Last month Ed wrote about Gabriel Matzneff, a celebrated French author who spent decades writing about sex with underage girls and boys. For most of his life Matzneff was celebrated for this transgressive literature, but that changed recently when one of his former victims, Vanessa Springora, wrote a book of her own titled “Le Consentement” or Consent. In the wake of this sudden turn in his public fortunes, Matzneff has fled France. The New York Times found him hiding out in Italy:

Mr. Matzneff disappeared in late December, just before the publication of Ms. Springora’s memoir. As the scandal exploded in Paris, I pored through his diaries and books. When a brief interview he gave to a French television network hinted at his whereabouts, I went to the Italian Riviera and found Mr. Matzneff — a creature of habit, his diaries made clear — in his favorite cafe.

Initially startled, defensive and angry, the writer admitted that he was “very, very lonely” and began to open up.

Asking that his exact location not be revealed, Mr. Matzneff spoke for three and a half hours.

He expressed bewilderment at the sudden cultural shift in France and his precipitous downfall. He showed no remorse for his past actions and did not renounce any of his writings.

But the focus of the Times’ story isn’t just Matzneff’s current whereabouts, it’s how he managed to escape scrutiny for so long. The answer involves the unique culture in France which celebrates authors (and artists) above all others. In this culture, Matzneff was untouchable for many decades because he had powerful friends including President Francois Mitterrand who was a fan of his first book.

When Matzneff was briefly investigated by police in the 1980s (he was then living with 14-year-old Ms. Springora) he showed the police an essay President Mitterrand had written praising his work and they decided not to pursue the investigation.

But it wasn’t just a few powerful people that defended him. Matzneff was defended by the elite culture of intelligentsia in France. I found this vignette particularly telling:

The most public criticism came in 1990, on the literary television show “Apostrophes,” as the host and guests discussed Mr. Matzneff’s latest diary, “Mes Amours Décomposés,” (“My Decomposed Loves.”) In it, he boasted about having sex with countless minors, including 11- and 12-year-old Filipino boys he describes as “a rare spice.”

The single foreigner present, Denise Bombardier, a journalist from Quebec, denounced his pedophilia.

The reaction from France’s intelligentsia was swift.

Josyane Savigneau, who was editor of a literary supplement of the French newspaper Le Monde from 1991 to 2005, publicly chided Ms. Bombardier and defended Mr. Matzneff’s work.

In a recent interview, Ms. Savigneau recalled being revolted by some of Mr. Matzneff’s writings, but said his books were superior to others that landed on her desk.

“I saw him as a man who liked young women,” she said. “In France, he was never seen with boys.”

This would have happened just a few years before Bill Clinton aka Slick Willie became the nominee for the Democratic Party. And a few years later, Clinton would be impeached and the story of his sexual involvement with an intern in the Oval Office would become international news. I remember one of the arguments used to defend Clinton at the time was that the rest of the world was mocking America’s puritanism. In a 2017 piece for Vox, Matt Yglesias wrote of his own view of Clinton’s impeachment at the time which leaned heavily on France’s view of such relationships.

Unfortunately for me, I’m a little too old to get away with claiming to have had no opinion on this at the time. My version of a sophisticated high schooler’s take on the matter was that the American media should get over its bourgeois morality hang-ups and be more like the French, where François Mitterrand’s wife and his longtime mistress grieved together at his funeral.

As a married 30-something father, I’ve come around to a less “worldly” view of infidelity. As a co-founder of Vox, I’d never in a million years want us to be the kind of place where men in senior roles can get away with the kind of misconduct that we’ve seen is all too common in our industry and in so many others.

There’s a connection here that hasn’t been made (at least not that I’ve seen). The culture that long defended Matzneff’s books and behavior was also used to defend Clinton’s behavior. Those criticizing Clinton at the time were shamed in the same way Denise Bombardier was shamed for criticizing Matzneff. Looking back from the era of #MeToo, with Harvey Weinsten on trial and Jeffrey Epstein dead, you wonder how anyone ever got away with it.

Article via HotAir

The CEO of an Arizona company is no longer at the helm after using a racial slur during a disagreement with an Uber driver.The incident unfolded after Hans Berglund, then-CEO of Tempe fertilizer company Agroplasma, insisted on sitting in the front seat next to the driver when he was picked up January 31 at a Scottsdale home.Randy Clarke, an Arizona State University student who’s been an Uber driver for four years, asks Berglund instead to sit in the back, video Clarke provided to CNN shows. Clarke, who has two video cameras in his car, hasn’t let lone riders sit next to him since he was groped in 2018 by a drunken client, he said.Berglund asks again about sitting in front, then, after being rejected, tells Clarke to cancel the ride and says he’ll order another one, according to the video. Clarke agrees, but Berglund curses, slams the door and gets in the back seat.”Are you f**king serious with me?” Berglund says, the video shows. The passenger tells Clarke he’ll ride in the back and later file a complaint with Uber.Clarke then asks Berglund to get out of his car, the video shows.”Is this because I’m white? Berglund asks.”No, sir,” Clarke says.Berglund responds, “You’re a f**king n****r.” You’re f**king unbelievable.”

Clarke mentions his dashcams, then Berglund curses again at Clarke before getting out of the car, the video shows. As Berglund leaves, Clarke says, “Thank you so much. You got it on camera,” the video shows. “Whoo-hoo, this is good. This is perfect.”The video begins before Clarke stops to pick up Berglund and ends after the two part ways, as Clarke calls Uber to lodge a complaint about the rider.Berglund’s attorney told CNN of the scene captured on video: “This is extremely out of character for him.”Berglund “is extremely apologetic and embarrassed and wants to do everything he can to make this as right as he can,” his lawyer, Scott Zwillinger, said.To Clarke, the episode “just came out of nowhere,” he told CNN. “It was quite shocking. I didn’t expect that.”Uber officials told CNN that the passenger in the incident no longer has access to the Uber app.

Activist wants potential civil rights violations probed

Clarke had never experienced anything like that, he said, and he didn’t immediately know much about his would-be passenger. He continued driving for the ride-share company that weekend, he said, because he wanted the business.”We had the big PGA tournament up in Phoenix,” he said, “and I didn’t want to miss that.” But the exchange stayed on Clarke’s mind, and he decided on Sunday to try to find out more about the rider. “This man probably does something big in society and employs people of color,” Clarke recalled thinking. “There’s just no way somebody with a business should be acting that way.”He confirmed Berglund’s identity and sent the video to local news media, which reported the story.Agroplasma is now investigating and has appointed an interim CEO, it said in a statement.”In light of the recent incident involving Hans Berglund, Agroplasma is conducting a thorough investigation of our company’s anti-discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity practices, culture and policies,” it reads. “We are a small business that prides itself on providing equal opportunities to all employees and candidates, and we firmly believe Mr. Berglund’s actions are not reflective of who we are as a company or member of the community. “We are committed to performing a full and honest assessment of the situation and taking the appropriate steps based on the findings of our investigation.”Berglund apologized earlier this week in a statement to CNN affiliate KNXV, saying, “I deeply regret and apologize for the hurtful and derogatory language I used during the altercation with Mr. Clarke. I firmly believe that there is no excuse for the use of racial slurs under any circumstance, so I will not offer any. It is my sincere hope that Mr. Clarke hears and accepts my apology and believes me when I say it is honest and heartfelt.”Berglund later told KNXV that he was fired.”I’m taken away as CEO from the company. I don’t have anything to do with the company anymore. I’m fired,” he told the station. “I founded the company, but I’m gone. I’m history.”KNXV talked to Berglund outside his home.”It’s so blown out of proportion, and it’s ruined my life. It’s ruined my company. It ruins everything about my situation right now,” said Berglund.Civil rights activist Rev. Jarrett Maupin and Clarke’s attorney, David Dow, are asking the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and the city of Tempe, where Agroplasma is based, to investigate possible civil and human rights violations, Maupin told CNN.Any complaint filed to the state’s top legal department would be confidential, office spokeswoman Katie Conner said. CNN has reached out to Tempe officials. Maupin also hopes to arrange a meeting with Berglund and the company, he said.

Article via CNN