Ghomeshi Gate

I'm sick, just like you are. I enjoy seeing the proud fall — and fall hard.

I'm very late on commenting on the fall of Jian Ghomeshi, one of Canada's most famous interviewers. The last number of weeks I've been busy keeping up-to-date on all the opinion pieces and ex-lovers' public damning  (sorry, ex-one-night stands) of the large schnozed Ghomeshi.

The man has been a punching bag on the internet— and rightfully so. He has been accused of  sexually abusing at least nine women and one man. After being fired by the CBC, he sued the mother corp. $50 million and tried beating the story by posting on Facebook how he was falsely fired and how his sexual preferences for BSDM (think 50 shades of grey) is totally normal and the CBC has to apologize to him and give him his job back.

The many women who have accused him of abuse disagree with his sexual preferences being normal and so does the internet and most of Canada. Throughout the weeks the pundits have damned him.  Rex Murphy and Christie Blantchford have had there say: Crucify him! Take him to Guantanamo Bay and torture him until his acid wash jeans turn into poison. Throw him behind bars. The public wants justice.

My tongue is in cheek for a reason. We as humans love justice and justice to us is to see a smug jerk like Ghomeshi be publicly disgraced. That is until we move on to the next story. Hello, Bill Cosby, who is being accused of rape by a handful of women.

I met Jian Ghomeshi when he was doing a book tour in 2012. As I saw him on stage reading from his memoir, 1982, I never thought, hmm.. this guy must be a sexual deviant . But I did see a super insecure guy. He started off his set by embarrassing the local radio host who introduced him.

Arrogantly he told the host who was standing along the side wall that the crowd didn't come to hear a no-body blab about himself. They came to hear him -- Jian Ghomeshi. He went on to tell an awestruck crowd, whom admired him for his obvious talent, about his awkward immigrant upbringing and how he had never been able to impress his father.


If you watched the interview with Stombo above this paragraph, you will see in a lot of ways, the insecurity I'm referring to. The poor guy has never grown up. His daddy issues and lack of approval from his father have driven him to succeed but has also left him a fragile man who depends on his success for his identity.

This lack of approval from his father apparently has led him to act like a diva with his CBC staff. This post by a famous Canadian icon Ed The Sock. Yes, that Ed The Sock, says that Ghomeshi was known as a disrespectful tyrant in the news room.

"According to numerous stories, some published some not, Ghomeshi was a workplace tyrant, yelling at people for headphone levels and other minor crap. Why? because he could. He was inappropriate with women at work. Again, because he could be. "

Clearly Jian Ghomeshi is still a child. Adults don't treat other humans like he has treated others. Fame doesn't excuse you from consequence or responsibility. Although it appears Jian thought fame and success was a super power of sorts that gave him free reign to be a dink.



Despite how much of a prick this guy is, I can't help but wondering how he is doing right now? He has to be at the lowest of lows. How will he recover? Many people won't care. I hope, though he gets past this. I hope he sincerely apologizes to his victims and to the co-workers he has treated poorly in the past. Then I hope he stays out of the public eye for the last 20 to 30 years of his life. That is, until he writes another memoire, entitled 2014: The Year I Grew Up.

For each of us who have followed Ghomeshi Gate 14',  I hope we weren't just following along because it was another juicy story about a narcissist's fall from glory.  Although, I think that is the main reason the majority of us were wrapped up in the story. As much as we hope the rape culture shifts because of the light shone on Jian Ghomeshi, that's not why we paid attention to this story.

We just want justice! We just want entertainment!

This has the Fifth of State written all over it.




Comments

Greg Roberts said…
I could read your writing for days.

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