Washington Post reporter who tweeted about Kobe Bryant rape allegations placed on leave

[USALiberal]

The Washington Post has placed on administrative leave a reporter who tweeted a link to a news story about rape allegations against the late basketball star Kobe Bryant after his death on Sunday, saying “her tweets displayed poor judgment that undermined the work of her colleagues.”

The tweet by political reporter Felicia Sonmez sparked a furious backlash on social media, with many deeming it inappropriate just hours after Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, were killed in a helicopter crash outside of Los Angeles. In the wake of her posting, Sonmez said she received death and rape threats and her home address was posted online, compelling her to stay at a hotel overnight.

The Post placed Sonmez on paid leave while newsroom managers look into the episode.

Sonmez sparked the uproar by linking to a 2016 Daily Beast article headlined “Kobe Bryant’s Disturbing Rape Case: The DNA Evidence, the Accuser’s Story, and the Half-Confession.”

The story recounted details of an accusation of sexual assault against Bryant by a 19-year-old woman employed by a Colorado hotel that Bryant visited in 2003. Bryant was charged with sexual assault and false imprisonment, but the charges were dropped after the woman declined to testify. The Los Angeles Lakers star acknowledged having sexual relations with the woman but said the relationship was consensual. He later apologized to the woman, acknowledging that she hadn’t given her consent.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/washington-post-suspends-reporter-who-tweeted-about-kobe-bryant-rape-allegations-following-his-death/2020/01/27/babe9c04-413b-11ea-b5fc-eefa848cde99_story.html

[5X]

1. the post should have her back. n/t

[janterry]

2. It's part of his story

It's not inappropriate in the least. He redeemed himself, in many ways. And THAT's the story I like the most.

People are complex - and not one dimensional. Also, they grow up and learn.

[USALiberal]

5. I agree! nt

[Tipperary]

14. Most do not have to "learn" not to rape.

[janterry]

17. I've worked in the prisons

with those that worked to do better - and those that have never been able to accomplish that.

I've even worked with several men that have reformed their lives.

[Calculating]

22. Exactly

There's no redemption for rapists. It's one of those unforgivable crimes imo. To even do it once shows that there's something seriously wrong with a person's ability to feel empathy and control their impulses.

[emmaverybo]

27. Some actually do, however, and thus the effort to talk to young men across the nation on

Last edited Tue Jan 28, 2020, 04:24 PM - Edit history (1)

college campuses about consent. Bryant thought that because he didn’t hit his victim over the head, because she voluntarily came to his room, he was entitled to have sex with her.

He saw his entitlement as that, not rape. Her intentions, wishes were not on his radar. He made assumptions about women he met through his celebrity that rendered them objects to satisfy his needs, his wants, his impulses. This is an attitude some teen boys adopt about younger victims who may admire them. They take advantage of that and may escalate from horseplay to actual
sexual abuse or rape without recognizing—and sometimes their victim doesn’t either—that they are committing a sex offense until and unless they are caught. They are emboldened in this behavior by their friends, often witnesses or participants. And they continue this pattern in college with dates or acquaintances in the dorms, at parties.

It is crucial that both young girls and boys be educated and that this education continue in college. The young men have to be made aware of legal consequences, which have to be enforced, even if they are not willing to change their attitude. And their peers have to be educated to intervene. Young women have to understand their rights, about these ordinary seeming predators and their set-ups, how to protect themselves, how to enlist legal resources.

This was Biden’s mission, to reach young men with education. Because though it may have become common wisdom, no, not all young men consider consent, understand what it is or isn’t, know the laws regarding it or fear the consequences when they break them. Of corse we can not reach sadistic offenders, all those bent on sexual predation, those who are knowingly violent, serial offenders for whom the thrill is in hurting and humiliating, in overcoming the unwilling or impaired. Bu5 there is a sub-set, some of whom, can be educated as an effort to stop the kind of legitimized rape culture we saw run rampant on campuses, prevail among some athletes and other “stars” while acknowledging that those who don’t want to be reached or can’t be must face stringent sanctions.

Bryant may have actually come to understand his blind and ruthlessly inhumane act from his victim’s position, gaining self-insight and compassion, or he may simply have wanted to rehabilitate his image. He went on to become exemplary on many fronts, as a family man, a friend, a stellar and disciplined athlete, and was going to accomplish more. His victim should not be forgotten in a balanced reflection on his life in the public eye, his many accomplishments and admirable character traits, along with the offense to her and his a-typical acknowledgement of it.

But the journalist could have waited for a better moment, for shock to subside and so that those clearly innocent of any possible wrong doing, the dead, and those surviving, could be honored, could mourn without being eclipsed or cheated by sensationalism.

I like to think because Bryant did not repeat his offense, that though he escaped justice, likely, he did attain insight and that his apology was of some help to his victim. Reading it, I believe he meant it to be.

[R B Garr]

29. Yes to this. He was an excellent father to 4 daughters. He was strong in the community.

His accuser settled for an apology and about 2.5 million in settlement money. The DNA evidence showed multiple male samples. I forget the number, but it was more than Kobe. She also left her position in the hotel to go to his room when there was no reason for her to be there based on job-related duties.

The whole case was coming down to a withdrawal of consent at some time during their encounter. Yes, you can still call that rape, like other males who are stopped mid-intercourse or mid-encounter if she withdraws consent. You can call men rapists for this. That's what it was coming down to, and it looks to be why she settled for an apology from him and, of course, the money.

[Maggiemayhem]

3. The Washington Post has diminished in my eyes.

Was it inappropriate so soon after? Yes. But she was reporting facts whether people like them or not.

[Iggo]

6. Good.

Give her time to reflect on being a dumbshit.

Come back knowing the difference between reporting and trolling.

[58Sunliner]

7. A dumbshit for posting the truth?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. Telling the whole story is not trolling. In fact, that part of Kobe's life was the hinge on which

his story arcs.

[marble falls]

8. The good and the bad are all part of the record.

[58Sunliner]

9. So he raped her, lied about it and when she had actual evidence of rape, he confessed.

What a great creep. What a fantastic creep. How many times do you think he did it before and got away with it. WAPO should be ashamed.

[Tipperary]

15. And he is being praised to the heavens here.

The victim went through hell.

[58Sunliner]

30. Thank you. And detractors are threatened online. Gross.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. This is horrifying on so many levels.

[cbdo2007]

13. Should this one incident from his teenage years be near the top of his obit?

That's the question here.

Should society ever move on from these things and look at what happened when he grew up and his accomplishments and the tens of millions of $$ he has given to charity and that he was raising a family, including 4 daughters?

He isn't a serial abuser like Bill Cosby or even a repeat abuser that we know of, and it sure seemed like he pulled it together after this incident. We all just need to decide at the end of the day how much something like this impacts us personally and if we can move on from it.

I sure hope things that happened in my teens aren't held over me for the rest of my life as I have grown up a lot since then. I really didn't grow up and start behaving like an adult until probably my mid-30s but that shouldn't define my future and all the good things I can do. And most of the people we work with and in our families have secrets they are hoping everyone around them doesn't find out about.

RIP to Kobe and to his amazing basketball career and I hope you learned and grew from this incident.

[Tipperary]

18. He was not a teenager.

Yeah, hope he “learned” from that incident too.
Do you have any thoughts for the victim?

[Calculating]

24. I know right?

This kind of thinking is exactly how people were defending kavanagh. "Oh he was just a young guy, boys will be boys, let's not ruin his life for a little mistake"

[jcgoldie]

19. Kobe Bryant was 25 when the alleged rape occurred

It wasn’t an “incident from his teenage years.” And learning not to rape women is not some right of passage that should be compared to “growing up” or acting “like an adult.”

[cwydro]

25. This.

Wow, some of the comments in this thread are astounding.

It goes to show that even on DU, rape victims are nothing to some people.

[58Sunliner]

32. Yes. Unfortunately many survivors already see this.

[janterry]

20. This is the lesson that is getting us stuck today

I look forward to a more nuanced idea of justice. One that believes in change as much as it believes in punishment.

[Calculating]

23. There's no redemption for rapists

Ever imo. There's something seriously wrong with anyone who would rape another person, and I want nothing to do with them.

[jmg257]

21. "How much it impacts YOU personally"?!? Somehow I imagine not too much.

Glad you could move on!

[RhodeIslandOne]

28. The thing is, it hasn't been at the top

It seems to have been forgotten altogether in fact.

[58Sunliner]

31. How would you know he was not a serial rapist? Statistically speaking he probably raped more than 1.

I can bet if you were a rapist in your teens, the victims would never forget. RIP to idolizing this creep. That you compare rape to a lack of maturity is truly disturbing.

[RockRaven]

26. Pathetic move by WaPo.

That's some spineless amoral cynical bullshit.