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Rebecca Traister on the So-Called 'Harvey Weinstein Effect' Lindsay The Breach 307: Rebecca Traister on the So-Called 'Harvey Weinstein Effect' Lindsay: Welcome to The Breach, your deep dive into authoritarianism and corruption in the era of Trump. I'm your host, Lindsay Beyerstein. The Breach is a production of rewire.news, your home in the web for cutting edge news and commentary on reproductive health and justice. Before I start the show, I have a very exciting announcement. Rewire's first original documentary "Care in Chaos" won best documentary short in the Nevada International Film Festival. I co-directed the movie with Martyna Starosta and The Breach's executive producer, Marc Faletti, was also the movie's executive producer, sound man, graphics guy, and all-around champion. It's the story of two abortion clinics under siege by protesters. You can watch it in full on Rewire's website. Our guest today is award-winning journalist, Rebecca Traister. She's here to talk about her latest piece in New York magazine, a deeply personal and urgently political meditation on the so-called Harvey Weinstein effect, and what it means in Trump's America, where a self-confessed sex predator sits in the Oval Office. Rebecca, welcome to the program. Rebecca: Thank you so much for having me, Lindsay. Lindsay: Can you start by detailing your own encounter with Harvey Weinstein back when you were working for Talk magazine? Rebecca: Yeah, it was actually when I was working for a weekly newspaper called the Observer. Well, my first encounter with him actually, you're right. I had been an assistant, a secretary to one of the executive editors at Talk magazine which was a magazine that Harvey Weinstein co-owned, or actually maybe he financed it entirely, I can't remember. But he was the money boss, but he wasn't a daily presence in the office. Then, my job after that when I was 25 years old was as a fact checker and junior reporter at the New York Observer which was a weekly newspaper and my beat there was to cover the film industry in New York. At that time, the giant in the film industry in New York was Miramax movies and its sister company, brother company Dimension Films. This was in 1999, 2000. So I guess, maybe, I was 25 in 2000. The first big piece that I reported was about one of the Dimension movies that the company was not releasing even though it had a lot of marketable stars at that time. And the story was that maybe Harvey was not releasing it because of his involvement at that point in the Al Gore-Joe Lieberman presidential campaign of 2000. I reported the story and it was really the first big reported story I'd ever done as a young person, a young reporter, and I couldn't get Harvey to call me back which wasn't unusual. I was just a young reporter and my editors at that time at the Observer suggested that I go to a party that he was hosting, the night before the 2000 election, so a Monday night. At that point, it was very ... And it still is, people have public events book parties, movie premiers, all kinds of things happening in New York City. Harvey was hosting one, and of course, the press was invited and they said, "Oh, well, you'll just go with the gossip columnist for the Observer. You'll go as his plus one and you can find Harvey there and ask him directly about the movie so you can get his comment." I did that. The gossip columnist at that time was a slightly older reporter and he happened to be my boyfriend. We went down to the Tribeca Grand and I grabbed Harvey. I had my tape recorder and I introduced myself as a reporter from the Observer and told him about the story I was working on and asked him for comment. He gave me a sort of non ... He said that's my brother's movie. I have nothing to do with it. Great, he wouldn't say anymore but I had my comment. I could put in my piece that I had let the boss, the man making decisions, know about my story and what I've reported and this is what he'd said in response. I went off to go put my tape recorder away, and then he grabbed me and said, "You know, you can't use that. That wasn't on the record." I said, "Of course, I can, Harvey." I was very young and scared. I don't know why I had the wherewithal to say this, but I did. I said, "Of course, you didn't say it was off the record." Lindsay: You put a tape recorder in his face. Rebecca: Yes, and I identified myself as a reporter. It was a totally bogus thing that he was then saying it was off the record. And he hadn't even said anything revealing. I mean, it was the most non-effusive ... He offered no insight. It was a totally innocuous line that he'd given me. But I think he'd been surprised to be asked a real substantive question. It was supposed to be this promotional book party. I don't think he was expecting it. I don't think anybody in his office had told him that I was reporting the story even though I've been in touch with them to try to get comment from the company. And so, I think he was taken aback and he tried to pull this thing where he said all that was off the record. I resisted and said no. I'd identified myself and put my ... I had my tape recorder and he'd offered me a comment and he couldn't retroactively take it off the record. He was a public figure. He knew how these things worked. He started shouting at me and poking his finger in my shoulder aggressively. He started shouting and he's a huge man. Harvey, at that time, was just a massively tall, broad, huge guy. He started just screaming, screaming so loud the entire party could hear. It wasn't any kind of secret thing. There must have been a hundred people there and many of them, dozens of them, members of the press since this was a press event. He started screaming obscenities at me, how did I get in the party, who let her in. He said ... And my ex-boyfriend and colleague, and I have tried to go back in pieces together. For a time, I had it on tape and I just lost the tape in the 17 years, in the intervening 17 years. I never thought I'd lose it, but you know, a couple of apartment moves will do that to you. So I can't recall exactly ... The lines I remember are, he said, "Who let this cunt into this party? This is a cancer party.” It was a party for Karen Duffy, the former MTV VJ's book about recovery from a disease," and I don't even think it was cancer, to be honest. I think it was, I can't remember what the disease was, but he kept saying, "This is a cancer party. This is a cancer party. Who let that cunt in?" Then, he yelled further, "This is ridiculous. This is what's wrong with this town, that people can just come in to these parties. I'm glad I'm the fucking sheriff of this fucking piece of shit fucking town." He's screaming this obscenity at me, spitting. His spit is hitting my face. He's pushing me backwards with his finger on my shoulder. At that point, my colleague, Andrew, comes over and interrupts and calms him down by saying, "Look, talk to me about this book. I'm here to cover this party. She's my colleague." He calms Harvey down, and Harvey gives an interview about Karen Duffy's book. Then, at that point where I get my bags, I'm ready to go. At that point, Andrew says, "I think you owe my colleague an apology," which strategically in retrospect was an error on his part. Harvey then explodes and starts screaming at Andrew and pushes him down a couple of steps. It's a multi-tiered party space. He pushes him down a couple of steps. Andrew was holding a tape recorder. Andrew falls backwards, hits a woman in the head with a tape recorder as he falls. She collapses. Harvey then starts screaming that he hit a woman. This man hit a woman, and Harvey then takes Andrew out onto the sidewalk and puts him in a headlock and tries to beat him up. At that point, there are lots of photographers and flashes going off, but I've never seen a picture of it. Harvey, at that point, had so much power over the press. He had reporters on his payroll, hired them as consultants, gave them movie deals for their books, or book deals because he had a publishing house. He also just had a tremendous power to spin and to ... By the end of that night, I think those pictures didn't exist. I've never seen a copy of one of those pictures even though the image would have been worth so much money, this big movie producer with a young reporter in a headlock. That had been my experience.
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