text: The following article, which has provoked much criticism, should have included acknowledgment of the serious nature and number of allegations that had been made against the writer, Jian Ghomeshi. In October 2014, Ghomeshi—about whom multiple women had filed harassment complaints—was fired from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation after executives saw evidence that he had caused physical harm to a woman. Shortly after, more than twenty women accused him of sexual abuse and harassment, which included hitting, biting, choking, and verbal abuse during sex. Many of these allegations were made in respected publications, including The Toronto Star. That November, Ghomeshi was charged with the sexual assault of three women. (Sexual assault, under Canada’s Criminal Code, can include threats and nonconsensual physical contact. There is no specific legal provision for rape as it is defined in US law.) In January 2015, additional counts of sexual assault were brought against him by three more women. He was acquitted of all charges, and settled a further charge of sexual assault, of a coworker at the CBC, out of court with a peace bond and public apology. Substantial space will be devoted to letters responding to this article in the next issue of The New York Review, dated October 25, 2018. 
   
   Not so long ago, I spoke to hundreds of thousands of listeners across North America every day on a public radio show. These days, the closest I come to public performance is at a neighborhood karaoke bar in New York. Even that can have its perils. One night last year, I was waiting my turn to sing when a woman spotted my name on the list. “Jian!” she said to me. “Your name is Jian? Ha! Hey, you know who ruined that name for you?” “No. Who?” I said, bracing myself. For the first time, she looked straight at me—and stopped smiling. 
   
   For her, it was like one of those excruciating moments when you accidentally include the butt of a joke in a reply-all e-mail. For me, it was just another day in the life of the notorious Jian. She apologized and said all the right things. And I said all the right things back. (“How could you have known?”) Mostly I felt bad because she felt bad. But then we rallied and sang a duet together. And then we became friends and are regularly in touch. Chalk up one more human being who no longer thinks I’m a creep. 
   
   Here’s the thing about being an erstwhile “celebrity” who is now an outcast: You’re not just feeling sorry for yourself. You’re also feeling sorry for everyone around you—sometimes even the strangers. You can see the anxiety in their faces as they stammer out banalities, studiously avoiding the subject of career (or lack thereof), making vague gestures of encouragement that trail off into silence. ||||| Ian Buruma, the former editor-in-chief of the New York Review of Books who was forced out of the job on Wednesday amid a row over his editorial judgment relating to #MeToo, has complained of being “publicly pilloried” and “convicted on Twitter”. 
   
   A day after the announcement of Buruma’s departure from the literary magazine, the NYRB itself has yet to give an explanation for the rift with its chief editor – only the third person to hold the top post since the review was founded in 1963. The silence means Buruma has got his side of the story out first, portraying himself as a victim of social media bullying. 
   
   New York Review of Books editor Ian Buruma departs amid outrage over essay Read more 
   
   In an interview with the Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland, the writer and academic said he had been “convicted on Twitter, without any due process”. He characterized his fate as “rather ironic”. 
   
   “As editor of the New York Review of Books I published a theme issue about #MeToo-offenders who had not been convicted in a court of law but by social media. And now I myself am publicly pilloried.” 
   
   The storm that toppled Buruma from one of the most prestigious journalistic seats in America erupted this month when he published a long article by the former Canadian broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi. The celebrity was acquitted in March, 2016, of sexual assault and choking relating to three women. 
   
   At least a further 17 other women have also made serious allegations of improper sexual conduct against Ghomeshi. Yet in the essay, Ghomeshi tried to defend himself against the accusations, saying they were “inaccurate”. 
   
   Ghomeshi said he wanted to give a more “nuanced” view of what had happened. 
   
   The article prompted furious debate on social media and widespread criticism of Buruma’s decision to publish on the grounds that, though Ghomeshi had been acquitted, he remained subject to multiple claims of violent behavior from many women. The dispute was aggravated when Buruma gave an interview last week to Slate in which he said it was not “really my concern” to take a view on Ghomeshi’s allegedly violent behavior and argued that there were “undesirable, or at least unresolved, aspects” aspects to the way the Canadian star had been treated. 
   
   Buruma commissioned the Ghomeshi article several months ago, and faced strong opposition to publication from members of the NYRB staff. The former editor-in-chief told Vrij Nederland: “The staff was initially not unanimously positive about publication, but once the decision to publish was made, we agreed. Also the publisher was initially positive.” 
   
   He insisted that he had not been fired from the NYRB job but had been put in a position where he felt he had to step down because of a combination of social media hounding and pressure from academic advertisers to the magazine who were not happy about the Ghomeshi scandal. “University publishers, whose advertisements make publication of the New York Review of Books partly possible, were threatening a boycott,” Buruma said. 
   
   “They are afraid of the reactions on the campuses, where this is an inflammatory topic. Because of this, I feel forced to resign – in fact it is a capitulation to social media and university presses.” ||||| Dutch version here. 
   
   ‘I am embroiled in a big scandal, in the middle of storm on social media,’ said Ian Buruma on the phone from New York. ‘It is rather ironic: as editor of The New York Review of Books I published a theme issue about #MeToo-offenders who had not been convicted in a court of law but by social media. And now I myself am publicly pilloried.’ 
   
   For the moment, he does not want to comment on his sudden departure from the renowned, bi-weekly The New York Review of Books. But because Vrij Nederland was about to publish a long interview with him, Buruma made an exception for VN – although he is not willing to go deeply into the case and he terminated the conversation after a brief exchange. 
   
   He is about to write a resignation letter to publisher/owner Rea. S Hederman, says Buruma. A month earlier, during the interview, he was very enthusiastic about his new job, his young editorial team and his wealthy, but progressive publisher. And he is still. Just as he is... ||||| 
   
   Liam Casey and Adina Bresge, The Canadian Press 
   
   
   
   
   
   A former editor at the New York Review of Books says he stands by his decision to publish a controversial essay written by disgraced former radio host Jian Ghomeshi. 
   
   Ian Buruma told Vrij Nederland, a Dutch magazine, that he lost his job after an intense backlash to the article from social media and magazine advertisers. 
   
   "It is rather ironic: as editor of The New York Review of Books I published a theme issue about .MeToo offenders who had not been convicted in a court of law but by social media," the Dutch native said to Vrij. 
   
   "And now I myself am publicly pilloried." 
   
   Last week, the magazine published Ghomeshi's essay, titled "Reflections from a Hashtag," where he wrote he had "deep remorse" for the way he treated people, but said the accusations from the women were inaccurate. 
   
   Ghomeshi was acquitted in March 2016 of four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking involving three women and later signed a peace bond after apologizing to a fourth woman that saw another count of sexual assault withdrawn. 
   
   The essay sparked an online backlash from those who said the former CBC radio host should not have been given such a prestigious platform to write an unchallenged first-person piece. Critics complained that the piece wasn't properly fact-checked and was self-serving to a man trying to rehabilitate his image. 
   
   On Wednesday, the magazine added an editorial note clarifying several details about the allegations against Ghomeshi, how they emerged and the legal proceedings that followed. 
   
   Buruma says he was not fired from the prestigious literary magazine, but felt forced to resign after he was told by his publisher that university publishers who advertise in the Review of Books were threatening a boycott. 
   
   "They are afraid of the reactions on the campuses, where this is an inflammatory topic," Buruma said to Vrij. 
   
   "Because of this, I feel forced to resign -- in fact it is a capitulation to social media and university presses." 
   
   He admits he didn't gauge the forces of the .MeToo movement. 
   
   "I still stand behind my decision to publish," Buruma says now. "I expected that there would (be) intense reactions, but I hoped that it would open a discussion about what to do with people who behaved badly, but who were acquitted in a court of law." 
   
   Romayne Smith Fullerton, an associate professor in Western University's faculty of information and media studies, said it's the intransigence of those with influence like Buruma that has made her less and less optimistic about the potential for gender equality in journalism and beyond over her 22 years of teaching. 
   
   "It makes me feel like we haven't come very far," she said. "I feel often like there's more push back. That there are less people who are willing to even stand up for equality, let alone what I would see as advancing the cause of women." 
   
   Smith Fullerton said the magazine's lack of transparency about the events that transpired over the roughly weeklong controversy has sown distrust among readers. 
   
   "I would like to see the magazine step up, and acknowledge what they see as their own deficiencies," she said. "One of the biggest and most valuable pieces of currency journalism has is credibility. If you're going to throw it under the bus, don't be sad when you don't have an audience." 
   
   There is a place for journalism about the cultural forces that have enabled bad male behaviour, said Smith Fullerton, as well as the perspectives of men who have been accused, like Ghomeshi. But those accounts shouldn't come in the form of an unchallenged, first-person essay in a highbrow literary magazine, she said. 
   
   "Until we actually reach a spot where we are in fact equal, then we need to advocate on the side of those who are not equal," she said. "And we do not yet have an equal workplace, a equal social sphere, or an equal public sphere." 
   
   The New York Review of Books declined to comment. ||||| The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It by Warren Farrell and John Gray 
   
   Healing from Hate: How Young Men Get Into—and Out of—Violent Extremism by Michael Kimmel 
   
   White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement—and How I Got Out by Christian Picciolini
target: – The former editor-in-chief of the New York Review of Books—who abruptly left his post after running an essay by #MeToo villain Jian Ghomeshi—has given an interview with a Dutch publication blaming his downfall on Twitter and university publishers, the Guardian reports. "As editor of the New York Review of Books I published a theme issue about #MeToo offenders who had not been convicted in a court of law but by social media," says Ian Burama of the Oct. 11 issue, which actually focuses on modern male struggles and female empowerment. "And now I myself am publicly pilloried." He also blames academic advertisers who were unhappy about the Ghomeshi piece. "University publishers, whose advertisements make publication of the New York Review of Books partly possible, were threatening a boycott," says Burama. "They are afraid of the reactions on the campuses, where this is an inflammatory topic. Because of this, I feel forced to resign..." But the head of the Association of University Presses says he's unaware of any such boycott threat, the Washington Post reports. And with the Review keeping mum, most commentators and critics are slamming Burama for giving an alleged serial assaulter such a highly regarded platform. "One of the biggest and most valuable pieces of currency journalism has is credibility," an associate professor in Canada tells CTV. "If you're going to throw it under the bus, don't be sad when you don't have an audience."