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Alexie gossip on the front page
On the front page of the Spokesman-Review, the editor chose to publish a report by another news organization, NPR, of accusations some women have made regarding their feelings about some social encounters with the author Sherman Alexie.
None of the accusations rise anywhere near the threshold for a charge of “harassment” as defined in legal dictionaries. These adult women report that he asked one for a kiss, wanted to have sex with some, “flirted,” made some feel “uncomfortable.” Those who did not want an intimate encounter with him simply did not, and that was that. Evidently, some subsequently did choose to. And some complained that he broke off their sexual relationship too “abruptly.”
Even if all true, so what? It is not any of our business. Is the point to propagate the notion that Mr. Alexie has sometimes been naughty? To what end? In any case, if in the judgment of this newspaper this story is appropriately newsworthy at all, its proper place might be in the Arts and Entertainment section, not the front page.
Peter Grossman
Spokane