The following is taken from an Op Ed piece about the Brock Turner rape. “Only in the creepy, crime coddling, victim manic universe of perennially depressed left wing misfits could a drunken slut emerge from a cesspool as a heroine.”
These are the words of Mr. Ari Noonan in an on line newspaper, cast as “The Voice of Culver City.” Click bait? Nay, this is mind numbingly ugly hate speech.
Numb no longer, I shout that this is not the voice of my Culver City, nor our Culver City. His article seeks to create an environment where a whole class of human beings do not matter. Sound familiar?
We must reject this, with all our voices. Seek to banish the idea of “slut shaming” from public and private discourse. A local business has heard the community’s voices, and committed to pull advertising from this on line screed.
Words matter. Hate speech allows people to accept and embrace their most repugnant thoughts. It matters.
As Ken Burns recently noted, “We no longer have the luxury of neutrality or “balance” or even of bemused disdain. We must remain committed to the kindness and community that are the hallmarks of civilization and reject the troubling, unfiltered Tourette’s of tribalism”.
The PRCS Commission is crafting a community conversation around the subject of hate speech. Accordingly, let our City Council and staff respond to inquiries by this reporter with a solid “No comment” so as not to promote this despicable commentary.
Crystal C. Alexander
Hopefully, that’ll be the end of that online rag.
Thank you! That online rag is NOT the “voice of Culver City”! the voice of Culver City is one of love and of acceptance and of excellence at being human.
Any business that advertises on this garbage “news site” will no longer get my business.
Rather than “The Voice of Culver City” could he not say “The Voice of Mr. Ari Noonan” ? I would prefer not to be associated by location. I respect his right to an opinion but I do not believe he should have the right to use “Culver City” without sanction.
Online newspapers should adhere to the finest of journalistic principles. The editors and writers should be unbiased and report news objectively. The writers should leave their political biases, as well as their personal biases out of their news stories and reporting.
If a writer has a political or social cause or particular political candidate that they wish to promote, they can do so ONLY after they have disclosed their connections, whether formal or informal. This should only be in a clearly denoted Op-Ed and not passed off as news reporting.
By writing his Op-Ed piece, Mr. Noonan clearly showed his sexist and misogynistic thinking. He wrote as a rape apologist who blamed the victim. Regardless of her choices or actions or whatever she chose to wear or how she chose to act, rape is a violent attack that can never be condoned by anyone with an iota or morality. He goes on to blame “left wing misfits” for essentially creating a society that cares about and speaks out for the victims of assault and violence.
I whole heartedly agree with Crystal Alexander, the writer is not a voice representing Culver City, nor is he writing and voicing the beliefs of anyone that I know.
This year’s presidential race and in particular Donald Trump have thrown into sharp relief the increasing vitriol; racism; sexism; bigotry; incendiary actions, speech and thought which have risen its ugly head and garnered support from a large number of Americans.
Our Culver City is a kaleidoscope of people, the vast majority of whom neither support nor believe in hate speech. It is essential that we speak out against hate and encourage civil and unbiased public discourse.
Here’s a shout out to all the women (you know who you are) who I reached out to yesterday, to laser focus my thoughts on this issue. Thank you for your assistance.
Thank you to community members who have written here and elsewhere, or contacted their Councilmembers and especially those who reached out to Mr. Noonan.
It takes vigilance but it appears this flare up of hate speech was halted in its tracks. This kind of community wide statement is very gratifying.
As one of my high school days friends said, we are never so clear as when we stand united for fairness.
Sexism and misogyny have long been a feature of Mr. Noonan’s editorials, but his comments on the Brock Turner rape case are simply inexcusable, and his apology for saying them is insufficient. He admits to blaming the victim (once he felt the community’s outrage), but he did far worse than blame the victim — he vilified her. I hope everyone in Culver City makes the right decision — to cease all support for his publication and the hate speech it contains.
Thank you Crystal for responding to this awful example of hate speech on behalf of the Culver City community. We are a small town and there is no room for this type of hateful speech whose only intent was to insult the victim of a crime. How anyone calls themselves a journalist after writing and posting such a piece is beyond me. He should not be considered a representative of the press and I hope City Council has the means to deny him such consideration at least when it comes to official culver city government events.
Thank you Crystal and everyone who has spoken out eloquently in agreement with her own passionate statement. I could not agree more.-
Dear Crystal, thank you for writing this follow up. I personally have told everyone I know who lives in Culver City about this piece and to be aware in the next 6 months, based on the current political climate, I fear name-calling will only get worse. How will we respond? Let us not respond in kind. Let us hold ourselves to a higher purpose.