Mark Levin Stunned That Gay Man Has Filed Sexual Harassment Charges Against Rev. Jesse Jackson, Politico Mute on Jackson While Trashing Cain (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on November 6, 2011
Politico has been hypocritically mute about the sexual harassment charges filed against Rev. Jesse Jackson (left) by gay male staffer Tommy Bennett (right)
Had you heard of the sexual harassment charges filed by a gay man against Democrat Rev. Jesse Jackson?
I hadn’t, either. Nor had conservative radio pundit Mark Levin until two days ago.
While Politico and other leftwing media sources are trashing GOP presidential contender Herman Cain with vague, spotty information from anonymous sources about something (we’re not altogether sure what) that happened decades ago, they are hypocritically mute about charges that have been filed by a gay male staffer from Rainbow PUSH Coalition against Rev. Jackson.
Politico has posted 90-plus stories about Cain in just one week — and ZERO on Jackson.
Talk about a blatant, liberal media double standard.
Here’s Levin’s commentary from this Friday’s talk radio show about the sexual harassment charges that Tommy Bennett has filed against Jackson.
Mark Levin – Breaking News – Tommy Bennett Has Filed Sexual Harassment Against Jesse Jackson
From Gateway Pundit via Advocate:
A former employee of Jesse Jackson Sr. filed a wrongful termination complaint against Jackson. The openly gay employee claimed Jackson required him to perform “humiliating tasks” like escorting women to Jackson’s various hotel rooms. He also claims Jackson asked him for oral sex.
From Yahoo News, Hey Politico – Where’s Your Jesse Jackson Gay Sexual Harassment Story?:
While Politico found it necessary to release a story regarding vague accusations made my anonymous women and PJ Media found it necessary to publish erroneous statements made by nameless witnesses, there is an odd silence regarding the graphic and seriously disturbing charges filed against Jesse Jackson by a gay staffer willing publicly attach his name and face to his charges.
Tommy R. Bennett, an openly gay African American who worked as the national director of community affairs with Chicago’s Rainbow Coalition from July 11, 2007, through Dec. 23, 2009, filed a complaint with the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations against the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., and his Chicago-based organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Among the charges, sexual harassment and termination based on Bennett’s sexual orientation.
The unsubstantiated charges against Cain happened more than 10 years ago.
Windy City Times broke Bennett’s story in April.
According the Windy City, Bennett’s employment took “a disturbing turn” after he became Jackson’s travel assistant. Among the “humiliating” tasks demanded of Bennett by Jackson – escorting women to hotels like the New York Sheraton and the Wynn Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas and told to “clean up his room after sexual intercourse with women.”
Bennett says he “was summoned to Rev. Jackson’s hotel room” at the Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport Hotel. Bennett claims Jackson “summoned” Bennett to his room and instructed him to apply cream to the “rash between his legs.” When he refused, Jackson called Bennett a “little mother—–.”
At the same hotel, Jackson summoned him to take notes at 1 a.m..
“When Mr. Bennett arrived,” the complaint states, “Rev. Jackson was dressed only in his briefs and a v-neck t-shirt.” It was Bennett’s opinion that Jackson was “sexually excited” and wanted sex.
Jackson told Bennett “that white folks took the word ‘gay’ and gave the word its own definition” and shared that “there was a gay high school teacher” who told him he needed good grades to go along with football.
From that gay teacher” Jackson confessed, “I got a good grade, I got to use his car, I got ten dollars and I got my d–k sucked. That’s not gay, that is surviving.”
Bennett then left the room.
The harassment did not stop with Jackson.
Bennet further alleges that a fellow staffer named Caroline Wiggins asked for a department transfer after learning he was gay.
According to a September story by The Gawker, Wiggins even led a prayer saying, “bind these homosexual spirits that are in the office” and asked God to “get these homosexuals out of there and do it in Jesus’ name.”
In a rather sophomoric display, Wiggins would even make a “limp hand gesture towards Bennett” whenever he walked down the hallway.
So where is this story Politico? According to Washington Examiner you have pushed no less than 90 stories on the “full blown crisis” you started on Sunday.
If the need to persecute Cain for these allegations were truly rooted in a disdain of the charges rather than the man himself I could understand. But please explain the obsession with pushing ambiguous allegations made by faceless women and nameless witnesses who cower behind anonymity as they attack Herman Cain while ignoring the seriously disturbing charges described in graphic detail by a gay African-American man who worked for Jessie Jackson?
From FrontPage Magazine, Media AWOL on Sexual Indiscretion — When Jesse Jackson Was Front-runner:
Charles Krauthammer of Fox News: “Do you think that race, being a strong black conservative, has anything to do with the fact you’ve been so charged (with sexual harassment)? And if so, do you have any evidence to support that?”
Herman Cain: “I believe the answer is yes, but we do not have any evidence to support it.”
Playing the race card is vulgar, whether done by Al Sharpton or President Barack Obama — as he did to contain the Rev. Wright scandal. Especially when, as here, the complainant admits he lacks evidence. If Cain were not a front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination — a shock probably even to him — the media wouldn’t bother. But when the quest goes from curiosity to conceivable, the scrutiny increases exponentially. And who knows how the media got the information, possibly from one of Cain’s presumably non-racist GOP rivals.
Cain can — and should — complain about the media’s hypocritical double-standard, however. There is a real-world, apples-to-apples comparison to examine whether, as a conservative, Cain is being subjected to harsher treatment: the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
During the heat of the 1988 race for the Democratic presidential nomination, rumors surfaced of Jackson’s alleged numerous and rampant instances of infidelity. He was, for a while, his party’s front-runner.
Democratic Underground, a left-wing website, recalls, “(After) Jackson won 55 percent of the vote in the Michigan Democratic caucus, he was considered the front-runner for the nomination, as he surpassed all the other candidates in total number of pledged delegates.”
Unlike Cain, Jackson actually won several primaries and caucuses — and finished second in pledged delegates, beating out rivals such as future Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden.
To blunt whispers of Jackson infidelity, his wife, Jackie, warned Life magazine: “I don’t believe in examining sheets. That’s a violation of privacy. If my husband has committed adultery, he better not tell me. And you better not go digging into it because I’m trying to raise a family and won’t let you be the one to destroy my family.”
Whether the media feared being accused of racism or whether it feared Jackie, there were no “establishment media” stories on Jackson’s alleged sexcapades. That is, until years later, when Jackson admitted fathering a child with a staffer to whom he paid money for a house and who received monthly payments.
Black conservatives — along with white male Christian conservatives and child molesters — remain one of the few groups to which the usual rules of civility and restraint do not apply.
From Publius at Big Government, Gay Ex-Staffer Files Sexual Harassment Suit Against Rev. Jesse Jackson:
A former staffer for Rev. Jesse Jackson and his non-profit Rainbow PUSH Coalition alleges in a lawsuit that he was discriminated against because he is gay, allegedly instructed to bring women to Jackson’s hotel rooms and sometimes sexually harassed by Jackson himself.
Tommy Bennett, who filed a sexual discrimination complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights in 2010, filed a lawsuit alleging “pervasive” sexual harassment during his time as a staffer at Rainbow PUSH, a social outreach group started by Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Bennett worked for Rainbow PUSH and Jackson from July 2007-December 2009, beginning as National Director of Community Affairs, according to the complaint.
So, Politico… can we expect your Jackson sexual harassment story any time soon?
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