Is Fox News Contributor Tamara Holder a Misandrist?

To use the popular vernacular: “Wow, just wow.” There’s video at Breitbart of Tamara Holder attacking a journalist who is doing his job, and slamming him as “creepy.”

Brief summary for those who have lived under a rock: Lena Dunham wrote in her book that she was raped during her time at college by a well-known campus Republican named Barry, who worked at the library. A man named Barry who was a well-known campus Republican and worked at the campus library began to get phone calls from the media. He was worried his name would be dragged through the mud for a crime he is innocent of (even Dunham admits this now), and has, since October 6th, been trying to get someone to exonerate him and clear his name. Dunham, despite knowing this, let him continue to twist(1).

Nolte then investigated. He never has claimed Dunham wasn’t raped (that I have seen) — and, in fact, has expressed an interest in catching the actual rapist at large (moreso than the victim has, even). But he wanted to know if this Barry was THE Barry. The story eventually blew up and Random House has cleared Barry and said it was just a pseudonym and that the similarities were unfortunate coincidences. Very well. So here’s where Tamara Holder inserts herself in a rude, personal-attack style manor. Quotes are verbatim:

“And your creepy John Nolte guy… what is he doing on the campus like digging around trying to find out if it was Barry or who it was?”

Sean Hannity should have cut her off here and said, “His job” and left it at that. An innocent man was being called by the media and a national figure with a lot of power in the media had made it seem (whether she meant to or not) that he was a rapist, too rough with other women, and a boob-puncher. The details made it so that more than one news publication found him. Tamara Holder is a news figure and has been alive for more than the last few years so she has to have seen the lives destroyed by false rape claims, like the one against the Duke lacrosse team. Barry doesn’t want that in his life, and he doesn’t deserve it.

Also, why is trying to find the person named in an account, a person who is protesting that he is innocent, “creepy”?

“Barry doesn’t exist [some garbled mess about “it’s not your name”].”

Yes, he does. Is she serious? This total disregard for the trouble this guy has been through is where the idea she might be a misandrist started to build in the back of my head.

“[something — cross talk, she’s interrupting Nolte here] being creepy.”

There’s that word again.

“You have a man here at Breitbart who is ruining women [more garbled cross talk — this is why I hate cable news](2).”

This is where she goes off the rails. At no point is Nolte saying she wasn’t raped. He is simply clearing the name of a man with many traits in common with the supposed rapist. Lena Dunham is a media figure with a big audience and a multi-million dollar book deal. Barry is just some guy. If anything, Barry, an individual man, was being ruined. But the man in the situation and what he has been through doesn’t matter — a male reporter has questioned a woman who claims she was raped, therefore he is destroying women.

“There is no man, she said Barry, that’s it.”

This is demonstrably false and had just been countered by Nolte: She made specific reference to specific details. Tamara Holder is apparently an attorney of some sort and should know better. I’m guessing she doesn’t handle a lot of libel related cases. Eugene Volokh disagrees with her general assessment. Given the way Random House has offered to pay legal fees to date and is changing a book that is already out in the wild, it would seem that Random House also disagrees with her poor assessment of the situation.

There you have it: A male reporter doing his job is creepy, a male accused of a crime he didn’t commit doesn’t matter.

I wouldn’t hire a lawyer like that to fight a parking ticket — and if I still had cable I would cancel it until Fox News stopped paying this (in my opinion) misandrist.

(1) This is sick and deplorable behavior — someone with power allowing someone with no power to be tormented. What did she gain here?
(2) I’m glad I don’t pay for cable anymore. All of the 24-hour news talking heads are reason enough to keep my money to myself.