"The Weinstein Company is Dead"

by Mark Steyn
Steyn on Fox
October 16, 2017

https://www.steynonline.com/8198/the-weinstein-company-is-dead

Welcome to a brand new week at SteynOnline. I spent part of my weekend with one of my favorite shows, "Justice with Judge Jeanine", on which both the Judge and I were preoccupied with the question of whether Harvey Weinstein, under investigation for rape and sexual assault by both the NYPD and Scotland Yard, will finally be getting justice. I was particularly disturbed by the New York cops making the Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez wear a wire - putting her at risk of certain physical assault had Weinstein discovered it - and then the sleazy DA, Cyrus Vance, mysteriously deciding to drop the case. From Breitbart News:

"This woman, this Italian woman was twice traumatized. The first time was when Weinstein attacked her and touched her breast, as she said. So she goes to the police, and they wire her, so she has to go back and meet with him and do it all again. And then some dirty stinking rotten corrupt prosecutor, having put her through that, won't actually take the case any further.

I'd like to emphasize that point, because a similar thing happened to a friend of mine. You go to the cops because a powerful man assaulted you. So they wire you and send you back to be exposed to your attacker's pathologies all over again. And then the big powerful guy manages to make his problem go away, through a few no doubt entirely coincidental campaign-finance donations to the DA. It's corruption all the way down:

And this is what the real issue here is. Until a week ago, this guy was still powerful enough to get NBC to drop jokes about what he'd done on 'Saturday Night Live.'"

Now the good news:

"This guy's company is dead, you know, Judge," he continued. "There's never going to be a film that says 'The Weinstein Company presents' ever again - because that company is dirty. Going and giving your money, giving eight bucks to go and watch a Weinstein movie is like buying blood diamonds from the Congo or Liberia. That big glamorous Hollywood night out is paid for with physical assaults on young women all over the planet going back to 1982."

Correction: 1980. Paula Wachowiak now claims Weinstein pulled his standard hotel-room routine on her during his first movie The Burning, released in 1981. Absent someone from his middle-school play coming forward that seems likely to be the earliest recorded incident, which means his modus operandi was unvarying for his entire career.

Hollywood seems to be reaching the same conclusion as I did with Judge Jeanine. The Weinsteins have abandoned the plan to change the company's name to The Non-Weinstein Company or some such, and seem to think they have a choice between selling the business outright or shutting it down. I would bet on the latter. If they simply sell the company to another company, there will still be "a Weinstein catalogue", in the sense that all the serial rapist's films will be grouped together. If they just shut down, the catalogue can be broken up, and individual films can be sold hither and yon, until nobody remembers that once upon a time they were all Weinstein films.

At any rate, here's what Judge Jeanine and I had to say. Click below to watch:

It was a busy weekend for me. Apart from joining Judge Jeanine, I dusted off one of Harvey Weinstein's biggest hits, starring two of his staunchest supporters, and I also celebrated the centenary of a one-hit songwriter whose one hit is very dear to my heart. And I also launched the latest in our series of audio adventures, Tales for Our Time - a classic tale of derring-do amid the turrets and taverns of Ruritania: The Prisoner of Zenda. You can find Episode One (with my intro) here, with Episode Two here and Three here. If you were busy over the last 48 hours or so, I hope you'll check out one or two of these weekend amusements, because they're just as good on Monday morning.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, by the way, we'll have another video edition of Mark's Mailbox, in which I answer questions from Mark Steyn Club members around the planet. Mark's Mailbox, Tales for Our Time and much of our other content are made possible through the support of members of The Mark Steyn Club, for which we are profoundly grateful. One additional advantage that membership confers is the right to enjoy free-ish range in our comments section. So, if you disagree with anything Jeanine or I said above, please have at it below. And do join us tonight for Part Four of The Prisoner of Zenda.

For more information on The Mark Steyn Club, see here - and don't forget our new Gift Membership.

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19 Reader Comments

Jack Shore • Oct 17, 2017 at 17:40

Adding Hollywood and the movie industry to the number of corrupt organizations in the United States on top of the instruments of government like the FBI, DOJ, IRS etc, makes one wonder if there is anything left of America that's worth salvaging? This is a serious question worth debating. Or perhaps the rot is only visible to the Right. Perhaps the Left, being so immersed in it, cannot see the forest for the trees.

Carol Ward

Jack Shore • Oct 18, 2017 at 19:42

they don't call it rot - they call it multi culturalism.

Have some...

Keith Hawn • Oct 17, 2017 at 03:33

To PK33 and those who replied:
Another reason people believe the National Socialists were right wing is that Stalin and the Soviet Union were political lefties. Ergo, if the National Socialists attacked the Communists they have to be on the political right. The interesting thing is that the left is more likely to fight among themselves than be attacked by the right. I remember an instance when the animal rights crowd was at odds with the Indian rights crowd over the Makah tribe's annual ritual of killing a whale.

PK33

Keith Hawn • Oct 17, 2017 at 10:28

I remember that instance. The Left eats its own, we have seen it with some regularity.

Sol Cranfill • Oct 17, 2017 at 02:51

Aside from, as far as we know, the victims in these cases being adults, this suddenly makes the horrors of Rotherham seem not so far away. Anywhere Weinstein went was one big safe space for him and a no-go zone for prosecutors. Weinstein essentially has diplomatic immunity.

Herman Dost • Oct 16, 2017 at 16:49

PK33 is right on the mark. Hitler was a labour leader. The organization was called NSDAP which stands for National Socialist Deutsche (German) Arbeids (Labour) Partei. You can hardly be more socialist than that. I also read Jonah Goldberg's book and he made it clear but people still call Nazi's "Right Wing"! Nazi is short for "National Socialist."

MD • Oct 16, 2017 at 13:46

No due process? However odious he and his actions might be, assemble evidence, try him and convict him. That should be easy-peasy in the presence of so many accusers. Still, one is reminded of Mr. Ghomeshi's situation. People who were silent for so long are suddenly 100% credible and beyond doubt... until cross-examined formally. This, in an industry where lying well is a core competency. We tried the bloody Nazis, when bodies were still smoking in the ruins. Ah, never mind, who am I kidding? I'm sure I will be castigated for even raising the question. Burn the witch.

Is it impractical to pursue legal remedy because the whole industry is inherently sexist, misogynist and designed to exploit women? Super. Burn the whole thing down. Convict the people around him as accessories to his crimes, dismantle their companies and end the slow trickle of poison into the zeitgeist. I have no objection.

In the case of an individual facing loud accusations, a commentator of note once said the process is the punishment.

P. Gao

MD • Oct 16, 2017 at 22:31

This absolutely, positively needs to be brought to court. Only then can everyone hear the evidence, only then can the accusers be determined to be credible or not. The innocent usually demand/plead/beg to be heard, to state their case before the multitude. The guilty no... if they can only win by corruption, then that too will be exposed. Let everyone see if the justice system still functions. The court of the media is biased and corrupte and cruel, so it'll be good practice to walk through all this in a real court.

Laura Rosen Cohen

MD • Oct 17, 2017 at 15:36

You raise a very important point. He has not actually been convicted of anything yet. So he is still innocent under the law. He has not been proven guilty in a court of law. But that's part of the problem here! There was smoke for many, many years. Women did come forward and they were ignored, and it appears that officials from many areas-his own company/board, (and heart-breaking) the police, DA, etc.. were turning a blind eye.

That's the banana republic stuff that Mark refers to. Democracy is contingent on all people being equal before the law. Lefties are able to get charges dropped, investigations quashed, etc..If he were a conservative, he would have been charged and convicted many times about a nanosecond from when the first victim came forward.

Carol Ward • Oct 16, 2017 at 12:02

We have a real opportunity here to clean up the sexual crimes of both sexes. This isn't confined to alpha males.

Gay men are as predatory, if not worse. But they are under the protection of the Lesbian Muscle in media, so they've been given a pass.

And let's not forget the growing pedophile network... boys and girls are at risk, and Hollywood has been abusing these kids for a generation.

I think the carnage is just beginning as more and more voices come out against the casting couch and all it's depravity. There are victims in music, modeling, dance, film and more.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Carol Ward • Oct 18, 2017 at 11:14

I think the pedophile problem is going to come out as well.

Carol Ward

Laura Rosen Cohen • Oct 18, 2017 at 19:52

Pedophiles are useful in positions of power. That's why I'm less optimistic than you. Let me explain.

Control Files on people climbing the ladders of power used to contain drugs, vanilla adultery, and theft.

In the 90's, homosexuality joined as a hidden "vice" that kept newcomers on the leash in DC, and NY, LA

That depraved behavior quickly gave way to Pedophilia as fewer and fewer vices were enough to keep the Cowboys out of Washington and the wainscoted halls of power.

So I contend that Hassert was speaker BECAUSE HE HAD A TASTE FOR SMALL BOYS - not in spite of it.

ditto for the Mayor of Seattle - and countless others propped up and on short leashes by the amoral donor class.

Pedophilia is spreading exponentially - because of the frequency of child rape by the church, synagogues, and Muslim custom that it isn't really homosexuality . Molested boys grow up to molest boys.

And I don't see a collective will to seek out and destroy this sickness... because it's sooo much a part of male homosexuality.

I know plenty of gays... and if you know them well... sooner or later, they admit, in jokes, over drinks, or just "funnin"... that they want smaller and smaller boys.

And who are their enablers? Lesbians. Because gay men are the troops in the war on the Male Dominance Hierarchy.... Jordan Peterson and Camille Paglia dance around this in a youtube discussion... and it's chilling.

PK33 • Oct 16, 2017 at 11:25

I will be attending my art classes during the video edition of Mark's Mailbox but I will definitely watch the recap on Wednesday.

I do have a question though, maybe for Mark's Mailbox or another time. Why is the Left recently claiming that Fascist parties from history and Fascism in general are Right-wing?

From this article in Canada's National Post newspaper, the author states that, "Still, this means that Austrians have elected their most Right-wing government since Hitler's Anschluss in 1938."

http://nationalpost.com/news/world/austria-poised-to-elect-a-far-right-coalition-the-decision-shows-how-europe-is-gripped-by-border-anxiety

Hitler was not Right-wing as Jonah Goldberg exhaustively demonstrated in Liberal Fascism. How has the Left come to dominate the narrative that the Right is Fascist?

I recently re-watched your SteynPost ,"The Seduction of Violence" and you made clear that the Left's ANTIFA and others are the real Fascists, no question about that, so how come many on the Left still believe that the Right is Fascist and that the Nazi's were Right-wing? Why can't the right own the correct narrative?

Andrew A

PK33 • Oct 16, 2017 at 16:12

There is no need for Jonah Goldberg. The infamous founder of the NSDAP himself admitted that he learnt politics in Vienna by carefully observing the politics of the Social Democrats and then adopting and adapting those politics to his own agenda. In Europe there are left-wing socialists and there are right-wing socialists; everyone else doesn't matter. That simple, boring, close-minded dichotomy is how many of the political masters would want it here in Canada too.

Bob Belvedere

PK33 • Oct 16, 2017 at 21:41

-PK33 asked: ...so how come many on the Left still believe that the Right is Fascist and that the Nazi's were Right-wing?

This is what they have been taught since elementary school. Couple that teaching with the fact that they have been 'carefully taught' to not question The Party Line, as it were, and what you get is unquestioning acceptance of a False and Calumnious Narrative that consumes Souls like a Malignant Parasite.

-PK33 then asked: Why can't the right own the correct narrative?

Because the vast majority of those on the Right who get airtime and space are either Pragmatists, who think bringing out such Truths is 'distracting' or Useful Idiot Quislings who have bought-into the Leftist Narrative, who have absorbed Leftist Thinking utterly.

-As to why the Left In America wants to keep associating Fascism with the Right, let me quote from my book:

Up until the very moment when Nazi Germany attacked The Soviet Union in the Spring of 1941, the Left In America was very favorably disposed to the Nazi Regime, especially after the two Totalitarian nations concluded the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact Of Non-Aggression in 1939.

This all changed on June 22nd, 1941 with the Nazi surprise attack on The Soviet Union. Now the Left had to scramble to denounce the Nazis and begin to rewrite History so that their praising of the National Socialists never existed. They felt they had to do this to hide the stain of their previous enthusiastic support for Hitler and his Regime.

They achieved this fairly easily — the Left took control of The Narrative. Of course, having the powerful President Of The United States on your side helped them greatly in perpetrating this blatant fraud. And, over the ensuing decades, the Left relentlessly — in books, in movies, in the media, and in textbooks — pounded home this Big Lie, to the point where it became Instinctual for the vast majority of Americans to see Nazis as Right Wingers.

The biggest motivation for the continuation of the spreading of this Big Lie: the Leftists want us to forget their gushing, at times like giddy schoolgirls, over Hitler and Mussolini. [Most especially they want us to forget their support for Eugenics, the purifying of race pool, and other Perverse ideas, trumpeted by the Nazis in Germany and the Progressive Movement in America].

It was and has always been Leftists who have supported such Evil ideas and the hideous schemes that have arisen out of them.

For much too long, we have allowed the Left to perpetuate the Big 'Fascism-is-Right-Wing' Lie in service of their Big Denial.

They have controlled the Narrative, in this case, rather brilliantly, and their success has allowed them to associate those on the Right with one of the most blatantly Horrific regimes to ever have existed on Earth.

PK33

Bob Belvedere • Oct 17, 2017 at 09:42

Thank you for the explanation, it makes sense. I was often sent to sit out in the hall for challenging a teacher. My parents taught me how to think, not what to think and to question when things don't seem right. A lot of my contemporaries seem to blindly accept the Left's narrative and will tell you smugly how smart they are because of their position. I use Mark's witty writing and speech to help counter their arguments. There's no way they are going to pick up a book that gives an accurate historical account in detail.

I've been to Germany several times and visited Dachau. It was obvious that people in Germany and elsewhere were supportive of the Nazis and the Germans are still quite embarrassed about it, hence Merkel and the open borders of atonement.

The Left still supports abortion for Down's Syndrome babies, among other unborn of course. Because of the DNA proving a separate human being and sonograms demonstrating life, how long before abortion falls out of favor and is blamed on the Right? It is important to remind people of Sanger and Eugenics, which gave birth to Planned Parenthood and death to millions.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Bob Belvedere • Oct 17, 2017 at 15:30

"...the Left took control of The Narrative"

In a nutshell! That's what we are fighting against to this day!

Laura Rosen Cohen • Oct 16, 2017 at 10:29

Certainly there are multiple rapes. The sexual, literal rapes of women and girls and then the figurative rape of the rule of law and justice. Very apt comparison with blood diamonds, but somehow I don't think there will be any Hollywood movies on this story.

Gregory Fulchino

Laura Rosen Cohen • Oct 16, 2017 at 21:16

Leonardo DiCaprio will never be reached for comment.