Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.comment From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Hawaii's 'Get Him' groupies Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 20:06:09 EST Message-ID: \SE B;COMMENTARY \SS (WS) \HD Hawaii's 'Get Him' groupies \BY Georgie Anne Geyer \DT HONOLULU HONOLULU - Just when you think that "Get Him!" journalism has sunk about as low as it can in this campaign "smyear," a new case explodes that makes you realize there are still unplumbed depths. The "story" that has been riveting Hawaii for the last few weeks seems at first to involve still another case of a woman coming out of nowhere to accuse a prominent politician of "sexual misconduct" - part of the Anita Hill syndrome that has become so popular this election year. But this time, the story has paradoxically grown more peculiarly twisted as it has unwoven. The accusatory words came from Lenore Kwock, a hairdresser of good reputation, and they accused the respected longtime Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye literally of rape. But the accusations were 17 years old, and Miss Kwock also admitted that all those years she stayed on friendly terms with Mr. Inouye and even regularly cut his hair (a variation perhaps on the Biblical Samson story?). Ah, but it is not so simple! For, in fact, Lenore Kwock, who seems like a modest and sensitive woman, never herself came forward with those accusations. She "said" the words, yes, but in fact they were taped without her knowledge and released by one Umeko Walker, a woman who misrepresented herself to Miss Kwock and then personally distributed the tapes to the local news media and to senatorial campaigns. Not so simple, either! For the Honolulu papers have been filled with follow-up stories showing how still another politician, GOP State Sen. Rick Reed, immediately ran a two-day television and newspaper campaign repeating the secretly obtained charges. Further stories linked the avid tapemaker, Umeko Walker, to the campaign of Rick Reed. And those are just the initial findings! The story, which may be true or may be false, is far outside the purview or capacity of an editorial column. The whole saga may condemn Mr. Inouye or actually strengthen him. Already there is clear evidence of an Inouye-favoring backlash, particularly regarding the Rick Reed ads. But what about the journalistic ethics in this case? "Evidence" taken and provided illegally (the tapes), which would never be accepted in the courts, has been spread far and wide by the "responsible" press. And while the newspapers and TV have delved into the possible motives of Umeko Walker and Rick Reed, they have also allowed themselves to become a tool of a witch-hunt sponsored by Mr. Inouye's political opponents. Furthermore, virtually every woman leader and woman politician in Hawaii immediately swung reflexively behind Lenore Kwock's "charges." One woman representative said she could see no reason why Miss Kwock would say these things if they were not true, which is still another judgment that the courts and judges would find amusing in its sheer ingenuousness about human nature and power. One has to ask, still further, whether popular "feminism" has indeed come to such a pass that women leaders jump in uncritically before a case has even been proven. Are we women becoming too predictable a part of the popular sport of "Get Him"? At least one writer, Tom Brislin, who teaches journalism at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, began cogently to analyze the principles at stake here in a brilliant op-ed piece for the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper. "How do you ethically proceed with a story based on questionable ethical methods and motivations?" he asked. "The tape recording on which the allegations are based was gathered through deception and without the knowledge of the subject. . . . Deception . . . means having to justify lying to pursue the truth - a tricky and rare proposition. . . . "When the tape and accompanying transcripts were delivered to Hawaii media, Lenore Kwock had no idea she was the single source of a scandal. What are her rights of privacy?" Mr. Brislin, a former Advertiser city editor, was at least one who cut through the cant and confusion in this strange case. But until his questions are answered, somewhere, this new case of "Get Him!" journalism only shows how accusations of sexual harassment - when carried through in the press instead of in the appropriate government and legal bodies - leave us all mired deeper in a moral quicksand from which there is, as Sartre put it, "No Exit." Georgie Anne Geyer is a nationally syndicated columnist. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM