?
— Nicole Lockney ♿️ (@holyspacemonkey) July 11, 2019
I assume to protect her from him.
— Emily Gallo (@ViolinMouse) July 11, 2019
Interesting, and disappointing, that guys are responding to #metoo by avoiding being alone with a woman rather than making sure they behave appropriately with a woman.
— bronwen taylor (@bonnie54_uk) July 12, 2019
The assumption is that it’s always the man who is at fault and every accusation is always the truth. And they wonder why a man like this would never want to be in a position where he could be accused of something.
I think this is the worst thread I saw on this topic. Because Foster wanted to avoid the appearance of impropriety, the internet has tried and convicted him of being a rapist and a pervert.
The other line of argument that is made is that if he is elected he won’t hire women because he discriminates.
I assume that he also wouldn’t have hired a female campaign manager since presumably they would spend time alone together. If elected governor, what other jobs would women be disqualified from obtaining because they would potentially need to be alone with him?
— RJ (@thirdcoastfem) July 11, 2019
This is handled in business all the time. As Foster said, you just don’t have a closed-door meeting alone with someone who could put you in a compromising position. If it has to be closed-door, have another person there. In the private sector, it’s very common to have HR there for these types of things.
It protects everyone. It protects the boss from accusations of being a sleaze. It protects the subordinate of accusations that she slept her way to the top.
The strangest one I saw was the idea this is a violation of the separation of Church and State for this guy to hold fast to his beliefs and wedding vows.
NO. This is an unacceptable for a person in government. If that religious quirk is so important to him than he should stay in the private sector. We do NOT need to sanction/encourage/make room for this religious rule over US.
— heidiotoo (@heidiotoo) July 11, 2019
The most fascinating thing about all of this is the very same news day that this story came out, an enlightening one about Trump came out.
A former Trump staffer, Alva Johnson, was suing Trump for sexual harassment, saying that he grabbed her by the shoulders and forcibly kissed her.
Yesterday, we all got a chance to see the video footage of the incident.
Seems like her case is a load of horseshit gunning for a payday.
And this accusation was leveled with other people in the room.
If you are a Republican, you cannot be too careful.
If you are a Democrat, you can fly on a plane full of underage prostitutes to a private sex slave island with a convicted pedophile 26 times, and the media will ignore it.
Because Foster refused to give the Left and his opponents the rope to hang him, they are going to hang him with their own rope.
This is the position they are trying to put all Republicans in, damned if you protect yourself of accusations, damned if you don’t.
“This is the position they are trying to put all men in that are not progtard group-think soybois, damned if you protect yourself of accusations, damned if you don’t.”
FIFY
The monster they create will inevitably turn against them, always. They tried this crap with VP Pence, and now just look at the brouhaha between Occasional-Cortex and the Wicked Witch of the Leftard coast.
Back in 1991 I was hired to be the office manager of a furniture factory, having 50 women and 2 guys under me. My immediate boss was a woman whom I learned more from in the 1.5 years I was there than I did in all my college years. One of the very first things she told me was to NEVER be in a closed room with any of the ladies here and if I had to discipline anyone to have an HR person there when we did it. Politics is no different.
Only thing that ever came close was at the Christmas party one year I was there with the wife, and one of the ladies walked me back to get our coats as we were leaving. I grab mine and her coats, one in each hand, and as I turn around the woman who walked me back just grabbed me in a bear hug and started sobbing “Pat & I are so glad you are here, the last guy was such an asshole!” I just stood there arms up in the air, coat in each arm hoping she would let go. She was pretty drunk, I should add. I just said ‘thanks, I gotta go now’, and she let go. That had me on pins and needles for months because you never know. I fully understand this guy.
Journos will write a bit differently to avoid legal crap:
“I saw Foster riding around in a truck, going into a restaurant with a woman that wasn’t his wife.”
It is accurate, but the implication is there and not the truth.
I once had a part time side gig as a lifeguard for a new water park. We were initially required to wear red trunks for men, red one piece for the women, optional white t shirt as cover.
Six months after the place opened, they began switching to new uniforms. One of the women who worked there was the first to get one: a blue one piece with the park’s logo embroidered on the front.
I commented that I liked it, saying it was better than looking like an extra on Baywatch. She said, “You aren’t wearing it.”
I replied, “No, I was just commenting on what it looks like, not its comfort.”
She filed a complaint with HR, saying that I was commenting on what she looked like in a swimsuit.
I would also point out that this particular female was well known for flirting with, and sitting on the laps of, other male employees. Most of the time, sexual harassment is more about whether or not the female in question finds the man sexually attractive, or if the complaint can be used to gain advantage, than it is about the behavior of the man.
I think a better answer would be a hidden camera, not disclosed to the “journalist”. That way nothing would become public unless there was a false accusation.
Come to think of it, better still would be to tell the reporter “I am recording this meeting”. That encourages somewhat more honest reporting, and it also avoids issues with laws about recording without consent.
We moved to a new building a few years ago. One of the main differences is that no one has an office anymore, and the reason for that, of course, is so that no one can claim anyone did anything behind closed doors.
It also means that any criticism you receive on your poor job performance will be heard by everyone within 3 cubes of you.
It’s also a good rule of thumb that no adult teacher or care worker be one on one with any kid, unless there’s another adult present. This is to protect the kids from amorous adults, and adults from false accusations from the kids.
Works for politicians too.
The libtards aren’t happy unless they can accuse someone on the other side of having a sex or religion problem and either one disqualified them for being elected. one of the Nazis, our old friend Goebbels maybe, said to accuse others of that which you are guilty. Still effective
Crap like this is what convinced me that things are going to get a lot worse before they start getting better.
I’d also say that it’s not really a Catch-22, as the outrage screeching of the entitled media isn’t really a negative (despite what they want you to believe).
A lot of voters will agree with this reasoning (and probably gain a new respect), and those who won’t aren’t likely to vote for him anyway.